Jim's column 29.1.22

Next Saturday the Sky Blues face Premiership opposition in the fourth round of the FA Cup with City travelling to face their old rivals Southampton (they have played Saints more than any other club in Football League games) and the game offers a chance to reverse Coventry's poor Cup record against the South Coast team.

In 1912 City won an FA Cup tie at the Dell, Southampton's former ground, when both clubs were in the old Southern League but since then the Saints have progressed on all three occasions that the club have been drawn together in the competition despite Coventry being drawn first out of the hat each time.

City and the Saints met in the first Round which was the equivalent of the modern third round in 1912. As Southern League clubs they were classed as non-league clubs when in fact there were only two Football League divisions and Southern League was like a Third Division. Coventry had earned a reputation as Cup giantkillers two years earlier by defeating two First Division clubs in reaching the quarter finals as a non-league club. They had already done the league double over the South Coast team. Contemporary match reports say that the Coventry fans 'numbered about a couple of hundred and were lavishly decorated with blue ribbons'. City scored two early goals from Harry Parkes and Fred 'Boxer' Turnbull and managed to survive a lot of pressure from the home team to win 2-0 with their Welsh international goalkeeper Bob Evans pulling off several good saves. City were drawn at home against First Division Manchester United in the second round and lost 5-1 in front of an almost capacity 17,000 gate.

The next FA Cup meeting was in the first round of 1959-60 when both clubs were in the top six of Division Three and City were drawn as the home side. Ray Straw put City ahead in the 16th minute but Derek Reeves equalised on 64 minutes to force a replay in front of 14,000. Three weeks earlier City had lost a league encounter at the Dell 5-1 and the Saints repeated that scoreline in the replay. An early John Page penalty was followed by two Terry Simpson goals in three minutes before half-time. Alan 'Digger' Daley pulled one back for the Bantams but further scores from George O'Brien and Terry Paine completed the scoring.

City were again first out of the fourth round hat in 1990-91 having defeated Wigan Athletic in a replay in the third round. Terry Butcher had taken over as manager and was changing the personnel but still fielded five of the '87 Wembley team as well as Brian Borrows. Butcher omitted David Speedie and the feisty Scot looked to be heading for the Highfield Road exit. Brian Kilcline gave City the lead just before half-time but Alan Shearer equalised five minutes after the break and take the tie back to the Dell. An injury hit and flaccid City lost the replay 2-0 with Jimmy Case and Rod Wallace scoring in front of 17,000 on a bitterly cold night.

The last time the clubs were drawn together in the competition was in 2012 when the third round draw gave City the home advantage. When the tie took place on the first Saturday of January the Saints were top of the Championship whilst the Sky Blues were bottom and heading towards relegation. Southampton had already won the league game at the Ricoh, 4-2 in November. Gary McSheffrey gave City a fifth minute lead but James Ward-Prowse (17 years old at the time) equalised and future City defender Aaron Martin headed the winner eight minutes from time. In addition to Martin three other Saints' players had links to City; Jack Cork and Danny Fox started and Jack Stephens, a future loanee, came on as a substitute. A miserable 9,000 crowd watched the tie.

The tie with Southampton is the 13th time the Sky Blues have been drawn against Premiership opposition since the club was relegated in 2001. On the previous nine occasions City have progressed just three times, against Blackburn twice (2008 and 2009) and against Stoke City (2018). The other Premiership clubs that they have failed to beat are: Tottenham (2002 and 2013), Newcastle (2005), Middlesbrough (2006), Chelsea (2009), Portsmouth (2010), Birmingham (2011), Arsenal (2014) and Brighton (2018).

Jim's column 7.1.12

                                                 Lee Hurst, debutant at The Dell in 1991

It’s FA Cup Third Round day but sadly what was once one of the most exciting days in the domestic football calendar is now a mere shadow of its former self with so many clubs putting out weakened sides. The fans have got wise to it of course and gates at FA Cup ties this weekend will continue the downward trend see for the last 10-15 years. The decline in attendances is largely to do with the fact that clubs have such a large number of season ticket holders these days. Most clubs charge their season ticket holders extra for cup games and many supporters cannot afford £20 plus in the week after Christmas. City’s home gates in the competition in recent years bear this out. The big clubs may show little respect for the famous old competition but fans of lower division clubs will turn out in force when they get a smell of a Cup upset. Just last season only 8,000 turned out at the Ricoh for the Crystal Palace third round tie, less than half the crowd a week earlier when QPR were in town. But three weeks later over 5,000 City fans travelled to St Andrews for the fourth round tie. I read that Andy Morrell’s Wrexham are taking over 2,000 fans to Brighton for their big day out. Similarly I would expect Salisbury City, Tamworth and Stevenage to have the biggest away followings in their history for plum ties at Sheffield United, Everton and Reading respectively. The romance of the FA Cup lives on!

Today’s gate against Southampton will be affected by the Save Our City-organised protest but unless there is a sizeable following from the South Coast I wouldn’t expect the crowd to be much higher than last season’s Palace gate.

City and the Saints have been drawn against each other three times previously in the competition and Saints have the edge having progressed twice to City’s once. It is exactly 100 years ago that City won the first FA Cup encounter, 2-0 at the Dell. ‘Boxer’ Turnbull and Harry Parkes scored the goals in front of a 12,500 crowd. City, who had a reputation as giantkilling in those days, by virtue of their famous 1910 Cup run, were rewarded with a plum home tie with First Division Manchester United but in front of a 17,000 Highfield Road crowd were thumped 5-1.

The second encounter with the Saints came in the first round in 1959 when the clubs were vying with each other for promotion from Division Three. City failed to capitalise on home advantage and were held 1-1 and got a 5-1 hammering in the replay at the Dell. It was a similar story on the last occasion the clubs were drawn against each other, in the fourth round in 1991. An Alan Shearer penalty cancelled out a Brian Kilcline goal in a 1-1 draw at Highfield Road and an injury-hit Sky Blues travelled to the Dell more in hope than conviction. Missing key players Trevor Peake, Paul Edwards, David Speedie and Kevin Gallacher, they were further hampered by an early injury to Steve Ogrizovic. Goals from Jimmy Case and Rod Wallace sent Saints through to round five but City were lucky to get away with only a two-goal defeat. One City youngster, midfielder Lee Hurst, made his debut as a substitute that night, coming on to play out of position at left back.

The defeat at West Ham made it 14 away league games without a victory for the Sky Blues and some readers wondered if a record was getting close. The club record is 28 away games without a win set over two seasons between January 1924 and April 1925. The latter season, 1924-25, saw City relegated from Division Two – hope that’s not an omen. The post-war record is 25 set between November 1954 and December 1955, whilst the worst run since relegation from the Premiership was 16 between March and December 2005 when Micky Adams was in charge.