Attendance records smashed & City's 10 goal marksmen

Two home wins in four days have put the Sky Blues firmly back on the rails in the Championship promotion race. With closest rivals Middlesbrough and Ipswich both winning twice in the last week it was vital that maximum points were gained. Going into this weekend’s games City have a six point lead at the top over ‘Boro and eight point lead over the Tractor Boys. City now cannot be knocked off top spot until Tuesday 3 February, at which point they will have been top for 122 days when Ipswich play their third game in 10 days, their rearranged away game at Portsmouth. Three wins for them and defeats at Norwich and QPR for the Sky Blues would see the men from East Anglia overtake City. As I’ve said before being the hunted rather than the hunter is a new experience for Coventry and the next few weeks is going to be a nail biting time for the fans. 

Attendances at the CBS this season have been incredible and Saturday’s gate of 31,410 for the visit of Leicester was the second highest ever at the ground, just 42 short of the record set last season for the game with Middlesbrough. That took the average for the season to just over 30,000 - the first time City’s crowds have been at that level since 1969-70 season when the club finished sixth in the old First Division and qualified for Europe. The overall average that season was 32,043 and has never been topped. The average dipped slightly with the smaller than average crowd against Millwall on Tuesday but I expect several more ‘full houses’ between now and the end of the season to take the final average over the 30,000 mark. If that is the case it will be the first time in the club’s history that the club have averaged over 30,000 when not in the top flight. The top averages for seasons in the lower divisions are:

1966-67. Division 2. 28,269

2024-25 Championship. 27,817

1950-51 Division 2. 26,694

1964-65 Division 2. 26,621

1963-64 Division 3. 26,017

1937-38. Division 2. 25,825

2023-24. Championship. 25,468

1965-66. Division 2. 25,370

Thankfully Haji Wright is back scoring goals with two goals in two games this last week taking his total for the season to ten league goals. It was also his fourth goal against Millwall this season when you include his penalty at the New Den in the League Cup. Wright joins Brandon Thomas-Asante and Ellis Simms on 10 league goals. This is the first time that three Coventry players have hit double figures in league games since 2013-14 when Leon Clarke (15), Callum Wilson (21) and Franck Moussa (11) were on fire. In addition that season Carl Baker scored 10 goals in all competitions. The club record is for five players to score double figures which happened in 1963-64. The famous five then were:

George Hudson 28

Ken Hale 17

Ronnie Rees 15

Ronnie Farmer 11

Willie Humphries 11

Victor Torp is currently on seven goals and Ephron Mason-Clark on six. It’s not impossible that we might have five in double figures come the end of the season and challenge that 62-year-old record.

RIP Terry Yorath

Terry Yorath March 27 1950- January 8 2026

It is sad to report the death of former Coventry City and Wales captain Terry Yorath at the age of 75 following a short illness. Terry was captain of the club from 1976-79 and played 108 times for the club during a thrilling period that saw the club feted for exciting, attacking football. Brought up in the 'Leeds' way, he brought a touch of steel to the Coventry midfield, an attribute that allowed his skilful teammates such as Tommy Hutchison and Barry Powell and the striking partnership of Ian Wallace and Mick Ferguson to flourish. In the 1977-78 Gordon Milne's side scored 75 goals and played entertaining football wherever they went, only missing out on European football by virtue of Arsenal losing the FA Cup final. At the peak of his playing career in the mid 1970s there were few harder midfield players than Yorath. Later as a manager he had the honour of managing his country for five years. 

Born in Cardiff, Terry was an outstanding schoolboy footballer and on leaving school was signed by Leeds United who were at the time becoming a major force in English football. Manager Don Revie gave him his first team debut as an 18-year-old but owing to the depth of quality in the Leeds side in the late 1960s he made only 30 appearances in five seasons. His contemporaries at Elland Road were Billy Bremner, Norman Hunter, Johnny Giles and Paul Madeley and he only got a game if one of them was unavailable. Playing in a defensive midfield role, he came to the fore in 1973 albeit on the losing side in both the FA Cup (to Sunderland) and European Cup Winner's Cup (to AC Milan). The league title went to Elland Road in 1973-74 and Terry was a regular in midfield in what was Revie's final season before becoming England manager. In 1975 Leeds reached the European Cup final against Bayern Munich. In a bad-tempered game Leeds protests about having been cheated by refereeing decisions were undermined by Yorath's heavy fourth-minute challenge on Bjorn Andersson, which broke the Swede's leg. In his autobiography, Hard Man, Hard Knocks, published in 2004, Yorath admitted it was a 'dreadful' foul, leaving him 'deeply ashamed'. By the time he left to join Coventry he had made 198 appearances, scoring 12 goals for Leeds.

