Some fascinating stats

It's been a fascinating few weeks on and off the field and I thought it would be useful to recap on some of the interesting stats that been cropped up in recent weeks. Let's look at the recent games that the Sky Blues have been involved in.

Preston (away): another defeat at Deepdale, City's unhappiest away ground. The 1-0 defeat, unlucky I would argue, extended the Sky Blues run without a league win there to 23 games. Eight draws and 15 defeats since the first meeting in 1949. It's also 22 league games at any venue since the Sky Blues lowered Proud Preston's flag – Dele Adebola and Michael Doyle the scorers in a 2-1 win at the Ricoh Arena in 2007.

QPR (away): In the 113^th league meeting against the Londoners (City have not met any club more) City came away with a draw. They have won more away games at QPR than any other opponent (17) but failed to make it a hat-trick after the last two comprehensive victories.

Luton (home): Despite a good first half performance the Sky Blues trailed 0-2 at the break. Then, with a stunning comeback, they turned the game on its head with three second half goals to break a poor run against the Hatters. It had been 10 games, including the play-off final two years ago, since City had beaten the Bedfordshire club. The last victory was the 3-0 at Kenilworth Road in League Two in 2017 when Mark McNulty, Jordan Shipley and Duckens Nazon scored, the latter two in injury time. Up until 2007 City's home record against Luton had traditionally been very good (only two losses in 32 games) but since the 1-0 win in 2007 Luton had not been beaten in five visits (three draws and two losses). Coventry comebacks from a two-goal deficit are rare (only 10 in the last 54 years).

Sunderland (away): Another comeback, this time from 0-2 to draw. This was the fourth time in four seasons (five if you count the FA Cup semi final) that the Sky Blues have achieved this feat the others being Blackburn (away) and Bournemouth (away) in 2021-22 and Watford (home) in 2022-23. The result extended the Sky Blues excellent record against Sunderland to nine unbeaten and five unbeaten at the Stadium of Light. The last time City lost to Sunderland was in February 2007 when Roy Keane was in charge of the Black Cats and goals from Dwight Yorke and Carlos Edwards gave them a 2-0 win. City haven't lost at home to Sunderland in 12 home games stretching back to 1985 in the old First Division. The attendance at the Stadium of Light was 43,374 was the largest league crowd to watch the Sky Blues since they left the Premiership 23 years ago, topping the 41,216 that watched the Sky Blues 3-0 win last season.

For over 100 years Coventry City have held an unenviable Football League record and this weekend that record may be finally broken. In 1919 the club went 11 league games without scoring a single goal. In 1993 Hartlepool United equalled that record and this week poor old Cheltenham Town made it 11 games without a goal. Today League One Cheltenham face Derby County at home and failure to score will remove City from the record books. The Robins have won just one point and are already seven points from the safety zone with a -19 goal difference. 

 In 1919 City were playing their first ever season in the Football League having been elected to join in the first season after World War 1. They were grossly unprepared for life in the Second Division, evidenced by an opening day 5-0 home loss to Tottenham, and lost their first nine games , scoring four goals and conceding 27. In game eight on October 4th they lost 2-1 at home to Leicester and Tommy Lowes' goal for the Bantams would be their last goal until Christmas Day. In the next eleven games the team did manage to get some points on the board with goalless draws with Fulham, Bristol City, Blackpool, West Ham and Clapton Orient. The 0-0 draw with Clapton on the Saturday before Christmas left City at the foot of the table on five points, five points behind 21st placed Lincoln City. The run of 11 games without scoring ended in surprising circumstances on Christmas Day with top-half side Stoke beaten 3-2. Billy Walker, with a penalty, finally broke the goal drought before Alf Sheldon and Peter Quinn made it 3-0. Stoke rallied with two late goals but City deserved their first ever League victory. Stoke had their revenge twenty four hours later winning the return 6-1 at the Victoria Ground. An interesting footnote is that there was a full league programme on three consecutive days that Christmas!

Things picked up slightly for Coventry after Christmas with a first away win coming at Grimsby on New Year's Day. The signing of Sunderland's reserve centre-forward Dick Parker in January helped results and Parker netted the winning goal against Wolves on his home debut. The club's home form improved dramatically and thanks to Parker scoring seven goals in seven games the last five home games were won. The team only escaped the bottom two after their penultimate game, a 2-2 draw at Bury, and a final day victory over the same team ensured a final placing of 20th with re-election avoided. It later emerged that dirty deeds were afoot at Highfield Road on the final day with Bury players being bribed to ensure Coventry won. Two years later Coventry's chairman David Cooke and captain George Chaplin were banned from football for life following an enquiry.

 Last Saturday the Sky Blues notched their first away win of the season, winning 3-1 at Loftus Road with an impressive second half performance. Poor old QPR, a year ago they were top of the Championship but since then they have won only one home game in 20 and there are few signs that things are going to improve soon. Before April's game City hadn't won at Loftus Road in five visits since 2007 and have now won twice in 2023, one more than QPR have managed themselves!

JIM'S COLUMN 22.1.11

City travel to Loftus Road tomorrow to take on the league leaders Queens Park Rangers. It will not be an easy trip for the Sky Blues who face a team that has lost only three league games all season and have only lost once at home (to Watford). They travel however with the knowledge that they have not lost in their last five trips to the ground, winning three and drawing two, since September 2004 when they lost 4-1. That was an horrendous night for Peter Reid’s team and was their fifth game without a win leaving them 18th in the table. Jamie Cureton scored a hat-trick and former Sky Blue Paul Furlong the other with Graham Barrett replying. Reid’s team that night makes interesting reading:

Steele: Carey, Staunton, Sherwood, Mills, Shaw, Jorgensen, Doyle, John, Morrell, Barrett. Subs: Suffo, Whing, Johnson.

Of the 14 on duty that night, eight of them had gone by the start of the following season and Sherwood and Mills only played one more game for the club. Reid managed to survive until the New Year when he was sacked with City in 20th place and heading for relegation.

Since that dreadful night the results have gone City’s way:

1-0 (McSheffrey pen), 1-0 (Adebola), 2-1 (Mifsud & Kyle), 1-1 (Fox), 2-2 (Best & Wood).

QPR are currently heading for their best finish in the division since they were promoted from League One in 2004. In the last six years their best finishing position is 11th and over that period their record is not dissimilar to the Sky Blues. Now of course they have wealthy owners who have allowed Neil Warnock to invest considerable sums in the squad and promotion back to the Premiership for the first time since 1996 looks a distinct possibility.

Last week’s obituary on Jack Kendall prompted some correspondence. Alan Blackwell, a close friend of Jack’s, sent me the picture below of Morris’ cricket team from around 1960, a team captained and coached by Jack (centre of front row). The football team picture shown last week prompted John Beardow to contact me. He was a friend of Jack's for 48 years. Jack had shown him the team photo some years ago. He knows the match was played on GEC's Copsewood ground (where City trained in those days) and the photo was taken there but he cannot remember the circumstances of the game.

Peter Barratt pointed out that his grandfather Dick Hill, City’s trainer for many years was in the photo on the far right of the back row. Diamond Club member John Green pointed out that the referee (middle row, far left) was Dai Evans. John worked with him at AWA Baginton in the late 1950s and early 1960s and says: ‘Being much older than myself I never suspected he was involved in any sport. Now having reached four score years myself I realised what opportunities young folk miss by not questioning their seniors’.