We're back!

As I write this Coventry City are on the brink of promotion to the Premier League and it might well have been confirmed last night at Blackburn. The Sky Blues have dominated the division all season and except for seven days in February have topped the table since October 4^th. It is a fantastic achievement bearing in mind the parachute payments available to the three relegated clubs as well as Sheffield United. With Ipswich losing to Portsmouth in midweek the title may not be far away either and could happen this weekend or in midweek. 

Last Saturday's game with bottom club Sheffield Wednesday was a lack lustre affair and I thought the nerves of the occasion got to both players and fans in the CBS Arena. The club managed to squeeze in enough fans to break the record attendance at the stadium for the second time this season with 31,647 fans crammed in. It was the 14^th time in this momentous season that the attendance has been over 30,000 and six of the all-time top ten gates have occurred this campaign.

The average home attendance for the season is now 30,214 and with the final two home games sold out the final average is certain to be greater than this figure. That will be the fourth highest seasonal average in the club's history and the best ever average outside the top flight. The highest averages are as follows:

1. 1967-68 Division 1 34,705

2. 1968-69 Division 1 33,223

3. 1969-70 Division 1 32,405

4. 2025-26 Championship 30,214*

5. 1966-67 Division 2 28,269

6. 2024-25 Championship 27,817

The Good Friday victory over Derby County was a bit of a nail-biter but the Sky Blues got the victory thanks to a brilliant performance from substitute Jack Rudoni. Jack hasn't had the best of seasons with injuries – he missed two months in the autumn then on his return he struggled for form. Finally, in March, we saw the best of him with three goals in three games before another injury blow. There were no signs of rustiness when he entered the field as a substitute against Derby and within five minutes he had conjured up a magical goal out of nothing and followed it up twelve minutes later with a striker's finish to win the game. He is only the ninth Coventry player to score two goals off the bench and he joins an impressive group started by Bobby Gould back in 1967 at Nottingham Forest – he was substitute for George Curtis after the Iron Man was carried off with a broken leg.

The full list is:

Bobby Gould Nottingham Forest (a) 1967-68 (3-3 draw)

Jay Bothroyd Rushden & D (LC) (h) 2002-03 (8-0 win)

Patrick Suffo Torquay United (LC) (h) 2004-05 (4-1 win)

Chris Maguire MK Dons (a) 2013-14 (3-2 win)

Ryan Haynes Wycombe (EFLT) (a) 2016-17 (4-2 win)

Max Biamou Yeovil (h) 2017-18 (2-6 loss)

Amadou Bakayoko Charlton (a) 2018-19 (2-1 win)

Matt Godden Oxford U (FAC) (h) 2023-24 (6-2 win)

Jack Rudoni Derby (h) 2025-26 (3-2 win)

The Derby victory was the club's 25^th win of the season and sets a new club record surpassing the 24 wins of 1935-36 and 1958-59. Both those seasons were promotion campaigns and relied heavily on strong home form. In 1935-36 City won 19 out of 21 home games and only five on the road. In 1958-59 there were 18 out of 23 home wins and only six away wins. This season the away form has been better than those two seasons with 10 wins so far and the potential for two more.

City on the Verge

Nine years ago when Coventry City were sliding into League Two with barely a whimper and if you had told me then that by 2026 we would be back in the top division I would have laughed in your face. A Checkatrade EFL Trophy victory at Wembley gave the fans a taste of success but didn't disguise the fact that their opponents in the old Division Four would include Accrington Stanley, Forest Green Rovers, Morecambe and Cheltenham Town. Even then Mark Robins' team made hard work of getting out of the basement division, trailing champions Accrington by 18 points and only sealing a play-off spot in the final game, a 0-0 draw with Morecambe. Massive performances over Notts County and at Wembley against Exeter sealed promotion and a second promotion, this time as champions, arrived two years later in the Covid affected 2019-20 season. Since then Robins and then Frank Lampard have overseen a gradual evolving squad getting closer and closer to the promised land with the Luton play-off heartbreak at Wembley in 2023, a magnificent semi-final defeat to Manchester United a year later before more play-off grief at Sunderland last season. The club is on the verge of emulating the achievements of the 1960s by going from the fourth tier to the top tier in eight seasons. City won promotion from Division Four in 1959 under Billy Frith before Jimmy Hill took over to win Division Three in 1964 and Division Two in 1967.