Gordon Milne signed the Welsh national captain in August 1976, for £135,000, one of three masterful signings in a weekend (Ian Wallace and Bobby McDonald were the others), following a poor start to the new season. Like many of Revie’s side Yorath was hated by opposition fans but following his arrival at Coventry he became a fan’s favourite for his never-say-die attitude and inspirational leadership. One story about Terry's arrival at Coventry is that managing director Jimmy Hill had to give notice to his ex-wife to move out of her club-owned house as the Yorath family desperately wanted to move in.

Immediately made club captain, Terry was soon fighting for the Sky Blue cause and although his first season ended with a nail-biting relegation battle, the building blocks of an outstanding team were in place. In the final game of that season, the infamous match with Bristol City, he came up against his former Leeds team-mate Hunter and when it was clear, five minutes from time, that a draw would be sufficient to keep both sides up, the pair ordered their respective players to stop playing. 

In 1977-78 Milne switched to a 4-2-4 formation with Terry and Barry Powell in the midfield of one of the most exciting teams in the club's history. Terry was the warrior in midfield and knew how to win the ball and deliver short passes to the play-makers Powell, Hutchison and Ray Graydon – the result was a thrilling campaign still fondly remembered by the older generation of Coventry City fans. The home victories that season were especially memorable including the 5-4 Christmas thriller with Norwich, a 4-2 win over league leaders Manchester City and a 3-0 New Year's Eve win over Manchester United. 48 league goals were scored at Highfield Road, the best total in the last 60 years, as City finished seventh in Division One, their second best final placing in 34 years in the top flight. Members of that team now attest to the team spirit and togetherness engendered by Terry as a major factor in the club's success that season. Terry wrote an amusing column in the club programme and it usually included a jibe at team-mate Jim Holton. In one programme he described how one of the directors had found Big Jim's false teeth at the bottom of his cup of tea.

City's form at the start of the following season was patchy but few fans were expecting a 7-1 hammering at West Brom and allegedly Yorath and Gordon Milne fell out after the game. As a result Terry was in the reserve team for several weeks and was close to joining Wolves. After City rejected Wolves' approach Terry regained his place and the rumoured rift appeared to be healed and the team finished the season strongly. After a magnificent battling performance in a 0-0 draw with Liverpool in March 1979 he was in a reflective mood, 'I think I owed the manager and the club a performance like that after the sort of season I have had'. The game also saw his competitive, sometimes vicious, engagement with Graeme Souness. The pair had several bone-crunching battles in games between the clubs. Despite Terry's 'hard man' image he was never sent off playing for the Sky Blues and received just one red card, for Leeds in 1976.

It was something of a shock then when at the start of the 1979-80 campaign Terry was sold to Tottenham for £275,000, a price too enticing for City to turn down. He had two seasons as the hardman protecting Glen Hoddle and Ossie Ardiles, often playing at centre-back. There followed two seasons in the NASL with Vancouver Whitecaps before in 1982 a return to England with Bradford City where he subsequently became assistant manager to his former Leeds team-mate Trevor Cherry. The pair took Bradford to the Division Three title in 1985, an event marred by the Valley Parade fire at their final home game in which 56 fans lost their lives. Terry risked his own life to try and save victims and only escaped by smashing a window with a chair. The events of that day were known to have haunted him.

Terry won his first Welsh cap in 1970 against Italy and went on to play 59 times for his country (20 with the Sky Blues), many as captain. In 1978 he came close to captaining his country to the World Cup finals but lost out to Scotland in a controversial game at Anfield.

His first managerial role at Swansea City saw him win promotion from Division Four in 1988 with a team including Tommy Hutchison, Peter Bodak and future City manager Chris Coleman. That led him to be appointed Wales' national manager and under him Wales attained what was then their highest ever FIFA ranking of 27^th in 1993 and came close to qualifying for the 1994 World Cup. He was strongly tipped to become Coventry's manager in 1992 but the club opted instead for Bobby Gould. 

Subsequent management roles at Bradford City and Cardiff were less successful but he had three good years coaching the Lebanon national team before coaching jobs at Huddersfield, Sheffield Wednesday and non-league Margate. 

