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.