City have got there by playing an exciting brand of football all season which their 84 goals, 15 more than their closest rivals, attests to. The defence hasn't been shabby either with 42 goals conceded only bettered by two clubs. They took the division by the throat in the autumn winning 11 games out of 12 allowing them to have their dip in December and January. Then, with Middlesbrough wowing the pundits and nudging into the top spot, City produced a master-class performance to beat 'Boro at home and regain the top spot. City were back on the rails and it turned out to be the first of six straight wins that left their opponents stunned and the Boro-praising pundits eating humble pie.

The Records continue to fall

The Sky Blues have taken another massive step towards promotion back to the Premiership in the last seven days. A hard-won 2-0 win at Ashton Gate was followed by a comfortable 3-0 victory over Preston North End at the CBS Arena. The team have now racked up six consecutive league wins for the second time this season. This team has done something no other Coventry team have done in 100 seasons of league football, TWICE. There were two other examples of six in a row but they were over two seasons (in 1954 & 1964) and in 1998 Gordon Strachan's team won seven in a row but included two FA Cup victories.

The two victories this week takes the number of league wins this season to 23, just one short of the club record set in 1958-59 season when Billy Frith's team won promotion from the old Fourth Division. The points total now stands at 77 and with nine games remaining they could easily top 90. It's already the club's highest points total since the rules changed and it became three points for a win in 1981-82. 

In the two points for a win era prior to 1981 there were four seasons when if the three points rule had been in force they would have got more points, all of them promotion seasons:

                                    Pl      W     D     L     F- A     Points     Amended Pts     PPG

Points

1935-36 Div 3 South 42     24     9      9     102-45     57         81                     1.929

1958-59 Div 4             46    24     12   10     84-47     60         84                      1.826

1963-64 Div 3             46     22     16     8     98-61     60         82                     1.783

1966-67 Div 2             42     23     13     6     74-43     59         82                     1.952

The club's best points per game occurred in the truncated 2019-20 season when the season was ended with 12 games remaining with the Sky Blues averaging 1.971 points per game. With nine games remaining this season City's points per game is 2.081 – surely another record to fall.

The three goals against Preston took the season's total to 77 also – an amazing figure and the best haul since 1963-64 when Jimmy Hill's team scored 98 in winning the Division Three title. 77 tops the 1977-78 figure of 75 when Ian Wallace and Mick Ferguson were in their pomp and the club finished seventh in the old First Division but missed out on a UEFA Cup place by virtue of the Cup favourites Arsenal losing at Wembley to Ipswich Town.

We are truly witnessing the most astonishing season in the club's history.

Two victories at bogey grounds take City closer to promotion

Four successive victories have enabled the Sky Blues to not only regain the leadership of the EFL Championship but build a five point lead over second-placed Middlesbrough who although they beat Birmingham comprehensively on Monday night had suffered two home draws against relegation candidates Oxford and Leicester. It's interesting how quickly things can change in this division as we Sky Blues fans know only too well from the post-Christmas charges City have made in the last three seasons. I'm sure there will be twists and turns over the final two months of the campaign but right now Coventry City have their destiny in their own hands.

After the long run of away games without a win it was good to get back to their winning ways at West Brom. Since the win at Middlesbrough at the end of November they had gone seven away games without a win, with four defeats and three draws. Thankfully the home form, with the exception of the Ipswich game, has remained solid. The Hawthorns hasn't been a happy hunting ground for City in many years and the 2-0 win was the first there in six visits since 2007 when, under Iain Dowie, a 4-2 victory was achieved with two goals each from Leon Best and Michael Mifsud just three weeks after Tony Mowbray's Baggies had won 4-0 at the CBS. West Brom recovered to go on and win the title whilst two months later Dowie's time at Coventry was over.

Four days later Lampard's team came out on top in a thilling 2-1 game at Sheffield United with a tremendous comeback and goals from Haji Wright and Jack Rudoni. Like the Hawthorns, Bramall Lane has been a bit of a bogey ground for City and the win was the first in six visits since February 2013. That was one of the final games of the first Mark Robins spell as manager and Leon Clarke's two goals gave City a 2-1 win. In 33 visits to Bramall Lane this was only City's eighth win.

Last Saturday marked the return to the CBS Arena of Mark Robins and his Stoke City side. City, dominant for most of the game, failed to put the game to bed when they were on top and needed a 94^th minute goal from Jack Rudoni following a mistake from the Stoke goalkeeper Tommy Simkin to seal the victory. In the thirteen months since Robins took over at Stoke he has lost all three league games to the Sky Blues, all to a single goal and all in the last few minutes of games. Last season at the CBS Stoke thought they had grabbed a point when Sam Gallagher scored in the 86^th minute to make it 2-2 but Bobby Thomas popped up in the seventh minute of added time to score the winner. Then at the Bet365 stadium this season it was Ephron Mason-Clark's 86^th minute goal that clinched the points. Stoke's form has been abysmal since then with only five wins in 20 games and they have slipped from second place to fourteenth and with Stoke's record of changing managers Robins' position must be in jeopardy.