Terry had many personal issues to deal with including the death of his sixteen-year old son Daniel in 1992 and a drink driving conviction. His daughter, Gabby Logan, has carved a brilliant sports broadcasting career with Sky TV, ITV and since 2007 at the BBC.

Terry was a member of the Coventry City Former Players Association (CCFPA) and attended Legends Day in 2012 where I had the pleasure of presenting him with a shirt to commemorate him becoming the 200^th member of the association. I can still recall a touching scene that day Terry and Alan Green hugged after not seeing each other for over 30 years.

RIP Terry

Preston hoodoo continues against 10 men

Just when Coventry City fans thought that the Preston hoodoo was about to be ended, with the opposition down to ten men and a 1-0 lead, a brief loss of concentration gave the home side an equaliser. Many fans would have taken a point at kick-off against one of the best home sides in the division but at the end of the game there was a sense of disappointment and a feeling that two points had been dropped. It's now 24 league games at Deepdale without a victory with nine draws and 15 defeats. One wonders if the Sky Blues will ever get their first win at North End.

Liam Lindsay, red-carded for fouling Haji Wright late in the first half, set an unwanted record by becoming only the second opposition player to receive two red cards against the Sky Blues. Previously, Lindsay got his marching orders in the 84^th minute of the City v Preston match at the CBS in 2022 for a second yellow for a foul on Viktor Gyokeres with the score 0-0. There was drama however in the last few minutes of the game with Fankaty Dabo conceding an 89^th minute penalty and also receiving a red card. Daniel Johnson converted the penalty kick seemingly to win the points for Preston but Fabio Tavares had other ideas. Brought on as eight minutes added time commenced, the young striker hit a spectacular goal in the 98^th minute to earn a deserved point for the Sky Blues.

The other double red card man was Chris Whyte who was sent off playing against City for both Arsenal and Leeds United. In 1984 he received his marching orders in Arsenal's 4-1 win at Highfield Road during the period that Bobby Gould's men were tumbling down the table. Whyte, who later played a single game for the Sky Blues on loan in 1995, scored the first Arsenal goal and Stewart Robson, another who later played for City scored the second before taking over in goal after Pat Jennings was injured. Whyte's red card was given after he retaliated to a Graham Withey challenge.

Then, in 1993, Whyte was centre half in the Leeds team that drew 3-3 with City in the final game of the season. He was ordered off after 60 minutes after his second offence with Leeds losing 2-1. Peter Ndlovu added a third to earlier goals by John Williams and Micky Quinn before, in a frantic finish, Rod Wallace scored in the 89^th and 93^rd minutes to complete a hat-trick and earn a 3-3 draw.

Lindsay is the fourth opponent to be red carded this season – the other three have all been at the CBS – and the first time the Sky Blues haven't gone on to win the game. City have, to date, not received a single red card this season. 

Kitching sets centre-back record in massive win at Riverside

Another Sky Blues victory (the 10th in 11 games) at Middlesbrough increased their lead at the top of the Championship to 10 points. I’m told that this is the biggest margin since the Championship came into being over 20 years ago. It is an amazing position to be in and, of course, all the pundits are now tipping us for automatic promotion to the Premiership.

Frank Lampard’s team are just relentless and seem able to up their game at will. Two goals down to West Brom - the team didn’t let their heads drop but turned up the heat and score three. Unlike many, I don’t believe it would have been any different if Jayson Molumby had stayed on the pitch. It might have taken a bit longer but the Sky Blues would have won. Then, at the Riverside on Tuesday night, they let a two-goal lead slip, almost conceded a third to Tommy Conway but readjusted with Jamie Allen and Jack Rudoni regaining control of midfield, and killed Boro with two late goals. Poor old Adie looked positively shell-shocked in his post-match interview but was very gracious in defeat.

The team also seem able currently to ride through injuries. When Rudoni was injured at the back end of September City fans were in despair but it opened the door for Brandon Thomas-Asante who grabbed his chance and scored eight goals in the next seven and Jack was barely missed. Haji Wright returned from international duty with an injury and suddenly there was an opportunity for Ellis Simms who has been patient as well as scoring two off the bench. Ellis has looked like a man possessed in the last two games and scored three goals, including a serious contender for goal of the season on Tuesday.

