Jim's Column 10.11.2018

Coventry City's five-game winning run, their best in the league since 1998, came to end at the Ricoh on Saturday when the team had to settle for a point against a very efficient Accrington side, whose league position doesn't flatter them. The Lancashire club, who ran away with the League Two title last term, close sides down and make it very difficult to find space and their goal came from a typical piece of pressing in City's midfield. Michael Doyle earned City a point with his first goal of the season when he was on hand to score from close range when the Accrington goalkeeper, the son of former Middlesbrough and Blackburn winger, spilled Jodi Jones' low shot.

Doyle has never been a prolific scorer but that goal won him a place in City's history books. He is now the third oldest City player to score a senior goal behind Dennis Wise and Gary McAllister. Doyle was aged 37 years and 119 days on Saturday and is over two years younger than Dennis Wise when he scored the last of his six goals for the Sky Blues on 30th April 2006. 'Wisey' was substitute that day and came off the bench to score in the 90th minute as City recorded a 3-1 victory over Cardiff City. The game turned out to be Dennis' final appearance of a 24-year career. Coincidentally McAllister's final goal in football was also in his final game, for the Sky Blues in a 1-1 home draw with Sunderland in December 2003. Gary stood down temporarily as City's player-manager after the game and a few weeks later resigned to look after his sick wife.

The top ten oldest goalscorers for the club are as follows:

	Player	Last goal		Age
1	Dennis Wise	30/4/2006		39 years 135 days
2	Gary McAllister	8/12/2003		38 years 348 days
3	Michael Doyle	3/11/2018		37 years 119 days
4	Danny Shea	15/11/1924		37 years 9 days
5	Dick Lindley	24/9/1921		36 years 285 days
6	Danny Shone	5/1/1929		36 years 253 days
7	George Mason	27/12/1949		36 years 113 days
8	Steve Staunton	2/4/2005		36 years 73 days
9	Joey Jones	25/12/1922		35 years 359 days
10	Alex McClure	10/12/1927		35 years 250 days

Five of them played their football in the 1920s and were all largely 'over the hill' when they came to Coventry. More recently George Mason was a defender who went on to play for another two seasons for City's first team without scoring again. Other over 35s who scored for City include Richard Shaw, Charlie Timmins and Kevin Kilbane.

I have to thank the statisticians at www.Enfa.co.uk for their help in discovering the facts on this one. They pointed out that Stanley Matthews was over 48 when he scored his final league goal for Stoke City in 1963 and Billy Meredith was 50 years and 6 months old when he netted an FA Cup goal for Manchester City in 1925 (almost four years after his last league goal).

'Doyler' also becomes the first City player to score at three different levels of the Football League having netted in the Championship during his first spell with the club, then last season in League Two. In the 1960s Mick Kearns, Brian Hill, George Curtis, Ronnie Farmer, Dietmar Bruck and Ernie Machin all scored in three different divisions. Dietmar only managed seven league goals in almost 200 games for the club but managed to score in Divisions Three, Two and One.

Ben Lipman posed that question and also wanted to know if Doyle holds the record for the timespan between his first and last goals for the club. Michael's first goal for City was in August 2003 in a 1-1 draw at Ipswich, over 15 years ago. My calculations show that he set the record last season, overtaking Ted Roberts who scored his first goal (on his debut) in a 4-0 home win over Bradford Park Avenue in March 1937. His career was severely interrupted by the war but he returned to the club and scored the last of his 85 goals on Boxing Day 1951 in a 3-0 home win over Bury – a span of over 14 years.

                                                                       Ted Roberts