Jim's column 9.2.2019

Michael Doyle left the club on transfer deadline day to join League Two Notts County on an 18-month contract. There are mixed feelings about his departure but I think Mark Robins’ comments about Doyle’s wanting to play football and there being no guarantee of that at the Ricoh is probably accurate. There are no mixed feelings about Doyle’s contribution to the club in his two spells spanning almost 16 years. He arrived from Celtic as a raw boned midfielder with a delicious left foot. In his first spell he played under six different full-time managers in six and a half seasons (with a season on loan at Leeds) before joining Sheffield United and subsequently Portsmouth.  I think his high wages were an issue when he was allowed to join the Blades in 2011 but would the Sky Blues have been relegated from the Championship if the feisty Dubliner had still been at the club. I'm sure all City fans wish Michael all the best with Notts and hope he can help pull them from the abyss to the Conference.
He was the captain and a major force for Portsmouth in their League Two promotion in 2017 and repeated the feat with the Sky Blues last season. He leaves having made 373 first team appearances for the club and scoring 26 goals. That makes him the seventh highest appearance maker for the club and easily the highest in the 21st century. The six players to play more games are Steve Ogrizovic (601), George Curtis (543), Mick Coop (499), Brian Borrows (488), Bill Glazier (402) and Mick Kearns (385).
His full season-by-season record is as follows:

Season	League	FA Cup	L Cup	Other	Total	Lge goals	Cup goals
2003-04	38+2	3	2	-	43+2	5	-
2004-05	43+1	2	3	-	48+1	2	1
2005-06	44	3	2	-	49	-	-
2006-07	40	2	-	-	42	3	-
2007-08	42	3	4	-	49	7	-
2008-09	34+3	5	0+2	-	39+5	2	1
2010-11	15+3	1	-	-	16+3	1	-
2017-18	44	4	-	4	52	3	-
2018-19	21+2	1	-	-	22+2	1	-
Totals	321+11	24	11+2	4	360+13	24	2

It was a surprise last Saturday to see new boy David Meyler lead out the team. He is the first loanee to captain the club and the sixth starting captain of the season after Doyle, Kelly, Tom Davies, Abu Ogogo and Morgan Williams. Ogogo and Williams captained the team in Checkatrade EFL trophy games.
Several people on Twitter bemoaned the lack of headed goals from City this season and I had to remind them that we have actually scored eight headed goals, three from set pieces. The eight are: Clarke-Harris v Gillingham (a), Bradford (a), Hiwula v Charlton (h), Chaplin v Wycombe (h), Scunthorpe (a), Willis v Barnsley (h), Hyam v Bristol R (a), Bakayoko v Charlton (a). There was a ninth as well, Tom Davies’ header at Southend was clearly over the line but not given!

Jim's column 28.10.2018

Two away wins in four days not only lifted the Sky Blues to eighth place in League One (their highest position since May 2016) but got two troublesome monkeys off their back. The deserved win at Roots Hall, with a late scrambled goal, was the first at Southend since 2006 and only the fifth in 25 trips to the seaside town. They then followed up with a comprehensive thrashing of lowly Bradford City, ending a 59-year wait for victory at Valley Parade. Although Mark Robins was not happy with parts of the Bradford game I thought it was a very impressive away performance and City could have scored more goals with Jonson Clarke-Harris, who was in imperious form, narrowly missing out on a hat-trick of headers.

The two victories mean they have won four league games in a row for the first time since November 2015 when under Tony Mowbray the team beat Peterborough (h), Barnsley (h), Colchester (a) and Gillingham (h) to go to the top of League One. Those four games harvested 14 goals with Jacob Murphy scoring five and Adam Armstrong four. Have the Sky Blues ever had two better loan players? Lots of readers have been asking when did City last win five in a row. I'm probably giving the kiss of death on matters but you have to go back to February 1998 and the Premiership days to discover the answer. 1998 was of course the golden spring when City knocked Liverpool, Derby and Villa out of the FA Cup and should have reached the semi final but it is easy to forget the impressive league form in that period. Between early January and early April the team were unbeaten in nine league games and by the end of the season had lost just once in 21 league and cup games (counting the Sheffield United cup replay as a draw!). Embedded in that incredible run was a run of five straight league wins and two FA Cup victories.

Michael Doyle achieved another milestone this week when he overtook Richard Shaw in the all-time list of most Coventry City appearances. He's now made 364 appearances in all competitions for the club and stands seventh in the list. This season he has overtaken Shaw, George Mason and Tommy Hutchison and is now closing in on Mick Kearns on 385 with Bill Glazier's 402 also under threat.

