Jim's column 5.12.15

Last Saturday's home draw with Doncaster stretched the Sky Blues' unbeaten league run to eleven games and equalled the best run by a City team since 1966-67. It pults the current team level with the 11-game run without loss at the start of Roland Nilsson's managerial career in the autumn of 2001. As I said last week the 1966-67 team under Jimmy Hill went 25 league games unbeaten. If Tony Mowbray's side avoid defeat at Bramall Lane next Sunday they will clock up the best run for 48 years.

Over the last few weeks as City's season has developed into something quite exciting, numerous readers have asked me how this season compares to the best seasons of the past. So I decided to check the stats and can report that after 20 games Tony Mowbray's team have the second best points record by a Coventry City side the club joined the Football League in 1919. The table below shows the best twelve seasons and compares the record after 20 games. Before 1981 two points were awarded for a win so I have adjusted the points total to reflect that.

Season	Home (W-D-L)	Away (W-D-L)	Pts*	Pos.	Final
1935-36 (D3 South)	8-0-1	3-5-3	38	3rd	1st (P)
1937-38 (D2)	6-3-1	4-5-1	38	2nd	4th
1950-51 (D2)	8-1-0	3-2-6	36	3rd	7th
1954-55 (D3 South)	8-2-1	3-3-3	38	3rd	9th
1955-56 (D3 South)	10-2-0	0-2-8	34	8th	8th
1958-59 (D4)	8-1-1	2-4-4	35	3rd	2nd (P)
1959-60 (D3)	6-3-1	4-2-5	35	6th	5th
1963-64 (D3)	7-2-1	6-2-2	43	1st	1st (P)
1965-66 (D2)	7-2-1	3-5-2	37	2nd	3rd
1966-67 (D2)	8-1-1	3-2-5	36	2nd	1st (P)
2001-02 (D2)	5-2-3	5-2-3	34	7th	10th
2015-16 (D3)	7-3-0	4-3-3	39	2nd	?

*points total adjusted where 2 pts for a win (pre 1981)

The best season was in 1963-64 when after 20 games City lead the table by two points from Crystal Palace in mid-November. By 3^rd January they had extended that lead to nine points but then had a collapse and failed to win in 11 games. They steadied the ship and won promotion on the final day of the season. Other interesting points of note are:-

• the promotion teams of 1936, 1964 and 1967 had all lost their unbeaten home records by this stage of the season.
• After being in contention after 20 games on eight occasions in the 50s & 60s, the club have only been 'up there' twice in the last 49 years but 34 of those years were spent in the top flight.
• Only once before (in 1937-38) have the team lost less than three games at this stage. In 1937-38 the second defeat came in game 20 (at Bramall Lane on Christmas Day)

On the question of the unbeaten home league run, extended to 10 after the Doncaster draw, this team are just two games short of equalling the best run without loss since the move to the Ricoh in 2005. In that first season following the move from Highfield Road, the team suffered a 2-1 home loss to Stoke on 2^nd November, but then they did not lose again until 1^st April when Preston won 1-0. The twelve-match unbeaten run included six straight wins between January and March.

Terry Butcher's reign as City manager is not remembered with much fondness but after he lost his first home game against Liverpool in November 1990, his team didn't lose again until the opening game of the next season – a total of 12 games. The best post-war run is 17 achieved three times (1952, 1958-59 and 1965-66), whilst the all-time club record is 19 unbeaten home games, set in 1925-26 season (in Division Three North).

The current unbeaten home start of 10 games is the best for a City team since the 1978-79 season when no team lowered City's colours until February – a total of 11 home games. The best ever was Jesse Carver's 1955-56 team that was unbeaten in its first 15 games from the start of the campaign until 18^th February 1956, although by the time the run had ended Carver had left the club to take up a position as coach of Inter Milan.

Jim's column 22.10.11

City’s run of good home form continued last Saturday with a 1-0 win over fellow strugglers Nottingham Forest. Since losing to Leicester City on the opening day of the season the Sky Blues are unbeaten in five home games, with two wins and three draws. The current run is the best the club have had since the winter of 2009-10 when Chris Coleman’s team went unbeaten in seven, including six wins. That run, between December and March helped lift the Sky Blues into the edge of the play-off places but once the run was ended Coleman’s team’s form collapsed and they failed to win any of their last six home games.

In the years since relegation from the Premiership in 2001, numerous City managers have talked about building Fortress Ricoh but none have really achieved it. The best home run since 2001 was under Micky Adams just after the move to the Ricoh. Between November 2005 and April 2006 City went twelve home games unbeaten, with the help of Dennis Wise. One interesting statistic is that since Andy Thorn took over as manager in March only one of 10 home games has been lost.

City’s second win of the season coincided with another goalkeeping substitution by the Sky Blues. The other victory, over Derby, also saw the injured Joe Murphy substituted by Chris Dunn. For Coventry City goalkeeping substitutions are a relatively modern phenomenon. During Steve Ogrizovic’s long reign as City goalkeeper he hardly ever had to be substituted. I remember in the days before goalkeeping substitutes were allowed, in 1996, Oggy was injured at Millwall and David Speedie went in goal. Then after the subs were increased to five in 1996, Oggy was replaced by John Filan at Highbury after a blood-curdling challenge by Ian Wright left Oggy out cold on a stretcher.

Since the club’s relegation in 2002 there were only three goalkeeper substitutions in seven seasons. However in the last three seasons and a bit there have been eight goalkeeping substitutions, five of them involving an ‘injury’ to Keiron Westwood and now two to Joe Murphy, the otehr being last season at Watford when loanee Iain Turner was injured and replaced by Michael Quirke. One wonders if goalkeepers are getting soft.

Last week I mentioned that current QPR boss Neil Warnock had managed Scarborough to victory over the Sky Blues in 1992 and Dean Nelson reminded me that Warnock’s involvement with City’s history goes even further back. Warnock  was manager of Burton Albion against Leicester City in an FA Cup match which had to be replayed behind closed doors at Highfield Road in 1985 after crowd trouble in the first match. Back in 1972 Warnock was also in the Hartlepool side beaten in a League Cup tie at Highfield Road.

Talking of Dean - the man who has a wonderful collection of Coventry City video clips - he has prepared an excellent DVD of 1960s highlights which will be shown at the G-Casino today at my Sky Blue Revolution book signing sessions, before and after the match against Burnley. For the book signing I will be joined by 1960s City legends Mick Kearns, Dietmar Bruck and Ronnie Farmer.