Jim's column 13.10.2018

Coventry City's luck has not been in at times this season but it was definitely in at the Valley last Saturday. Trailing with ten minutes remaining the super sub Amadou Bakayoko struck twice to give the Sky Blues three points they had never looked like winning in the previous eighty minutes. Bakayoko joined an elite group of seven Coventry City players to score two goals from off the bench. The full list is:

1967-68 Bobby Gould (Nottingham Forest (away)) 3-3

2002-03 Jay Bothroyd (Rushden & Diamonds (LC) (home)) 8-0

2004-05 Patrick Suffo (Torquay (LC) (home)) 4-1

2013-14 Chris Maguire (MK Dons (away)) 3-1

2016-17 Ryan Haynes (Wycombe (FLT) (away)) 4-2

2017-18 Max Biamou (Yeovil (home)) 2-6

2018-19 Amadou Bakayoko (Charlton (away)) 2-1

The first, Bobby Gould's brace at Nottingham Forest after he came on for captain George Curtis who had broken his leg in only City's second game in the top flight, was the first time any City substitute had scored. The most dramatic brace was Chris Maguire's at MK in 2013. The scores were level at 1-1 with five minutes left when Maguire buried two sublime free-kicks in front of a large Sky Blue following. We have had some great moments at that stadium, it's a shame we won't be going there this season.

                                                  Gould nets at the City Ground (August 1967)  

In the 53 years that substitutes have been allowed only four opponent's substitutes have scored two goals, the most famous being West Ham's Tony Cottee in 1982-83, the last being in the Yeovil home game last season when Sam Sturridge came off the bench to score two against a red-faced City defence.

The Checkatrade Trophy (or EFL Trophy to give its proper name) continues to attract miniscule crowds throughout the country. There were less than 500 at the games at Cambridge and Gillingham on Tuesday night and City's pathetic 1,341 was in the top six highest gates of the night. From my vantage point the crowd looked to be under 1,000 which would have made it the lowest for a Coventry competitive home game since the club joined the league in 1919, held by the 1,111 for the Millwall Full Members Cup tie in 1985. However the final figure crept up to just beat the Crawley attendance (1,338) in the same competition two years ago. Despite the attraction of a Wembley final isn't it time for this competition to be put out of its misery. I fully envisage a Wembley final between two Premier League Under 21 sides that would attract a very low attendance.

The games at least give managers the opportunity to give promising youngsters a run out against stronger players than they're used to and on Tuesday we saw several City debutants. Jak Hickman and Morgan Williams got their first starts and then 17-year old Jack Burroughs and recent signing Dexter Walters came on as a substitutes. Burroughs became the first City player born after the millennium to appear for the first team. None of the youngsters looked out of place with Williams and Jordon Thompson especially impressive.

Dick Graham was the manager of Crystal Palace when they were promoted from Division Three alongside the Sky Blues in 1964. Dick passed away in 2013 but his son Mark is writing a book about his father's football career and I was able to help him with a few facts and figures. Graham and Jimmy Hill, City's manager at the time, had a few spats in their time. After a 1-1 draw at Selhurst Park in December 1963 JH was critical of Palace's tactics saying 'I have never been so pleased to have won a point. To me it proved that constructive football can triumph over the purely destructive. This is our third experience of Palace's rough play this year'.

In those three games four Palace names had been taken – in the days when you almost had to a maim an opponent to go into the referee's book, with full-back Bert Howe picking up two bookings for flying tackles on City's winger Willie Hunphries. Graham retorted by calling Hill's comments undignified and saying 'We play the game men should play it'.

Both teams were promoted and the two managers were in opposition for a further two seasons before Graham was sacked in early 1966.

Jim's column 13.8.2016

The new season is up and running and the Sky Blues again failed to break the Swindon hoodoo in the opening league game last Saturday. For the fifth year running at the County Ground City conceded a late goal and it was decisive. There can be few City fans around who saw the team last win a league game there back in 1960.