The top ten at the moment is:

1. Steve Ogrizovic 601
2. George Curtis 543
3. Mick Coop 499
4. Brian Borrows 488
5. Bill Glazier 402
6. Mick Kearns 385
7. Michael Doyle 364
8. Richard Shaw 362
9. George Mason 359
10. Tommy Hutchison 355

Jim's column 5.5.2018

Despite that sensational 6-1 win at Cheltenham, the nerves are still jangling amongst Sky Blue fans ahead of today's game with Morecambe. The added twist is that Morecambe may need something from the game to avoid returning to the Conference after eleven seasons in League Two. That will depend on the 23rd-placed club Barnet keeping their excellent run under new boss Martin Allen going – they have won four of their last six games – and beating already-relegated Chesterfield at home. If Barnet win then Morecambe will need a point at the Ricoh to finish above the Bees and avoid the drop.

The win at Cheltenham was the ninth away win of the season, an impressive record bettered only twice in the Sky Blues' history (in 1969-70 (10) and 2012-13 (11)). The result was rarely in doubt once Tom Bayliss had scored in the twelfth minute and the team went on to record a scoreline that equalled the biggest away league win since World War 2. City have won 6-1 away on three previous occasions in those 73 years, at Carlisle in 1958-59, at Crewe in 2001-02 and at Walsall in 2003-04. The club's biggest away win occurred 91 years ago on Easter Monday 1927 when, in their only ever visit to Aberdare Athletic, City won 7-0 with goals from Jimmy Heathcote (2), Billy Bird, Frank Herbert, Jack Crisp, Alex McClure and Robert Ferguson. Twenty-four hours later in the return game, with fans expecting another hatful of goals, City struggled to win 1-0!

Marc McNulty was at it again at Cheltenham netting another hat-trick to take his league total for the season to 23 and 26 in all competitions. He has overtaken players like Calum Wilson, Adam Armstrong and Ian Wallace and is now the highest league scorer in a season for over 50 years - since Bobby Gould's 24 goals in 1966-67. Today McNulty could overtake George Hudson and Bobby Gould and the two City legends will be at the game to see if he can achieve a remarkable feat. Any potential play-off games don't count as league goals but do count in the all competitions category, therefore Marc could even top Ray Straw's tally from 1958-59.

                                                                 Ray Straw

Most league goals in a season (post WW2)

Ray Straw	1958-59	27
George Lowrie	1946-47	26
Terry Bly	1962-63	25
Ken Chisholm	1950-51	24
George Hudson	1963-64	24
Bobby Gould	1966-67	24
Marc McNulty	2017-18	23

Most goals (all Comps) (post WW2)

Ray Straw	1958-59	30
George Lowrie	1946-47	29
Terry Bly	1962-63	29
George Hudson	1963-64	28
Marc McNulty	2017-18	26
Bobby Gould	1966-67	25

McNulty is also a record breaker when it comes to hat-tricks. He became the first City player to score more than one league hat-trick since 1977-78 when Mick Ferguson scored three in a season. Darren Huckerby scored two hat-tricks in 1998-99 but one was in the FA Cup.

City fan Neil Monaghan posed an interesting question in the pub at Cheltenham on Saturday. He wondered if Michael Doyle has made the most Football League appearances by a player from the Republic of Ireland. We knocked around a few names including Roy and Robbie Keane, Dennis Irwin, Noel Cantwell but I promised to find out for Neil.

I contacted the English National Football Archive (www.enfa.co.uk) whose comprehensive database provides the results, line ups, scorers and league tables of all games since 1888. A search of their database gave me the top ten Southern Irish-born players by appearances in league games as follows:

682 Dennis Irwin

628 Michael Doyle

614 Frank Stapleton

584 Tony Dunne

575 Damien Delaney

572 Don O'Riordan

565 Tommy Eglington

557 Johnny Giles

538 Barry Roche

537 Graham Kavanagh

Doyle will need more than a full season of games to overhaul Irwin's total but it is still an impressive record for the Sky Blues' inspirational captain.

Today is Legends Day at the Ricoh Arena and over 50 former players are planning to attend. This year's event is dedicated to the memory of Cyrille Regis who will be represented by a good number of his relatives including his widow Julia. Former players from seven decades will be joining the traditional half-time parade from Lol Harvey and Brian Nicholas from the 1950s through to Dele Adebola and Andy Morrell from the 2000s. There are some big names attending including George Hudson, Bobby Gould, Colin Stein, Roy Barry, Ian Wallace and Keith Houchen. If you're at the game today make sure you are in the arena to give our former players a great reception on what may be a famous day.