Haji Wright is one of only six

Coventry City pulled off another home win two weeks ago against Sunderland with Haji Wright scoring all three goals in the 3-0 victory. That makes it six home league wins out of seven and eleven league victories in total at the CBS Arena. There are positive factors to glean from this improved home form. Firstly home wins are vital if a team are going to reach the play-offs; last season none of the top six teams in the Championship won less than 15 home games with Leicester winning 17. City won nine and drew eight and if five of those draws had been wins they would have finished sixth and been in the play-offs. The importance of turning draws into wins cannot be understated. This can be seen with Burnley this season; they have only lost two games all season but their 15 draws could be crucially fatal in the final promotion reckoning. If only a few of those draws were turned into wins the extra two points would have virtually assured them of an automatic promotion place already.

Haji Wright scored his first hat-trick for the club against Sunderland and Coventry City’s 128th league hat-trick since they entered the Football League in 1919. It is only the sixth home league hat-trick for the club since the move from Highfield Road twenty years ago. The other five are:

2009-10 Freddy Eastwood v Peterborough

2015-16 Jacob Murphy v Gillingham

2017-18 Jodi Jones v Notts County

2017-18 Marc McNulty v Grimsby

2023-24 Ellis Simms v Rotherham

The attendance was 30,219, the biggest crowd at the stadium this season and just 14 short of a new league record. It was also the second successive 30,000 plus crowd - the first time this has been achieved by the club since 1970. During the 1969-70 season City averaged 32,043 for home games and last had consecutive 30,000 gates for the visits of two London clubs. On 31st January 1970 there were 31,661 for the 2-0 win over Arsenal and four weeks later the 0-3 defeat to Chelsea was watched by 37,454.

Paul Brucculeri posed an interesting question recently. His brother had been down to Devon and went to see a Torquay United home game. He wondered when City last played Torquay in a competitive game. The Gulls, as Torquay are known, were relegated from the Football league in 2007 and though they bounced back two years later were relegated again in 2014. They are currently playing in the National League South.  They did however spend 78 seasons in the Football League without ever going higher than the third tier. City and Torquay met regularly in Division Three South during the 1930s and 1950s and the Gulls were City’s opponents on the final day of the 1935-36 season when City clinched the title. Their last meeting with the Sky Blues was in the FA Cup in 2009 (when Torquay were in the National league) when a late Elliott Ward goal gave City a 1-0 win at Plainmoor. The clubs also met in the FA Cup in 1988 when a Brian Kilcline penalty and a Cyrille Regis goal gave City a 2-0 victory at Highfield Road. There was a also a 4-1 home League Cup win in 2004 (goals from Stephen Hughes, Patrick Suffo (2) and Andy Morrell.

The last league game with the Gulls was in February 1962 just after Jimmy Hill arrived as manager. City lost 0-1 at Plainmoor with Ernie Pym scored in front of 3,458.

Bobby Thomas sets a new scoring record

Coventry City’s amazing run of 9 wins in 10 league games came to an end at Derby’s Pride Park on Tuesday night in a game they dominated for large periods but were unable to turn their superiority into goals. The 3-2 win against Stoke had extended the sequence to create a new club record for a 10-game run in a season, beating the record of Noel Cantwell’s 1969-70 team in Division One. There was a 9 wins in 10 run in 1954 but that was over two seasons with victories in the last three games of 1953-54 and six wins and a draw in the opening seven games of 1954-55. In 1954 the club was managed by Jack Fairbrother, an oft forgotten manager who took over from Harry Storer in January 1954 but stepped down nine months later following the tragic death of his wife. At the time Jack resigned City were fourth in Division Three South and probably as close to winning promotion back to Division Two during the miserable period from 1952-58.

The Sky Blues had central defender Bobby Thomas to thank for Saturday’s victory over a Stoke side that gave City a few frights in the second half. Bobby’s late goal was his third in consecutive home games. I can find no previous instance of this other than Elliott Ward in 2008 but two of Ward’s goals were penalties. Bobby has now scored five league goals this season and equals George Curtis’ record of most goals by a central defender in a season (excluding penalties). George only scored 11 league goals in 487 games but in 1965-66 he netted five.

