The Records continue to fall

The Sky Blues have taken another massive step towards promotion back to the Premiership in the last seven days. A hard-won 2-0 win at Ashton Gate was followed by a comfortable 3-0 victory over Preston North End at the CBS Arena. The team have now racked up six consecutive league wins for the second time this season. This team has done something no other Coventry team have done in 100 seasons of league football, TWICE. There were two other examples of six in a row but they were over two seasons (in 1954 & 1964) and in 1998 Gordon Strachan's team won seven in a row but included two FA Cup victories.

The two victories this week takes the number of league wins this season to 23, just one short of the club record set in 1958-59 season when Billy Frith's team won promotion from the old Fourth Division. The points total now stands at 77 and with nine games remaining they could easily top 90. It's already the club's highest points total since the rules changed and it became three points for a win in 1981-82. 

In the two points for a win era prior to 1981 there were four seasons when if the three points rule had been in force they would have got more points, all of them promotion seasons:

                                    Pl      W     D     L     F- A     Points     Amended Pts     PPG

Points

1935-36 Div 3 South 42     24     9      9     102-45     57         81                     1.929

1958-59 Div 4             46    24     12   10     84-47     60         84                      1.826

1963-64 Div 3             46     22     16     8     98-61     60         82                     1.783

1966-67 Div 2             42     23     13     6     74-43     59         82                     1.952

The club's best points per game occurred in the truncated 2019-20 season when the season was ended with 12 games remaining with the Sky Blues averaging 1.971 points per game. With nine games remaining this season City's points per game is 2.081 – surely another record to fall.

The three goals against Preston took the season's total to 77 also – an amazing figure and the best haul since 1963-64 when Jimmy Hill's team scored 98 in winning the Division Three title. 77 tops the 1977-78 figure of 75 when Ian Wallace and Mick Ferguson were in their pomp and the club finished seventh in the old First Division but missed out on a UEFA Cup place by virtue of the Cup favourites Arsenal losing at Wembley to Ipswich Town.

We are truly witnessing the most astonishing season in the club's history.

Two victories at bogey grounds take City closer to promotion

Four successive victories have enabled the Sky Blues to not only regain the leadership of the EFL Championship but build a five point lead over second-placed Middlesbrough who although they beat Birmingham comprehensively on Monday night had suffered two home draws against relegation candidates Oxford and Leicester. It's interesting how quickly things can change in this division as we Sky Blues fans know only too well from the post-Christmas charges City have made in the last three seasons. I'm sure there will be twists and turns over the final two months of the campaign but right now Coventry City have their destiny in their own hands.

After the long run of away games without a win it was good to get back to their winning ways at West Brom. Since the win at Middlesbrough at the end of November they had gone seven away games without a win, with four defeats and three draws. Thankfully the home form, with the exception of the Ipswich game, has remained solid. The Hawthorns hasn't been a happy hunting ground for City in many years and the 2-0 win was the first there in six visits since 2007 when, under Iain Dowie, a 4-2 victory was achieved with two goals each from Leon Best and Michael Mifsud just three weeks after Tony Mowbray's Baggies had won 4-0 at the CBS. West Brom recovered to go on and win the title whilst two months later Dowie's time at Coventry was over.

Four days later Lampard's team came out on top in a thilling 2-1 game at Sheffield United with a tremendous comeback and goals from Haji Wright and Jack Rudoni. Like the Hawthorns, Bramall Lane has been a bit of a bogey ground for City and the win was the first in six visits since February 2013. That was one of the final games of the first Mark Robins spell as manager and Leon Clarke's two goals gave City a 2-1 win. In 33 visits to Bramall Lane this was only City's eighth win.

Last Saturday marked the return to the CBS Arena of Mark Robins and his Stoke City side. City, dominant for most of the game, failed to put the game to bed when they were on top and needed a 94^th minute goal from Jack Rudoni following a mistake from the Stoke goalkeeper Tommy Simkin to seal the victory. In the thirteen months since Robins took over at Stoke he has lost all three league games to the Sky Blues, all to a single goal and all in the last few minutes of games. Last season at the CBS Stoke thought they had grabbed a point when Sam Gallagher scored in the 86^th minute to make it 2-2 but Bobby Thomas popped up in the seventh minute of added time to score the winner. Then at the Bet365 stadium this season it was Ephron Mason-Clark's 86^th minute goal that clinched the points. Stoke's form has been abysmal since then with only five wins in 20 games and they have slipped from second place to fourteenth and with Stoke's record of changing managers Robins' position must be in jeopardy.

The Stoke game attracted 31,516, the biggest attendance of the season at the CBS and also a new ground record topping the previous record of 31,452 set in the final regular game of last season against Middlesbrough. That takes the home average to 30,140 and it looks virtually certain that Sky Blues will record a final average over 30,000 for the first time since 1969-70 when they averaged 32,043 in the old First Division. Seven years ago in the season the club were relegated to League Two the average was 9,203 – how times have changed.