The Stoke game attracted 31,516, the biggest attendance of the season at the CBS and also a new ground record topping the previous record of 31,452 set in the final regular game of last season against Middlesbrough. That takes the home average to 30,140 and it looks virtually certain that Sky Blues will record a final average over 30,000 for the first time since 1969-70 when they averaged 32,043 in the old First Division. Seven years ago in the season the club were relegated to League Two the average was 9,203 – how times have changed.

Haji joins the post 1967 top ten scorers

The Sky Blues bounced back from a three-game winless run with a comprehensive 3-1 victory over league leaders Middlesbrough in front of almost 31,000 on Monday night. The 'Boro' must be fed up with playing the Sky Blues – it was their seventh defeat in a row versus City stretching back to 2023. That run started with the second leg of the Championship play-off semi final that year when Gus Hamer's goal secured a Wembley trip in one of the Sky Blues' finest away performances of recent years.

The seven wins are:

May 2023 Boro 0 City 1 (Hamer)

Aug 2023 City 3 Boro 0 (Godden, Wright, own goal)

Jan 2024 Boro 1 City 3 (Sakamoto 2, Wright)

Nov 2024 Boro 0 City 3 (Thomas, Wright, Eccles)

May 2025 City 2 Boro 0 (Rudoni 2)

Nov 2025 Boro 2 City 4 (Simms 2, Kitching 2)

Feb 2026 City 3 Boro 1 (Wright 3)

Prior to that famous night at the Riverside in 2023 City had drawn three successive meetings between the clubs so it is 10 games unbeaten against the Teessiders. There has certainly been a massive turnaround in results with Boro because before that Hamer winner City had failed to win in 13 league and cup visits to the new stadium since it was opened in 1995.

The star of the show on Monday night was Haji Wright who scored his second Sky Blue hat-trick and made it six goals in five games against Boro. The American striker has now scored 45 goals for the club, 41 in the league plus 4 cup goals. The 41 league goals takes him into the top ten post 1967 scoring list.

                                                   Games         Goals   Minutes/goal

1.      Dion Dublin            168+2 subs    61          208

2.     Gary McSheffrey     201+46          61          261

3.     Ian Wallace              128+2             58         196

4.    Mick Ferguson          128+6             55          203

5.    Cyrille Regis             231+6             47          435

6.    Matty Godden           102+36            46          200

7.    Ernie Hunt                 140+6              45          280

8.    Terry Gibson               97+1               43          198

9.    Haji Wright                 76+25             41          171

10.    Viktor Gyokeres        92+18             41          208

(league games and goals only)

Haji has had his detractors in the three years he has been at the club but his scoring record is second to none. Amongst Coventry strikers who have scored 30 or more league goals he is the only one to score a goal every other game in the last 60 years. Haji went 13 league games without scoring between October and January this season but many forget that Gyokeres had an identical run in 2021-22 after scoring nine in the first 11 games. Godden also had his arid scoring runs as did many of the above list.

This season Wright has overtaken several legendary Coventry strikers in the list including Bobby Gould, Neil Martin, Peter Ndlovu and Garry Thompson. Let's hope Haji can continue his form for the remainder of this season.

City's greatest slumps

Successive away defeats at Norwich and QPR in the last week have got the Sky Blue fanbase feeling very anxious again. The team are still top but only on goal difference from Middlesbrough and the spark has undoubtedly gone out of the team, especially away from home. City fan Geoff Cowley reminded me that there was a bad slump in 1950-51 and asks the question 'is history repeating itself?'

That season, under legendary manager Harry Storer, the team had enjoyed an excellent autumn and after home wins over Cardiff and Bury at the end of the year sat at the top of Division Two ahead of Tom Finney's Preston North End on goal average. There was no January transfer window in those days and clubs could buy and sell players any time during the season up to a mid-March deadline. To bolster the promotion push Storer had spent big to bring Wolves full-back Terry Springthorpe and Grimsby's prolific centre-forward Tommy Briggs to Highfield Road, the latter costing a club record £20,000. Briggs made his debut against Bury on December 30^thand scored after eight minutes as the Bantams won 5-2. January and February were disastrous with one win in six and the team slipped to sixth place and they only won five of their final 16 games and finished seventh. Briggs only played a further six games, scoring three goals in total. By all accounts his arrival upset the dressing room with popular centre-forward Ted Roberts losing his place. At the end of the season Springthorpe announced that he was emigrating to USA and although Wolves did later pay City some compensation they were out of pocket for most of the £12,000 fee. Briggs was sold to Birmingham that summer having made just 11 appearances for City. Geoff Cowley pointed out that City's form carried on the following season and they were relegated to Division Three South.