I recently received an email from a Dundee supporter, Dale McDowell who wrote:  I recall going to a Dundee v Coventry friendly match in 1999 as a child however my memory of the night is quite vague. A colleague and I were talking about Gordon Strachan and my subconscious is telling me that despite him being retired as a player and was the manager of Coventry City at the time, he came on as a substitute and played. Am I going crazy?

Dale is not going crazy. Gordon, who had started his playing career at Dundee, came on as a substitute in the 86th minute in a game played on 25th March 1999 (during the international break). City won 1-0 with an early goal from Trond Soltved in front of a 2,500 crowd inside Dens Park. 

The City line up was: 

Combe *: Edworthy (Gordon Strachan 86), Burrows, Telfer, Clement, Shaw, Delorge, Soltvedt (Mooney 80), Whelan, Huckerby, Froggatt (Gioacchini 45). Unused sub: Shilton

*Alan Combe was Dundee’s reserve goalkeeper and played as a guest

The incredible Sky Blues winning run continues

Another away win, the fourth in a row, extended the Sky Blues’ current run to eight wins in nine league games. The latest victims were Oxford United who fought hard but ultimately were unable to stop the Coventry steamroller.

As the media have pointed out it is 55 years since Coventry had such a good run - an incredible record, especially considering where the team sat two months ago. It’s worth looking back to 1969-70 when Noel Cantwell achieved an identical run.  In mid-November 1969 after a 0-0 draw at Burnley in which centre-half Roy Barry had made his first start in a City shirt, the team sat twelfth in Division One. At Turf Moor that day the man Barry replaced club legend George Curtis who came on as an 87th minute substitute in what would be his final appearance for the club.

                                                                     Roy Barry

Seven days later another new signing, John O’Rourke, partnered stand-in striker Maurice Setters up front at home to Newcastle United and a late Ernie Hunt penalty secured the points. After a strong Tottenham side were defeated 3-2 at home City travelled to newly promoted Crystal Palace and, with two Brian Joicey goals, triumphed 3-0. A 3-1 Boxing Day home victory over Ipswich was followed by a 1-1 FA Cup home draw with Liverpool before Manchester City were put to the sword 3-0 with the striking partnership of Neil Martin and O’Rourke clicking into gear.

The FA Cup replay at Anfield was lost and five days later the five game winning league run was ended at Elland Road but City were straight back on the winning trail with a 1-0 win at Hillsborough and a 2-0 beating of Arsenal. The eighth win in nine came in a night game at West Ham’s Upton Park with two Martin goals in a 2-1 win that took the Sky Blues to fourth place in the league table.

The run came to an end at Goodison Park when the league leaders Everton were held 0-0 in one off the finest away performances of the era. Against a rampant Everton side Cantwell set up to frustrate the Toffees and defended with their lives with Roy Barry marshalling his defenders in style. The quality of the performance and enormity of the result made the fans almost forget that the winning run was over. The fans were now dreaming of a European place.

The 11-game unbeaten league run came to a shuddering halt seven days later when Chelsea came to Highfield Road. After Everton Dave Sexton’s side were the outstanding English club side that season and would win the FA Cup. An 18-year-old Alan Hudson and a dazzling Peter Osgood helped the Blues to a 3-0 victory to give City a reality check.

There’s no question that the arrival of Barry and O’Rourke was a major factor in that incredible run and two weeks after the Chelsea game Barry tragically suffered a broken leg against Sheffield Wednesday. 

In his absence City never quite reached the heights of that nine-game run but still did enough to qualify for the UEFA Fairs Cup by finishing sixth at the end of an incredible season - the highest league position that the club has ever achieved. 

1969-70

Nov 22 Newcastle (h) won 1-0 (O’Rourke)

Dec 6 Tottenham (h) won 3-2 (Machin, O’Rourke, Gibson)

Dec 13 Crystal Palace (a) won 3-0 (Hunt, Joicey 2)

Dec 26 Ipswich (h) won 3-1 (Hunt, Martin (pen) Og)

Jan 10 Manchester C (h) won 3-0 (Martin, O’Rourke)

Jan 17 Leeds (a) lost 1-3 (Og)

Jan 28 Sheffield W (a) won 1-0 (O’Rourke)

Jan 31 Arsenal (h) won 2-0 (O’Rourke, Martin)

Feb 11 West Ham (a) won 2-1 (Martin 2)