Sky Blues in Dreamland

Coventry City’s incredible season just gets better and better and two wins in the last week cemented the Sky Blues at the top of the Championship table. The comprehensive 2-1 win at Portsmouth extended the unbeaten start to 11 games - a run only bettered by the club once, in 1937-38 when the run lasted 15 games. This season’s start has now bettered the 10-game start to the 2019-20 season when, of course, the Sky Blues, playing at St.Andrews won promotion from League One. With seven wins and four draws this start is currently slightly better than 1937 when there were six wins and five draws. 

What a difference it's been from the previous three seasons when the team had frustratingly slow starts:

2022-23 10 points from 11 games

2023-24 15 points from 11

2024-25 9 points from 11

Frank Lampard's exciting team currently have a fantastic launchpad for a successful season and we have to hope they can continue the excellent form. 

Carl Rushworth and the Sky Blues defence created another record this week when he kept his goal intact until the 96^th minute. It meant that he did not concede a goal for 613 minutes since the Norwich game on 13th September. Norwich striker Mathias Kvistgaarden scored in the 17th minute that day and since then the Brighton loan goalkeeper had five clean sheets plus the majority of Tuesday’s game at Portsmouth. Carl started the game at Fratton Park with the fifth longest run by a Coventry goalkeeper but as the game proceeded he overtook the runs of Les Sealey, Steve Ogrizovic, Reice Charles-Cook and on 80 minutes, Horace Pearson from the 1930s. A remarkable achievement by the young ‘keeper in only his 11th game for the club.

Defence has not been the only strong point this season as the goals total of 31 from 11 games demonstrates. The goals have been pouring in and it’s the club’s best 11 game start to a season even topping the early 1930s when City scored 100 goals in a season four years out of five. I can’t find a better 11-game start by any club in the Championship in the modern era although in 1919-20 Tottenham scored 36 goals in the first 11 games including nine in two games against City. Spurs went on to win the Division Two title that year with 102 goals and 70 points (102 in modern day). Haji Wright and Brandon Thomas-Asante head the division’s scoring charts with eight goals each and BTA and Viktor Torp have already eclipsed their goal tallies from last season. Will someone pinch me to wake me from this dream!

The unbeaten run continues

The Sky Blues extended their unbeaten run to eight games at Millwall on Wednesday night with a thrilling 4-0 victory, a win that took them to second place in the Championship. Thanks to some clinical finishing the goals are flying in and they have now scored 22 goals in eight league games. That equals the post-war club record set in 1963-64, the Third Division promotion season. The only season that betters that was in 1935-36, another promotion season, when after eight games Harry Storer's team had netted 26 goals. In 1963-64 Jimmy Hill's team had won six, drawn one and lost one game conceding just five goals (the same as the current team). It's interesting to compare the goalscorers in those seasons; in 1935-36 Clarrie Bourton had netted eight of the 26 and in 1963-64 George Hudson also had scored eight whilst this campaign has seen Haji Wright net seven.

Midweek away league games haven't been City's forte in recent seasons – last season they won only one of eight such games. I had to trawl through the records to find as big a win as Wednesday night's success and finally found that the last time City won of these games by a four-goal margin was back in 1958 at Aldershot. City had beaten the Shots 7-1 at home the previous week and Billy Frith's team took up where they had left off at Highfield Road and it was 4-0 at half-time with Jimmy Rogers scoring an 18 minute hat-trick and Mick Kearns with a penalty completing the scoring. City eased off in the second half and it ended 4-0.

Everyone is asking when we last went unbeaten in the first eight games of a season and it isn't that long ago. In 2019-20 Mark Robins' team remained unbeaten in their first ten league games and lost their record in that disastrous 0-4 loss at Rotherham. Strangely none of the four away games in that run were victories whereas this season Frank Lampard's team have already won twice on the road, scoring nine goals. 

We are still short of City's best unbeaten start to a season however. That happened in 1937 in the old Division Two. Following promotion in 1936 manager Harry Storer had consolidated in the higher division and with some shrewd buys had built a strong side with its foundations in defence. He had introduced a new kit that summer and it took fifteen games for the 'Bantams' to lose in the new kit. They started the season with a goal-less draw at Tottenham followed by two 1-0 home victories over Manchester United and Burnley. A point in the return at Old Trafford and a 2-0 victory at Bury put City into second place but another 1-0 home win over Stockport saw City go top of the table. The team's form was attracting the crowds and over 27,000 saw City draw 2-2 with Chesterfield and a week later Forest grabbed a point at Highfield Road. Any thought that bubble was about to be burst were dispelled with 2-1 victories at Newcastle and at home to Luton before a 3-3 draw at Swansea after leading 3-1 kept City on top. A 2-0 home win over Norwich saw Irish international winger Jackie Brown score his sixth goal of the season and a week later came City's greatest test, at Villa Park.

Villa were favourites for promotion and were in third place two points behind City. Over 67,000 including an estimated 20,000 Coventry fans packed into the ground and saw a thrilling game. Billy Macdonald gave City a first half lead but Eric Houghton levelled after the break and a draw was a fair result and extended City's run to 13 games. The first two Saturdays of November saw City record 0-0 draws, at home to Bradford Park Avenue and at West Ham, the latter game attracting a crowd of over 40,000 to Upton Park, one of the largest crowds at the east end stadium.

                               The 1937-38 squad that were unbeaten for the first 15 games

Seven days after the draw at West Ham City's fifteen-game run came to an end at Highfield Road when Sheffield Wednesday staged a smash and grab act with a 1-0 win. City were never out of the top four all season but two defeats in their final three games cost them promotion to Division One with Villa and Manchester United going up and City missing out by one point. Coventry fans would have to wait another 29 years before reaching the top flight.