Jim's column 31.3.12

The sixth Annual Legends Day surpassed all expectations with a record 51 former players attending last Saturday’s home win over Portsmouth. Everything went smoothly and the atmosphere in the dining room, on the pitch at half-time and after the game in the G-Casino was electric. So much laughter and a few tears as old friendships were renewed with lots of ex-City players meeting up again after long absences.

The mystery guest and 200^th member of the Former Players Association was former Coventry City and Wales captain Terry Yorath. Terry had not been to the Ricoh Arena before and was mightily impressed with the stadium and facilities. He got giant hugs from his old team-mates such as Barry Powell, Andy Blair and Garry Thompson and got a tremendous ovation from the fans at half-time.

Terry bumped into Coventry property guru Harvey Williams who was responsible for finding Terry and his family a house in Coventry when he signed from Leeds in 1976. Harvey related the story of how his firm showed Terry 25 or more properties over a number of weeks but none of them impressed the Yoraths. Finally Terry took Harvey to Cannon Hill Road, pointed to a house and said ‘that’s where we want to live’. There was only one snag, the club chairman, Jimmy Hill owned the house and his wife, Heather and children lived there. Harvey relayed the news to JH whose reaction was: ‘who’s going to tell Heather she has to move?’ In the end Harvey and Jimmy broke the news to Heather and Harvey found her a new property in Fairlands Park nearby, and Terry and his family spent three happy years in the house. Harvey and Terry reminisced about old times as though they had never been apart.

Terry was one of a number of the guests who were making their first appearance at Legends Day and others included former Assistant Manager Ron Wylie, 80-year old Billy Gray who played in the early 1950s, Dennis Oakes and Peter Denton from the 1960s, 1987 Youth Cup winner Howard Clark and recently retired Marcus Hall who couldn’t believe so many former players could be brought together.

There are so many people to be thanked for Saturday but the committee are grateful to everybody who contributed, by making donations, by giving up their time and by supporting the committee. Everybody involved helped make it a very successful day. To top a great day the Sky Blues won a vital game, and are now unbeaten in six legends days. When Andy Thorn was told this his response was: ‘Can we have a Legends Day every week’.

Mr RA Berry of Holbrooks recently sent me a Coventry City team picture and asked if I could tell him the year it came from. The picture, reproduced here, is of the 1906-07 team and was taken before a match against Wolves Reserves at Highfield Road on 5 January 1907. The Birmingham & District League game was watched by a crowd of around 2,500 and ended 1-1 with Tooth netting for City. Managed by former player Joe Beaman, City were on the verge of making a name for themselves. The following season an excellent FA Cup run took them to the equivalent of the Third Round, and although they lost to Southern League Crystal Palace they came to the attention of many influential people in the football world and in 1908 were elected into the Southern League, then the foremost league outside the Football League.

On Thursday evening I will be at the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum for the launch of the exhibition ‘From Highfield Road to Wembley Way’ commemorating the 25^th anniversary of the club’s Wembley victory. Tickets for the launch, which are free, are available on line at www.herbert.org

Jim's Column 24.3.12

                           Terry Yorath receiving his 200th member shirt from Jim Brown

Finally the Sky Blues ended their wretched run of away defeats stretching back to the end of October and narrowly avoiding the club’s all-time record, set in 1926 (ten in 1925-26 and one in 1926-27). The 0-0 draw at Watford’s Vicarage Road was the first away point since the  1-1 draw at Doncaster and the first clean sheet away from home of the season. The run of ten defeats did however equal the club’s worst run in a season set in 1925-26 and equalled in 1929-30.

Whilst most City fans would have taken a point at 3pm on Saturday, Cody McDonald’s late misses and Nathan Cameron’s disallowed effort meant that many went home feeling it was two points dropped. It somehow felt different on Wesdnesday night at Cardiff when Ollie Norwood’s late, late effort made it seem like a victory. It was the first time City have scored more than one goal in an away game and the first time they have come from behind twice to get a point since April 2005. Wolves were the visitors to Highfield Road and led twice before a late Stern John goal made it 2-2.

What a topsy-turvy division this is. On Tuesday night this point was illustrated by two results that were barely believable. Pompey’s 4-1 win over Blues was a big enough shock but Forest scoring seven at Elland Road was the shock score of the season. In 80 minutes at Leeds, Forest scored as many goals as the Sky Blues had managed in 18 games on their travels. If Neil Warnock hadn’t have been just appointed he would have been sacked on Wednesday morning!