There was a similar slump in 1963-64 which thankfully had a happier ending. On January 3^rd, 1964 Jimmy Hill's Sky Blues unbeaten in twelve games and nine points clear at the top of Division Three. In those days there were two points for a win so the lead was today's equivalent of 14 points. They then managed to go 11 games and 78 days without a win. Seven games were drawn and four lost one of them an embarrassing 5-2 home defeat to Southend United which saw them surrender top spot. Hill tried everything to turn the team's fortunes around and even considered a hypnotist to help the players. Top scorer George Hudson who had scored 26 goals before the slump lost his form but failed to regain his scoring touch after an operation for a groin injury and only scored one goal in eight games. Hill signed three players to try and arrest the slide, Graham Newton, midfielder John Smith and striker George Kirby. It was Kirby who stopped the rot, scoring a hat-trick on his home debut but on the morning of the final day of the season it was a three horse race for the two promotion places. City beat Colchester 1-0 at home whilst leaders Crystal Palace lost at home to Oldham Athletic and Watford lost at Luton. Those results meant City won the title on goal average from Palace. But for those crazy results the Sky Blues may never have reached the top flight.

There was an even worse slump in 2015-16 under Tony Mowbray. Three points clear at the top of League One on November 21^st with the fans dreaming of a return to the Championship. Then there was a mini slump with only two wins out of seven in December before an excellent 5-0 victory at Crewe saw them sitting fourth in the table. But the wheels came off spectacularly after that with only two wins in sixteen games and a slide to 13^th. Four wins out of five at the end of the campaign lifted them to a final position of eighth but the fan's dreams were shattered. Like 1951 the poor form continued into 2016-17 and the club were relegated to League Two. It would be another four years before they returned to the second tier.

Attendance records smashed & City's 10 goal marksmen

Two home wins in four days have put the Sky Blues firmly back on the rails in the Championship promotion race. With closest rivals Middlesbrough and Ipswich both winning twice in the last week it was vital that maximum points were gained. Going into this weekend’s games City have a six point lead at the top over ‘Boro and eight point lead over the Tractor Boys. City now cannot be knocked off top spot until Tuesday 3 February, at which point they will have been top for 122 days when Ipswich play their third game in 10 days, their rearranged away game at Portsmouth. Three wins for them and defeats at Norwich and QPR for the Sky Blues would see the men from East Anglia overtake City. As I’ve said before being the hunted rather than the hunter is a new experience for Coventry and the next few weeks is going to be a nail biting time for the fans. 

Attendances at the CBS this season have been incredible and Saturday’s gate of 31,410 for the visit of Leicester was the second highest ever at the ground, just 42 short of the record set last season for the game with Middlesbrough. That took the average for the season to just over 30,000 - the first time City’s crowds have been at that level since 1969-70 season when the club finished sixth in the old First Division and qualified for Europe. The overall average that season was 32,043 and has never been topped. The average dipped slightly with the smaller than average crowd against Millwall on Tuesday but I expect several more ‘full houses’ between now and the end of the season to take the final average over the 30,000 mark. If that is the case it will be the first time in the club’s history that the club have averaged over 30,000 when not in the top flight. The top averages for seasons in the lower divisions are:

1966-67. Division 2. 28,269

2024-25 Championship. 27,817

1950-51 Division 2. 26,694

1964-65 Division 2. 26,621

1963-64 Division 3. 26,017

1937-38. Division 2. 25,825

2023-24. Championship. 25,468

1965-66. Division 2. 25,370

Thankfully Haji Wright is back scoring goals with two goals in two games this last week taking his total for the season to ten league goals. It was also his fourth goal against Millwall this season when you include his penalty at the New Den in the League Cup. Wright joins Brandon Thomas-Asante and Ellis Simms on 10 league goals. This is the first time that three Coventry players have hit double figures in league games since 2013-14 when Leon Clarke (15), Callum Wilson (21) and Franck Moussa (11) were on fire. In addition that season Carl Baker scored 10 goals in all competitions. The club record is for five players to score double figures which happened in 1963-64. The famous five then were:

George Hudson 28

Ken Hale 17

Ronnie Rees 15

Ronnie Farmer 11

Willie Humphries 11

Victor Torp is currently on seven goals and Ephron Mason-Clark on six. It’s not impossible that we might have five in double figures come the end of the season and challenge that 62-year-old record.