I couldn't believe the
small attendance at Coventry City's game at Morecambe last Saturday.
Despite there being almost 700 City fans present, the gate of 1,773
was the lowest to watch City in an away league game since 1932 when
1,215 watched us play a Third Division South match at Thames AFC.
Since that grey January
day in 1932 these are the ten smallest crowds:
1,773 v Morecambe
2017-18
2,077 v Wimbledon
2002-03
2,275 v Southport 1958-59
2,275 v Southport 1958-59
2,495 v Rochdale
2015-16
2,505 v Clapton Orient
1935-36
2,544 v Stevenage
2017-18
2,607 v Halifax 1961-62
2,607 v Halifax 1961-62
2,611 v Bury 2016-17
2,791 v Northampton
1933-34
2,828 v Accrington
2017-18
Note: four of the
smallest ten have occurred during 2017.
Many City fans will not
have heard of Thames AFC before but they were a side formed in 1928
to play in the then new West Ham Stadium in the Custom House area of
East London. The stadium was primarily used for greyhound racing and
speedway and at the outset had a capacity of 120,000! Initially
Thames were members of the Southern League but were voted into the
league in 1930. Their stay in the league was
short and unhappy as
the club failed to attract support. Despite the capacity of the
stadium making it the largest ground in England to ever regularly
host league football it holds the unenviable record of attracting the
lowest Saturday crowd for a league game with only 469 turning up to
watch them play Luton in December 1930. They finished 20th (out of
22) in 1930-31 and bottom the following season after which the club
did not apply for re-election and was wound up.
The 1,215 who braved a
cold East End day saw a thrilling game with Thames causing an upset
by winning 5-2. Before the game Thames were bottom of the league and
City were in seventh place, just three points behind second-placed
Fulham, having scored 59 goals in 23 games. This was the season that
Clarrie Bourton finished as the league's top scorer with 49 goals and
he had already netted 30 including four hat-tricks. He fired blanks
that day and Frank White and Jock Lauderdale scored City's goals as
Thames won only their fourth game of the season and ended a run of
five consecutive defeats. They would win only three further games and
suffered shattering losses at Cardiff (9-2) and Fulham (8-0) and
conceded 109 goals in total.
Ed Blackaby asked me a
question about a friendly against Bayern Munich he remembers
attending in 1998. He remembers Bayern winning 4-2 and they had
German international goalkeeper Oliver Kahn and Brazilian Elber in
their line up. Ed wants to know City's line up that night and any
other details.
The game was played at
Highfield Road on 27 January 1998 and City put up a good fight
against their strong German opposition. City had a goalkeeping crisis
with Steve Ogrizovic and Magnus Hedman injured and manager Gordon
Strachan played Motherwell 'keeper Scott Howie as a guest player.
City's line up was: Howie: Boateng, Breen, Hall, Salako: Telfer (sub
Shilton 58), Gavin Strachan, Soltvedt, Whelan (sub Hamrouni 73):
Dublin (sub Haworth 45), Moldovan.
Moldovan was making his
first senior start after joining the club just before Christmas and
the substitute El Hamrouni was a Tunisian on trial at the club.
Bayern lined up as
follows: Oliver Kahn: Christian Nerlinger, Mehmet Scholl (sub Zickler
77), Thomas Strunz, Giovani Elber, Lothar Matthaus (sub Gerster 62),
Bixente Lizarazu, Mario Basler, Thorsten Fink, Michael Tarnat,
Carsten Jancker (sub Rizzitelli 77). Ten of the starting XI plus two
of the subs were full internationals at the time.
Moldovan opened the
scoring in the 9th minute before Scholl equalised on 19 minutes.
Elber and Jancker made it 3-1 before half-time. Sub Simon Haworth
made it 3-2 before Rizzitelli completed the scoring in the 84th
minute to the delight of 140 visiting fans. The attendance was 8,409
and the game was beamed back to German TV where an estimated 3
million viewers watched the action.
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