It was only in the early part of this year that the team put that amazing run of nine league wins out of 10 together . Now eight months later they’ve bettered that with 10 wins out of 11, setting a new club record. There is only one word to describe this current run - phenomenal.

The most unlikely scorer at Middlesbrough was Liam Kitching who netted twice in the 4-2 win. His first was a powerful header from a brilliant volleyed cross from Matt Grimes but he seemed to know little about his second when the ball rebounded from the goalkeeper’s boot from a vicious shot by Bobby Thomas and hit him and went in. For the second game running Thomas was lurking out to the right of the goal following a set-piece and provided a goal chance with a towering header from a Grimes chip. Liam is the first City central defender to score two goals in a league game since Reda Johnson in 2014. Reda did it on his debut, a 2-3 loss at Bradford City on the opening day of the season of 2014-15. James Hanson put the Bantams ahead before Reda headed an equaliser just before half-time. An Alan Sheehan penalty put Bradford ahead before Johnson appeared to have secured a point in the 89th minute with a scrambled effort but Hanson headed an added-time winner for Phil Parkinson’s team.

There was another instance in an EFL Trophy game in August 2016. In front of 2,091 fans the Sky Blues beat West Ham’s under 21 team 4-2 and City centre-back Jordan Turnbull scored two of the goals. Ruben Lameiras and Jordan Willis scored the other goals against a West Ham side featuring 17-year-old Declan Rice.

Table-topping Sky Blues set more records

The Sky Blues extended their lead at the top of the Championship to five points with an excellent win at Stoke last Saturday. In a game of few chances it took a sublime goal from Ephron Mason-Clarke to separate the teams first and second in the table at the start of play. The victory made it a remarkable eight wins out of nine since mid September.

The team have now topped the Championship table since the 4^th October and, whatever the results in the next two games, they will still be top until at least 25^th November. That's 53 consecutive days in first place and the best achievement by a Coventry City side since the 1966-67 Division Two promotion season. Then, Jimmy Hill's team went top of the table on 7^th January following a 1-1 draw at Birmingham's St Andrews and stayed top until Easter Monday, the 27^th March, when, with City not playing, Wolves slipped ahead of the Sky Blues on goal average (before goal difference came into being) with a win at Huddersfield. That was a total of 81 days in first place. The club record for days at the top was set in the 1963-64 Division Three promotion season when the team were top for 157 days. A 2-1 home win over Bristol City on 8^th October 1963 sent the Sky Blues top and they remained there until 14^th March 1964 when after a shocking 5-2 home defeat to Southend on the previous night, City were overtaken by Crystal Palace. The Sky Blues had held a nine point lead (14 points under the three points for a win) at the top on 3^rd January but an eleven-game run without a win saw the chasing pack catch them. In a fraught end to the season City managed to put together a run of eight games with only one defeat to snatch the title on the final day of the season.

Rich Overson posed an interesting question after the Stoke victory: When were City last in the top six and defeated another top six side away from home (excluding play-off wins). After quite a bit of research I discovered it was back in January 1993 in the Premiership. City, under Bobby Gould and with Micky Quinn scoring for fun, were flying high and travelled to Blackburn for a midweek game in sixth place. Rovers were in fourth position and a 3-0 win or better would see them overtake Manchester United at the top. The Sky Blues upset the form book as well as BBC Radio 5 whose reporters had come to celebrate Blackburn going top, by inflicting a 5-2 defeat on Kenny Dalglish's Rovers. Mike Newell gave Rovers an early lead which was cancelled out by a David May own goal. Lee Hurst gave City a lead just before half-time and John Williams made it 3-1 soon after the break. Colin Hendry pulled one back on 71 minutes and for a while City were hanging on for dear life before Quinn scored twice in the final five minutes to seal the points.

Prior to that win in 1993 there had been away wins at Nottingham Forest in 1990 (4-2) and Norwich City in 1989 (2-1) when both City and their opponents were top six teams. The latter being the week after City's ignominious FA Cup defeat to Sutton United.

Fortress CBS

The Sky Blues bounced back from the defeat at Wrexham last weekend to record another home victory, 3-1 over Sheffield United on Tuesday night. The CBS Arena has certainly become a fortress for the team, especially since Frank Lampard took charge last November. Only two regular season league games have been lost in the last 23 and those were to last season's promoted clubs, Leeds United and Burnley. History tells us that strong home form is the key to successful promotion campaigns:

1935-36 Division 3S champions Played 21. 19 wins, 1 draw, 1 defeat.

