What a great night at the CBS on Monday night! As Sky and the main stream media have been saying ever since it was City's first home win in the Premier League for 25 years, almost as if we've been playing there for 25 years and never won. Sky's ignorance of football and the game's stats before the start of the Premier League in 1992 is annoying to me and many older fans as well as being disrespectful to the game's history.
On that subject it was interesting to see that Stephen Mfuni, the scorer of a cracking fourth goal against Newcastle, is the youngest City player to score in the Premier League, edging Robbie Keane from that exalted position. However neither Mfuni, Keane or Sidiki Cherif, another teenage scorer on Monday, get into the all-time top ten of youngest City scorers. Mfuni was born in February 2008 making him 18 years and 242 days old and just 12 days younger than Tom Bayliss, the last 18-year-old to score, in 2017. The ten youngest scorers are:
| 1 Brian Hill v Gillingham 1957-58 16 years 273 days |
| 2 Colin Holder v Shrewsbury 1960-61 17y 78d |
| 3 Tom English v Bristol City 1979-80 17y 307d |
| 4 James Maddison v Oldham (a) 2014-15 17y 332d |
| 5 Willie Carr v Charlton 1967-68 18y 21d |
| 6 Peter Hill v Preston 1949-50 18y 33d |
| 7 Ellis Lager v Bournemouth 1935-36 18y 93d |
| 8 Conor Thomas v Blackpool (a) 2011-12 18y 94d |
| 9 Bobby Gould v Mansfield 1964-65 18y 124d |
| 10 Steve Sedgley v Oldham 1986-87 18y 155d |
Two substitutes, Mfuni and Ellis Simms, were on the score-sheet against Newcastle, only the seventh time that has happened since two substitutes were allowed in 1987. The last time was at Millwall last season when Kaine Kesler-Hayden and Simms netted after coming off the bench in the 4-0 win.
The 4-1 victory equalled the best ever home win over Newcastle, a 4-1 win in 1999-2000. Goals from Carlton Palmer, Paul Williams and Robbie Keane gave City a 3-0 half-time lead. Newcastle, down to ten men after Warren Barton's red card scored a consolation goal through Didier Domi but Hadji made it 4-1 in the final minute.
City have bettered that scoreline at St James's Park however. In 1938 in a Second Division game City ran riot, winning 4-0 with goals from George Taylor, Tommy Crawley (2) and Bobby Davidson in a season that saw City finish fourth and miss out on promotion by four points.
After Jay Dasilva scored the winning goal at Forest a month ago in his 127th game for the club Simon Campbell asked me if this was the longest run before a player scored his first goal. I think that honour goes to Richard Shaw. Signed in 1995, Shaw finally scored his first, and only City goal, in May 2004 in a 5-2 win at Gillingham in his 297th game for the club. Richard went on to make a further 64 appearances and never scored again.
Then there is Brian 'Harry' Roberts who scored his first goal in December 1982 in a 3-0 away win at West Ham in what was his 195th game for the club. Harry had made his debut at Tottenham in April 1975 and became a regular two years later. After going almost 200 games before scoring he managed to get a second goal the following month in a 2-2 FA Cup draw with Norwich at Highfield Road. He went on to make 249 appearances for the club but never scored again.
The player with the most games without scoring was Chris Cattlin who made 239 appearances between 1968-76 without finding the net. Chris joined Brighton in 1976 and eight games into his Seagulls' career scored a goal!
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.
If you're after more information on City's history try www.skybluearchive.com . The site contains full details of over 4000 games the club has played since 1919 as well as player's profiles and pictures and much more. Follow on X @skybluesarchive
If you have a question about the history or statistics of Coventry City or have a suggested topic for the podcast please drop me an email at clarriebourton@gmail.com and follow me on X/Twitter @clarriebourton
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