On Tuesday evening, by beating Portsmouth 3-2 after extra time, the team won a League Cup tie for the first time in four years after successive first round exits to Leyton Orient, Cardiff City and Rochdale. It was also the first time that manager Tony Mowbray had won a Cup tie of any sort since he became manager of the club eighteen months ago. Last season he saw the Sky Blues bow out in the first round of all three competitions. That last League Cup victory, over Birmingham City in 2012 was also a 3-2 win after extra time. The Sky Blues no face Norwich City away in the second round in what will be the club's first meeting in the competition since its inauguration in 1960. There have been nine FA Cup meetings between the club with honours even with three wins each and three drawn ties. The clubs also met in the now extinct Full Members Cup in 1986-87 when the Canaries, with home advantage won 2-1 with Kevin Drinkell netting both Norwich goals after David Phillips had scored a penalty. Coincidentally both scorers later joined the other club.

The attendance at the Ricoh Arena on Tuesday was a disappointing 4,976 and was the lowest for a competitive game at the stadium – the previous lowest was 5,437 for the Burton Albion Football League Trophy game in 2012. It was not however the club's smallest home crowd in the competition, that was recorded at Sixfields two years ago when 1,352 watched City lose to Cardiff City. There have been quite a number of sub-5,000 crowds for City away ties in the League Cup with the smallest as follows:

1,904 v Dagenham & Redbridge (2012-13)

1,986 v Rochdale (2015-16)

2,288 v Rochdale (1991-92)

2,633 v Scarborough (1992-93)

2,871 v Leyton Orient (2013-14)

The League Cup attendances crowds were poor all around the country with under 3,000 at Walsall and Shrewsbury on a night that saw 10 Championship sides defeated by clubs from a lower division and a number of fancied League One sides (including Sheffield United, Bolton and Charlton) also exit the competition.

Steve Bell communicates with me regularly about the club's games against overseas clubs. During the summer he asked me about City's game against Brazilian club Santos which took place during the club's 1972 tour of South East Asia. The game was the final one of a five-game, three-week trip that included two games in South Korea and two in Japan. I was able to provide him with some facts about the game. It was played on 13 June 1972 in Bangkok and the result was a 2-2 draw. Quintin Young and Alan Green scored for City with the famous Pele (with a penalty) and Edu netting for Santos in front of a 32,000 crowd. I don't have the line ups for either club nor any other information. If anybody can provide more details please let me know and I will pass them on to Steve.

                                                       Coventry City party in Japan 1972

Jim's column 1.9.2012

Another turbulent week in the history of Coventry City ended with an excellent 3-2 League Cup victory over local rivals Birmingham City presided over by the new caretaker manager Richard Shaw. Andy Thorn became the tenth full-time Coventry City manager to leave the club since the club were relegated from the Premier League in 2001. Since being promoted to manager on the departure of Aidy Boothroyd in February 2011 his team have a pretty appalling record with only twelve wins in 59 league wins and whilst many of the club’s followers will not be surprised by his departure, many are questioning the timing. After fifty years of following the Sky Blues I believe there is never a good time or a bad time to sack a manager. On Tuesday night the team responded with their best performance for months, pulling off easily the club’s best Cup result since 2009.

Andy’s record in charge does not stand up to scrutiny against his predecessors – he has easily the worst win percentage and for all his aim of playing attractive football, the worst goals per game in the period.

	Pl	W	D	L	For	Agst	GD	Points	Wins %	Points %	Goals per game
John Sillett	128	44	37	47	143	169	-26	169	34.38%	44.01%	1.12
Terry Butcher	49	16	11	22	56	60	-4	59	32.65%	40.14%	1.14
Don Howe	19	3	8	8	10	18	-8	17	15.79%	29.82%	0.53
Bobby Gould	54	16	19	19	66	73	-7	67	29.63%	41.36%	1.22
Phil Neal	58	18	18	22	56	74	-18	72	31.03%	41.38%	0.97
Ron Atkinson	64	14	24	26	64	92	-28	66	21.88%	34.38%	1.00
Gordon Strachan	183	52	52	79	203	262	-59	208	28.42%	37.89%	1.11
Roland Nilsson	40	19	5	16	56	48	8	62	47.50%	51.67%	1.40
Gary McAllister	68	17	25	26	73	91	-18	76	25.00%	37.25%	1.07
Eric Black	23	11	3	9	38	24	14	36	47.83%	52.17%	1.65
Peter Reid	29	9	8	12	36	45	-9	35	31.03%	40.23%	1.24
Micky Adams	90	31	24	35	113	124	-11	117	34.44%	43.33%	1.26
Iain Dowie	43	16	9	18	49	63	-14	57	37.21%	44.19%	1.14
Chris Coleman	107	30	35	42	112	140	-28	125	28.04%	38.94%	1.05
Aidy Bothroyd	36	11	8	17	38	46	-8	41	30.56%	37.96%	1.06
Andy Thorn	59	12	21	26	61	81	-20	57	20.34%	32.20%	1.03
League games only