1958-59 Division 4 runners up Played 23. 18 wins, 4 draws, 1 defeat.

1963-64 Division 3 champions Played 23. 14 wins, 7 draws, 2 defeats.

1966-67 Division 2 champions Played 21. 17 wins, 3 draws, 1 defeat.

2019-20 League 1 champions Played 17. 11 wins, 5 draws, 1 defeat.

With 16 home games remaining this season a continuation of the home form would probably guarantee a play-off position even if the team lost all its away games. The outstanding start to the season puts the Sky Blues in a very strong position for an automatic promotion spot. However there is a long way to go and I remind readers that despite a 15-game unbeaten start in 1937-38 the team failed to get promotion after a mediocre second half of the season. Similarly, in 1950-51, City were top of Division Two on New Year's Day but faded and finished seventh.

The goals continue to flow for the team and after 14 games they have scored 39 – the highest in all four English leagues. Readers are asking 'what is the club record for goals scored?' 

The answer is 108 in 1931-32 – the season that the legendary Clarrie Bourton rose to prominence and netted 49 league goals as City finished 12^th in Division Three South. They scored 106 the following season (finishing sixth), 100 in 1933-34 (runners up). In 1934-35 they finished third but only scored 86 goals. Promotion finally arrived in 1935-36 as the Bantams scored 102 goals. Since then the best season has been in the 1963-64 Division Three championship season when 98 goals went into the opposition's net. 

It is interesting to note that in the record breaking 1931-32 season City had scored 32 goals after 14 games whilst the current team has 39 to its credit.

Last week's trip to Wrexham was City's first league visit to the Racecourse Ground since 1963-64 when Jimmy Hill's side drew 1-1 on the way to winning promotion from Division Three. It was only the fifth league visit in 100 seasons of league football. City had the rare occurrence of conceding a hat-trick with Wrexham's expensive striker Kieffer Moore becoming only the third player to score three or more against City in a league game in the last eight seasons (Portsmouth's Callum Lang and Hull's Oscar Estupinan are the others). A lot of fans thought Moore had an excellent scoring record against the Sky Blues but in fact he had only managed three in seven games before last week, two for Cardiff in 2020-21 and one for Ipswich in 2023-24.

Sky Blues in Dreamland

Coventry City’s incredible season just gets better and better and two wins in the last week cemented the Sky Blues at the top of the Championship table. The comprehensive 2-1 win at Portsmouth extended the unbeaten start to 11 games - a run only bettered by the club once, in 1937-38 when the run lasted 15 games. This season’s start has now bettered the 10-game start to the 2019-20 season when, of course, the Sky Blues, playing at St.Andrews won promotion from League One. With seven wins and four draws this start is currently slightly better than 1937 when there were six wins and five draws. 

What a difference it's been from the previous three seasons when the team had frustratingly slow starts:

2022-23 10 points from 11 games

2023-24 15 points from 11

2024-25 9 points from 11

Frank Lampard's exciting team currently have a fantastic launchpad for a successful season and we have to hope they can continue the excellent form. 

Carl Rushworth and the Sky Blues defence created another record this week when he kept his goal intact until the 96^th minute. It meant that he did not concede a goal for 613 minutes since the Norwich game on 13th September. Norwich striker Mathias Kvistgaarden scored in the 17th minute that day and since then the Brighton loan goalkeeper had five clean sheets plus the majority of Tuesday’s game at Portsmouth. Carl started the game at Fratton Park with the fifth longest run by a Coventry goalkeeper but as the game proceeded he overtook the runs of Les Sealey, Steve Ogrizovic, Reice Charles-Cook and on 80 minutes, Horace Pearson from the 1930s. A remarkable achievement by the young ‘keeper in only his 11th game for the club.

Defence has not been the only strong point this season as the goals total of 31 from 11 games demonstrates. The goals have been pouring in and it’s the club’s best 11 game start to a season even topping the early 1930s when City scored 100 goals in a season four years out of five. I can’t find a better 11-game start by any club in the Championship in the modern era although in 1919-20 Tottenham scored 36 goals in the first 11 games including nine in two games against City. Spurs went on to win the Division Two title that year with 102 goals and 70 points (102 in modern day). Haji Wright and Brandon Thomas-Asante head the division’s scoring charts with eight goals each and BTA and Viktor Torp have already eclipsed their goal tallies from last season. Will someone pinch me to wake me from this dream!