7-3 sounds more like a Rugby score than a football result and I checked the record books for previous instances of that scoreline. Since the League started in 1888 only 14 teams have won away by that score, the last time being in 1993-94 when Colchester won at Darlington. City are one of the select 14. In December 1933 at Gillingham with Clarrie Bourton injured his replacement Arthur ‘Rasher’ Bacon netted five goals in City’s 7-3 victory. Bacon had only made his debut earlier that month and was playing only his sixth first team game. He had failed to score in his first two games then netted five in next three games before the trip to Gillingham. A week after his amazing feat he netted another four goals as Crystal Palace were defeated 5-1making it fourteen goals in five games! Once the great Clarrie was fit again Bacon went back to the reserves and played just two more league games over the next two seasons. Bacon and Bourton remain the only City players ever to score five goals in a League game (Cyrille Regis did it in a League Cup tie) but prior to joining City Arthur had scored six in a game for Reading, a club record that still stands today.

Today is the sixth annual Coventry City Legends Day at The Ricoh Arena and over 50 former players will be attending. Please give the club’s legends a great reception when they do their customary half-time parade.

We have managed to keep the mystery guest a secret and he will be unveiled during the half-time parade. He is the Association’s 200^th member and in his playing days was a very popular player in a relatively successful period.(it was Terry Yorath)

All supporters are invited to the G-Casino after the match where the Legends will be signing autographs and chatting with fans, with Billy Bell introducing them on stage in Lady Gs. It promises to be a memorable day.

Jim's column 17.3.12

I must learn to keep quiet about stats at City’s games. With an hour gone last week against Birmingham City I leaned forward to tell Dave Long that statistics didn’t support the view that former players always scored against the Sky Blues. Ten minutes later, bang, and Marlon King had equalised for the Blues.

A couple of years when Stern John scored for Ipswich against us I made the point that it was his first goal in six appearances against City since he had left in 2007 and that there had been only four other former City players who had scored against us in the last five seasons: Dele Adebola, Jay Bothroyd, Andy Morrell and Calum Davenport. 

The famous football writer Brian Glanville calls it the Immutable Law of the Ex, that is a player scoring against his former club. It is the first such occurrence against City this season but last season three old boys (John Eustace (Watford) and Bothroyd and Craig Bellamy (Cardiff)) somewhat wrecked my theory.

By my reckoning nine ex-City outfield players have not scored against us this season: Matt Mills, John Eustace, Jay Tabb, Zavon Hines, Danny Fox, Jack Cork, Ben Turner, Aron Gunnarrson and Jon Stead, and several of those have played against us twice. However I won’t be betting against Ben and Gunner not finding the net when we travel to Cardiff on Wednesday night.

One statistic I will mention today in the hope that it will end the jinx is the terrible run of away defeats. Defeat today at Watford will be the 11^th in a row and will equal the club’s worst run ever in the Football League. Between January and September 1926 the team recorded the following results:-

Jan	23	1926	a	Doncaster R	L	1-8
Jan	30	1926	h	Wrexham	W	2-0
Feb	6	1926	a	Halifax T	L	0-1
Feb	13	1926	a	Nelson	L	1-4
Feb	27	1926	h	Accrington S	W	2-1
Mar	6	1926	a	Durham C	L	1-4
Mar	13	1926	h	Grimsby T	D	1-1
Mar	17	1926	a	Chesterfield	L	3-4
Mar	20	1926	a	Rotherham U	L	1-2
Mar	27	1926	h	Tranmere R	L	1-2
Apr	2	1926	a	New Brighton	L	1-5
Apr	3	1926	a	Walsall	L	1-4
Apr	5	1926	h	Ashington	W	2-0
Apr	6	1926	h	New Brighton	D	0-0
Apr	10	1926	h	Chesterfield	L	2-4
Apr	17	1926	a	Bradford PA	L	0-3
Apr	24	1926	h	Hartlepools U	W	5-2
May	1	1926	a	Rochdale	L	1-4
Aug	28	1926	h	Northampton	L	0-3
Sep	1	1926	a	Watford	L	0-1

In 1925-26 season the team played in Division Three North and then, in the summer of 1926, switched to Division Three South. By coincidence the 11^th and final game was at Watford where the Sky Blues travel today.

That run ended a few days later with a 1-1 draw at QPR but was then followed by a further seven away defeats! Please don’t let history repeat itself.

