Jim's column 23.2.2019

City travel to face league leaders Luton Town tomorrow lunchtime and attempt to repeat last season's victory at Kenilworth Road and become the first team to lower the Hatters' flag at home. The game is a big milestone for Coventry-born Jordan Willis who, assuming he plays, will make his 200th appearance for the club. He becomes only the 45th Coventry City player to achieve the feat and the third Cov-born player - only Marcus Hall (308) and Gary McSheffrey (281) have made more. His 200th appearance brings him level with Gary McAllister, five behind Gary Gillespie and nine behind 1987 hero Dave Bennett.

Jordan made his debut as a 17-year-old in the Championship on 5th November 2011 when he came on as a substitute for James McPake in a 4-2 home defeat to Southampton. In a miserable season for the Sky Blues he made a further substitute appearance in a home defeat to Ipswich in February before his first start in the final game of the season that saw the Premiership-bound Saints complete the double 4-0.

Three appearances followed in 2012-13 – all in winning teams – including a 3-2 League Cup victory over Birmingham City but it wasn't until the arrival of Steven Pressley that he became a regular in the first team, either as a full-back or in his preferred central defensive position. Since then he has partnered a wide variety of centre-halves including Andy Webster, Reda Johnson, Matthew Pennington, Aaron Martin, Jordan Turnbull, Rod McDonald and Dom Hyam. He missed most of the exciting 2015-16 season through injury but bounced back to captain the team through the majority of 2016-17 including lifting the Checkatrade Trophy at Wembley. Last season injury struck again and he missed quite a few games in the run-in but returned to star in the play-off game at Meadow Lane and then scored the stunning first goal in the play-off final at Wembley. City fans will also remember his goal in the FA Cup victory over Premiership Stoke City last season and his winning goal against Barnsley this campaign.

Readers are always reminding me of a former player who has scored against the Sky Blues but as I have always responded, there are far more ex-players who don't score against us. This season the only former players to net against the Sky Blues have been Ruben Lameiras, two goals for Plymouth, and Nathan Delfouneso of Blackpool, and yet there are a good number of our former players in League One. Last Saturday two Coventry players, Amadou Bakayoko and Jordy Hiwula, scored against their former club, Walsall. Jordy had already scored against another of his former clubs, Bradford City, in the 4-2 win in October. It set me thinking about other City players scoring against their old clubs. It's not a common occurrence in recent years as City have fielded young sides with a large number of homegrown players but I remember Stuart Beavon scoring against Wycombe, Leon Clarke against former clubs Scunthorpe and Swindon and Gary McSheffrey against Birmingham and Leeds in his second spell at the club. Leon Mckenzie, Richard Wood and Clinton Morrison all scored against their former clubs. Going further back Ernie Hunt always seemed to score against his former club Everton, including the famous donkey kick and Terry Gibson, David Speedie and Neil Martin delivered against their former clubs. No City players have scored a hatrick against a former club but several have scored two in a game including Hunt (twice), Martin (twice), Barry Powell (v Wolves) and Bobby McDonald (v Aston Villa). Going back to the Walsall game I think it might be the first time that two Coventry players have scored against their old club in the same game.

                                                      Ron Healey catches a cross (Southampton (home) 1972

Ron Healey was the first ever loan player to play for Coventry City in 1971-72 season. It's just come to my attention that the former Manchester City and Cardiff goalkeeper passed away last summer, aged 65. In December 1971 regular goalkeeper Bill Glazier suffered a thigh muscle injury and reserve 'keeper Eric McManus stood in for a 2-0 defeat at Highbury but in the following game, a 1-1 home draw with Chelsea Eric made a bad error and conceded a soft goal. It would be the end of Eric's career at Highfield Road and he was released the following summer, joining Notts County. Noel Cantwell approached his best friend in football, Malcolm Allison, and 19-year-old Healey arrived from Manchester City on a month's loan. He had made nine appearances for Man City as understudy to Joe Corrigan and went straight into City's team at Old Trafford on 27th December. United were four points clear at the top of the league but with a confident Healey making an early save, City took a two goal lead before United came back to draw. Healey played two further games before Glazier was fit, keeping a clean sheet in a 1-0 home win over Southampton but letting in four as City lost 4-2 at Newcastle. Healey returned to Maine Road where he made 27 further appearances over three seasons before joining Cardiff for whom he played almost 250 games and won two caps for the Republic of Ireland.

Jim's column 16.2.2019

                                                               Steve Murcott 

The sad news of the passing of England’s 1966 World Cup goalkeeper Gordon Banks was met with deserved universal praise from the football world. Gordon was the best goalkeeper in the world in the golden years at the end of the 1960s and had a major influence on Leicester City and Stoke City as well as the England national team.

Gordon had some memorable matches against the Sky Blues playing for both Midland clubs and also played at Highfield Road in Bill Glazier’s testimonial game, two years after his tragic car accident in 1972.

By the time of his first appearance at Highfield Road in December 1964 Gordon was a veteran of over 200 games for Leicester including two losing FA Cup final appearances. He had won his first England cap in 1963 and had immediately established himself as England’s number 1. The League Cup quarter final draw had paired the Foxes with the Sky Blues and although Coventry were fresh out of Division Three they fancied their chances of causing a shock against their mid-table First Division rivals.

Banks had a relatively quiet night as his forwards took advantage of George Curtis’s early injury to hammer Jimmy Hill’s team 8-1, the club’s biggest post war defeat. The only shot that got past him was a George Hudson overhead kick for a consolation goal.

