Red Cards influence the play-off race

Today the Sky Blues aim to win a place in the Championship playoffs by beating Middlesbrough at the CBS arena. A draw may be sufficient depending on the results at Turf Moor and Bramall Lane. Many City fans believe that the team should have secured their place before now but away defeats at relegation threatened Plymouth and Luton have thrown a spanner in the works and left fans sweating on the final day. Let’s hope the team can get it over the line and qualify for the play-offs for the second time in three seasons which, after the position when Frank Lampard took over in November is a not inconsiderable achievement.

Controversial refereeing decisions have seriously affected the two away defeats and made City’s job harder than it should have. Plymouth’s Mustapha Bundu should have been sent off for a vicious challenge on Jamie Allen when the score was 0-0 at Home Park on Easter Monday and the striker went on to score two goals and make another. At Luton Jay Dasilva’s red card for a clip on Millenic Alli’s heels seemed harsh to me and left the Sky Blues in an uphill battle against a desperate Luton team who ironically were kept out until the final minute and when the Hatters were also down to ten men.

Dasilva’s red card was the first City sending off this season and the club almost achieved the record of not having a red card in a single season for the first time since 1986-87 season, almost forty years ago. In 1992-93 Mick Quinn was the only player sent off, for an alleged foul on Manchester United’s Peter Scheichel which was later reversed and Mick didn’t serve a suspension. Saturday’s referee Oliver Langford also showed a red card to Liam Kitching in the home game with Sheffield Wednesday last season and he’s the first ref to send two City players off for a good few years.

Former City loanee Liam Walsh, a key figure in the 2019-20 League One promotion success, was also red carded by Langford, his third expulsion of the season. Walsh, whose red card was reversed this week, is only the third former Coventry player to be red carded against the Sky Blues. The others are Steve Hunt and Gary Deegan. Hunt, who played almost 250 games for Coventry, was sent off playing for West Brom in a 0-3 defeat at Highfield Road in 1985-86. Deegan, who played 43 games for the Sky Blues, mainly in the 2011-12 relegation season, was red carded playing for Southend United in a 3-0 victory over City at Roots Hall in 2016. 

Some fans have highlighted the fact that City have not won an away game in the white away kit this season and compared the results to the disastrous away record in 1999-2000 when City also wore a white away kit. The results in the white kit this season have been no wins, three draws and three defeats. In 1999-2000, the season that Sky referred to as ‘The Entertainers’, based on outstanding away form, we played in white on nine occasions, drawing four and losing five. 

Jim's column 3.5.14

I would like to use this week's column to reply to a number of questions I have had in recent weeks.

Firstly Les Smith asked me about a game at Highfield Road with Stoke City in 1965. He recently acquired a programme for the game and wondered what competition that it was for, as the respective first teams were not in the same division, and neither were the reserves! - The game was played on a Friday night in early October.

There were actually international weekends then – for the Home Internationals – and the game was a friendly arranged because both teams had two or more players involved in internationals that weekend and were permitted to postpone their league games. Ronnie Rees was playing for Wales against England & Dave Clements was representing Northern Ireland against Scotland.

In actual fact Coventry's scheduled game at Cardiff had already been switched to the following Wednesday because Wales were entertaining England at Ninian Park on the Saturday. The league game on the following Wednesday night was an historic occasion as the game was beamed back to Coventry and shown on big screens at Highfield Road. City won 2-1.

The friendly was an opportunity for Jimmy Hill's second division promotion chasing team to pit their wits against top-flight opposition and City ran out 5-1 winners in front of a 8,180 crowd. The goals came from Allan Harris, George Hudson (2), Brian Hill & Peter Denton.

Fellow CCFPA committee member Dean Nelson reminded me that this week was the anniversary of a Clive Allen hat-trick against the Sky Blues in 1979 & wondered how many goals he scored against us. The game in 1979 ended in a 5-1 home win for QPR but wasn't enough for the R's to avoid relegation from the First Division. 17-year old  Allen was making his first start for Rangers & set the scene for a long record of success against City.

In all Clive played 14 times against City for 6 different clubs and scored 12 goals. After QPR he appeared for Crystal Palace, Tottenham, Manchester City, Chelsea & West Ham and scored for all but the latter two. His most famous goal against City was probably the opening goal of the 1987 FA Cup final, his 49^th goal of a memorable season.

Allen's 12 goals is not the most scored by a City opponent. That record is held by Alan Shearer who netted 17 goals, followed by Ian Rush & Tony Cottee with 14 goals each. 

Finally Adrian Goss wanted to know if City ever won a game playing in the Pony purple & yellow away kit during the 1995-96 season. They only played in the horrendous kit on six occasions, drawing twice and losing four times, including a 5-1 thrashing at Blackburn & a 4-3 loss at Hillsborough. It's not the only kit that City failed to win a game in – in 1999-2000 City, playing in a white shirted kit with black shorts failed to win a single away league game. 

                                                 Dublin & Ndlovu in the 1995-96 away kit

Today is the last game of the league season & the Sky Blues travel to Sheffield United knowing they are safe from relegation. Callum Wilson's goals have dried up recently, possibly owing to his enhanced reputation, which deservedly won him a place in the PFA League One Team of the season last weekend. He is marooned on 21 league goals, equal with Ian Wallace's total in 1977-78, with one more goal to be the highest seasonal scorer since City were promoted from the old Division Two in 1967 when Bobby Gould netted 24.

Next week I will cover Callum's scoring record & lots of other stats in my annual review of the season.