At least in 1926 the team scored 10 goals in their eleven defeats. The current run has seen the Sky Blues net only three goals: Gary Gardner at Brighton, Lukas Jutkiewicz at Portsmouth and Conor Thomas at Blackpool. City have scored only seven away goals all season, the worst in all divisions, and are heading to break the club record low of nine, set in 1999-2000, the only other occasion that the team have failed to win a single away game. That season however we only played 19 away games.

Next Saturday is Coventry City Legends Day at The Ricoh Arena and at the time of going to press the Former Players Association have received 50 acceptances from former players. It is the sixth year that the event has been held and the FPA committee hope that the fans will give the club’s legends a great reception when they do their customary half-time parade.

At this year’s event there is a mystery guest. The Association have recently signed their 200^th member and it is one of the club’s top players from the last 50 years who has not been to a City game for many years. His identity will not be unveiled until next Saturday but believe me he is a BIG name.

All of the legends will be in the 1883 restaurant before the game and in the G-Casino after the match, signing autographs and chatting with supporters, with Billy Bell introducing them on stage in Lady Gs. It promises to be a memorable day.

Jim's column 10.3.12

                                                          Kevin Drinkell

On Tuesday night the lowest ever crowd to attend a league game filed through the Ricoh Arena turnstiles. Only 12,054 turned up on a cold evening to watch the Sky Blues not only fail to beat Crystal Palace but also fail to gain any ground on the teams above them. With City’s appalling away form – now 10 successive defeats and the worst run since 1930 – it is vital that every home game yields three points and Tuesday’s slip, and it was two points dropped despite the point saver by Cody McDonald, could, ultimately, prove to be crucial.

City’s gates have been holding up reasonably well, considering the team’s fixture in the bottom three and the poor home fayre, especially before Christmas. There were only 12,309 at the Reading home game in September and I predicted the Ricoh low (12,292 v Doncaster last season) would be broken at the midweek game with Blackpool three days later, but it wasn’t. Between then and Tuesday, there were six sub-14,000 gates, four of them sub-13,000 and it was only a matter of time before the record fell. Only large away followings from Southampton, West Ham and Leeds have kept the home average as high as 14,500, but that is still over 10% down on last season’s final average of 16,307. If the average doesn’t improve between now and the end of the season the home gates will be at their lowest level since 1993-94 when the average was 13,352. The lowest average since then was 14,632 in 2003-04. 1993-94 was the season that Highfield Road was only open on three sides as the East Stand was being built and with the capacity reduced to just over 17,000 the other three sides of the ground seemed fairly full most of the time. The biggest home crowd that season was 17,009 for the visit of Manchester United.

Sammy Clingan’s penalty miss at The King Power Stadium was the second miss by a City player this season – Lukas Jutkiewicz missed the first in injury time in the home game with Reading. Sammy’s penalty record for the Sky Blues is not brilliant – he has only scored one out of three – he missed one at home to Swansea in 2009 and his solitary success was at home to Ipswich earlier this year. Jutkiewicz was the first choice penalty taker before his miss against Blackpool but as the team didn’t win any further spot-kicks between that miss at Lukas’ move to Middlesbrough in January we don’t know if he had lost his position. Sammy duly scored against Ipswich, a week after Jutkiewicz left but the Northern Ireland international was missing for the home game with Leeds and Gary McSheffrey deputised and duly scored twice from the spot. By all accounts Gary is now the first choice penalty taker again.

Paul Konchesky became the second Leicester City player to be sent off against the Sky Blues this season, following Darius Vassell’s dismissal in the opening day game at the Ricoh. Despite the red cards Leicester still managed to do the double over the Sky Blues for the first time since 2002-03. Leicester are the first team to have players sent off at home and away against the Sky Blues in the same season since Millwall in 2005-06. Then Canadian Adrian Serioux was sent off in a  0-0 draw at the Den and Matt Lawrence saw red at the Ricoh in a 1-0 Coventry win later in the season.

Legends Day is almost upon us again and the Former Players Association are working hard to bring a record number of former City players to this year’s event which takes place two weeks today at the Portsmouth home game. 40 legends have already committed and the final figure is hoped to be between 50-60. Amongst the players definitely booked are Roy Barry, Ernie Hunt, Ian Gibson and Kevin Drinkell. Places at the lunch in the 1883 restaurant are still available from the football club.