Two months earlier City had paid a world goalkeeper record fee of £35,000 for Bill Glazier but Bob Wesson was the unfortunate ‘keeper that night, standing in for the cup tied Glazier. Glazier was already in England manager Alf Ramsey’s thoughts having made his Under 23 debut a week before the Leicester game. By the spring of 1965 the impressive Glazier was being tipped to be part of Alf’s 1966 World Cup squad after three clean sheets for the Under 23s. Tragedy struck at Maine Road on Easter Saturday when Bill broke his leg in a clash with Manchester City’s Glyn Pardoe. The serious break kept him out for a year and his World Cup hopes were dashed.

I’m not suggesting that Glazier would have taken Banks’s place in the 1966 tournament but he would have made a valuable number two to Gordon.

By the time City were promoted to Division One in 1967 Gordon had left Leicester for Stoke and the Sky Blues had the Indian sign over the Potters for two seasons with Gordon letting in three goals in successive seasons at the Victoria Ground. In the 1968-69 season he was in goal for Stoke as City, inspired for once by the twin strikers Tony Hateley and Neil Martin, recorded a 3-0 victory.

That defeat apart Gordon generally looked the top class ‘keeper he was when facing the Sky Blues and usually had good protection from some fearsome defenders such as Dennis Smith, Alan Bloor and Eric Skeels. One exception was the game at Highfield Road in December 1970. A dour game was decided by a weak John O’Rourke header which slipped embarrassingly past Gordon’s left leg. Coming months after his wonder save from Pele’s header in Guadalajara six months earlier it was a stunner for everyone.

After the car accident in 1972 that cost Gordon the sight in one eye he never played competitive football in England again. However he did turn out in Glazier’s testimonial in 1974 alongside eight others from the 1966 final with only Bobby Charlton and Nobby Stiles not appearing. The ever so friendly game ended 6-6 with Glazier emerging from goal for the last 10 minutes to score two goals but no one cared about the result. Despite letting in six goals City fans had seen the finest English goalkeeper of all time make a final bow.

Talking of goalkeepers I have to mention David Stockdale’s appearance as an emergency loan at Rochdale last week. He put in an impressive performance as the Sky Blues finally recorded a victory at Spotland at the tenth attempt in almost 100 years not least with his superb save from Henderson in the second half. Unless Lee Burge is unable to return from injury today against Walsall Stockdale will join the ‘one game heroes club’ joining Steve Murcott and Mick Harford. Murcott was the youth team goalkeeper who, in 1979, was called out of the stands when Jim Blyth ricked his back in the warm up prior to the home game with Norwich. He kept a clean sheet as City won 2-0 but never played for the first team again. Harford, the current manager of runaway leaders Luton, was signed by Bobby Gould in 1993 and came on for his debut as a substitute in a home game with Newcastle with 16 minutes remaining. He scored the winning goal five minutes from time with a looping header but a back injury meant he never played in a Sky Blue shirt again.

Jim's column 9.2.2019

Michael Doyle left the club on transfer deadline day to join League Two Notts County on an 18-month contract. There are mixed feelings about his departure but I think Mark Robins’ comments about Doyle’s wanting to play football and there being no guarantee of that at the Ricoh is probably accurate. There are no mixed feelings about Doyle’s contribution to the club in his two spells spanning almost 16 years. He arrived from Celtic as a raw boned midfielder with a delicious left foot. In his first spell he played under six different full-time managers in six and a half seasons (with a season on loan at Leeds) before joining Sheffield United and subsequently Portsmouth.  I think his high wages were an issue when he was allowed to join the Blades in 2011 but would the Sky Blues have been relegated from the Championship if the feisty Dubliner had still been at the club. I'm sure all City fans wish Michael all the best with Notts and hope he can help pull them from the abyss to the Conference.
He was the captain and a major force for Portsmouth in their League Two promotion in 2017 and repeated the feat with the Sky Blues last season. He leaves having made 373 first team appearances for the club and scoring 26 goals. That makes him the seventh highest appearance maker for the club and easily the highest in the 21st century. The six players to play more games are Steve Ogrizovic (601), George Curtis (543), Mick Coop (499), Brian Borrows (488), Bill Glazier (402) and Mick Kearns (385).
His full season-by-season record is as follows:

Season	League	FA Cup	L Cup	Other	Total	Lge goals	Cup goals
2003-04	38+2	3	2	-	43+2	5	-
2004-05	43+1	2	3	-	48+1	2	1
2005-06	44	3	2	-	49	-	-
2006-07	40	2	-	-	42	3	-
2007-08	42	3	4	-	49	7	-
2008-09	34+3	5	0+2	-	39+5	2	1
2010-11	15+3	1	-	-	16+3	1	-
2017-18	44	4	-	4	52	3	-
2018-19	21+2	1	-	-	22+2	1	-
Totals	321+11	24	11+2	4	360+13	24	2

It was a surprise last Saturday to see new boy David Meyler lead out the team. He is the first loanee to captain the club and the sixth starting captain of the season after Doyle, Kelly, Tom Davies, Abu Ogogo and Morgan Williams. Ogogo and Williams captained the team in Checkatrade EFL trophy games.
Several people on Twitter bemoaned the lack of headed goals from City this season and I had to remind them that we have actually scored eight headed goals, three from set pieces. The eight are: Clarke-Harris v Gillingham (a), Bradford (a), Hiwula v Charlton (h), Chaplin v Wycombe (h), Scunthorpe (a), Willis v Barnsley (h), Hyam v Bristol R (a), Bakayoko v Charlton (a). There was a ninth as well, Tom Davies’ header at Southend was clearly over the line but not given!