The Sky Blues' four match winning run came to a shuddering halt at the CBS Arena on Wednesday evening against top-of-the table Leeds United. Two goals in a first half dominated by the Yorkshire team were enough to take the points and although the Sky Blues improved in the second half they had to rely on goalkeeper Oliver Dovin who made several brilliant saves to keep the score to 2-0.
The winning run was extended to four last Saturday at Swansea, the first victory there since 1950 and the first win over Swansea in 18 games since a Highfield Road win in 1981. It was also a very rare win in Wales where City have often struggled against the four Welsh clubs.
Attendances at the CBS Arena this season have been phenomenal and the current average of 27,086 is the highest since 1969-70, the season that the club finished sixth in Division 1, its highest ever finish. If that trend continues it will be the fifth best season in the whole club’s history.
Wednesday night’s attendance for the Leeds game of 28,008 was the fifth highest home crowd of the season but the largest attendance for a midweek league game since the stadium was opened in 2005. The Sky Blues average is the fifth highest in the Championship, only bettered by Sunderland, Leeds, Derby and Sheffield United. It’s certainly a golden time for Coventry City attendances.
City’s games in the Birmingham Senior Cup get very little publicity and many fans probably don’t realise that the Sky Blues under 21 team reached the final in 2023 and the semi final last season. This season they have cleared the first hurdle in the competition with a 1-0 victory at Stourbridge and face a trip to Dudley in the third round.
Peter Farr, who follows the competition closely, tells me that the last time we played Dudley in the Birmingham Senior Cup was in 1992-93 when the game at Dudley ended 1-1. The replay was also held at Dudley and ended 2-2 and City lost 9-8 on penalties. City struggled to field a team and had 46-year old manager Bobby Gould, assistant manager, 41-year old Phil Neal and coach, 36-year old Harry Roberts in the team. Gould scored one of City’s goals and one of the penalties but Neal missed a penalty in normal time.
There has been a tremendous response to the new history website skybluearchive.co.uk The site gives unprecedented access to in-depth details of every match in the club’s history - not only results and match stats but complete line-ups, highlights, programmes, photographs and reports. There’s also players, managers and staff profiles with their records in a Sky Blue shirt. The aim is to provide a complete historical information resource, offering ongoing updates ensuring every chapter of the club’s history is captured for all time.
If you enjoy this column and would like to hear more about Coventry City's history you can listen to the Sky Blue History Podcast which is available on Apple, Spotify and YouTube. Claudio Cardellino and I talk about all things Sky Blue. Just search for 'Sky Blue History Podcast'
Posts