Shaw’s first game in charge must have been a dream come true. Not only did his team, boosted by some high level individual performances, knock out a side from a higher division, but they also came from behind for the first time since September 2009. Then a late Leon Best goal gave City a 3-2 win at Watford. You have to go back to January 2009 to find the last time the Sky Blues came from behind to win at home – against Blackpool when Beuzelin and Mifsud scored in a 2-1 win. Neither Boothroyd nor Thorn managed this in their time in charge.

Several people have asked me about the frequency of lost leads under Andy Thorn and in his 59 league games in charge the team scored the first goal on 29 occasions whilst conceding first on 27 occasions. However the Sky Blues  only went on to win 12 games and lost the lead on 20 occasions (drawing 12 games and losing eight). As I said they failed to come from behind to win but on 10 occasions they fell behind but won a point. In statistical terms City won only 41% of games where they took the lead but lost 67% of games when they conceded first.

Last Saturday, in the 2-2 draw with Bury, the club recorded their lowest home league crowd (10,285) for eighteen years. Not only was it the lowest league crowd at the Ricoh but also the lowest since relegation from the Premiership in 2001. The last time there was a crowd under 10,500 was in October 1994 for an evening game against Ipswich when 9,509 watched a 2-0 City victory. The presence of Sky Television’s cameras probably kept the crowd low that night but at least City won, with goals from John Wark (og) and Paul Cook (a penalty). You have to go back to September 1993 for a lower Saturday home crowd. In Bobby Gould’s final home game against Southampton there were only 9,837 in Highfield Road to witness Phil Babb’s late equaliser rescue a point following Simon Charlton’s earlier goal.

Jim's column 18.8.12

Today marks the start of Coventry City’s first league campaign in the third flight of English football for 49 years at Yeovil’s Huish Park. After a mixed pre-season City fans’ feelings are mixed with some confident that Andy Thorn’s summer transfer dealings can spark a successful campaign whilst others still bemoan the lack of investment from SISU and fear that the club’s fortunes have not yet reached their nadir.

Looking at the statistics of previous relegated teams from the Championship, the omens for an immediate return to the second tier don’t look great. Over the previous ten seasons only six of thirty clubs relegated from tier two have bounced back at the first attempt. Peterborough (in 2010-11), Norwich (2009-10), Leicester and Scunthorpe (2008-09). Brighton (2003-04) and Crewe (2002-03). In the last five seasons big clubs (by League 1 standards) such as Leeds United, Southampton, Charlton Athletic and Sheffield Wednesday have returned to the higher division but only after two or three seasons. Other clubs, such as Luton Town and Plymouth Argyle, have virtually sunk without trace, primarily because of financial difficulties. It could be argued that the Sky Blues have more in common with the Lutons and Plymouths than the aforementioned big clubs. Unlike relegation from the Premier League there are no parachute payments when you drop out of the Championship to make relegation a relatively soft landing and give a big advantage over the rest of the field..

Thorn’s transfer wheelings and dealings have drastically changed the face of the team with big names Keogh, Cranie, Eastwood and Clingan all now ex-players and a mixed bag of newcomers including two French defenders, a multi-capped Irish international (Kilbane), a refugee from Rangers (Fleck) and two interesting loanees (Brown and Ball). As I write this before the Dagenham game it would seem that, judging from the final friendlies, we may have at least five or six league debutants at Yeovil today.

The modern day record for most CCFC debutants was set in 2008-09 when six players made their first start in a City shirt: Keiren Westwood, Stephen Wright, Guillaume Beuzelin, Freddie Eastwood, Clinton Morrison and Aron Gunnarsson – all now ex-players.  The vast turnover in City’s personnel can also be seen from looking at the team put out by Chris Coleman on the opening day in 2009-10. In a 2-1 home victory over Ipswich City lined up as follows: Westwood: Osbourne, Van Aanholt, Clingan, Wright, Turner, Bell, Gunnarsson, Morrison, Best, McIndoe. Today only David Bell is still at the club and sadly is on the injury list again.

Attendances at the first two home games this week will be interesting. The all-time Ricoh low of 12,054 will be severely tested, especially on Tuesday night when Sheffield United are in town. They may be one of the big clubs in this division but sadly midweek games at the start of the season, when many fans are still on holiday, are notoriously poor. With less than 6,000 season tickets sold I think the attendance will be under 12,000.

That is a far cry from the attendance at Highfield Road 50 years ago today. A crowd of 22,832 watched the team play Notts County in their first competitive game in their brand new sky blue kit. Jimmy Hill paraded his all new five man forward line as the Sky Blues ran out 2-0 winners with goals from Terry Bly and Hubert Barr. Golden memories!

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.

JIM'S COLUMN 27.8.2011

Last Saturday the Sky Blues finally picked up their first point of the season against Watford and thus avoided the ignominy of having their worst start since 1919. By all accounts it was a scrappy game but a point is a point and if Andy Thorn can get some more of his injured players fit and perhaps get a striker in, the form should improve.

As I write this the takeover talks are moving slowly with, in my opinion, too much of the action being played out in the media. Many fans are angry that SISU are not packing up their tent and leaving town but, again, in my opinion, that won’t happen quickly, if at all. By some accounts the Gary Hoffman-led group seems to think that SISU will accept an offer of £1 and therefore take a bath for the £40 million plus they have allegedly put in. The majority of the club’s debts are with SISU, a similar situation to when they ‘bought out’ Geoffrey Robinson for a pittance four years ago. Then Robinson was persuaded to fall on his sword and swallow a loss estimated at £20 million, ‘for the good of the club’. Whatever happens any new owners will be carrying out their due diligence to understand the severity of the financial position, and that takes time.

Since Ray Ranson’s departure earlier this year SISU have shown far more interest in the football club, realising that drastic action was required to protect their investment, especially after Ranson’s lack of experience in running a football club was exposed. SISU’s overall strategy is still opaque but cost-cutting and a net outflow of players must have reduced the running costs considerably - although probably without turning the day-to-day losses into a profit. The new board have a thankless task, especially after the lack of signings and the poor start on the pitch, but I think the board and chief executive Paul Clouting are trying hard and neither they nor SISU are ready to throw the towel in for a pound!

There are signs that Man City and Chelsea apart, football’s financial problems are beginning to unravel. To read last week that Everton have serious debt issues is sobering and there will be many other similar stories this season. City fans thinking that Gary Hoffman’s group will be splashing massive amounts of cash on a raft of new players if their offer is accepted are living in cloud-cuckoo land. Gary is a passionate City fan with a wealth of experience in the financial world but that is no guarantee of success. Potential investors have seen too many buyers lose their shirt and are wary of promises of rich pickings, especially outside the Premiership.

I’ll step off my soapbox now and talk about more interesting historical matters.

Saturday’s gate for the Watford game was 13,043 and is the lowest Saturday home gate since the club moved to the Ricoh in 2005. No doubt a good number of City fans were still away on holiday and it still seems crazy to me to start the football season so early. City’s lowest ever crowd (soon to be threatened me thinks) is 12,292 against Doncaster for a early midweek game last season. The Blackpool midweek home game at the end of September could see the first sub-12,000 gate at the Ricoh.

Lowest league gates at the Ricoh 2005-11

1. 12,292 v Doncaster (2010-11)
2. 13,043 v Watford (2011-12)*
3. 13,169 v Derby Co. (2010-11)*
4. 13,481 v Swansea (2010-11)
5. 14,036 v Scunthorpe (2007-08)
6. 14,326 v Sheffield United (2009-10)
7. 14,370 v Hull (2010-11)*
8. 14,412 v Ipswich (2010-11)*
9. 14,432 v Burnley (2010-11)*
10. 14,573 v Barnsley (2010-11)*

* Saturday home games

City fan Andrew Berry remembers seeing a friendly game at Highfield Road between City and the Japan national eleven. He couldn’t remember the year and asked for more details of the game. City beat Japan 2-0 on 14 August 1978. Their line up was the full first team, warming up for the opening league game the following Saturday: Les Sealey: Keith Osgood, Bobby McDonald, Terry Yorath, Jim Holton, Gary Gillespie, Don Nardiello, Ian Wallace, Mick Ferguson, Barry Powell, Tommy Hutchison. City’s goals came from Yorath and Ferguson and there was a crowd of 5,232.