Jim's column 16.11.2021

What an incredible game against Bristol City last Saturday at the CBS Arena! Many fans were calling it the most exciting game since we were relegated from the Premier League twenty years ago and it's hard to think of many better. For the fourth time this season at the stadium the Sky Blues came from behind to win and the third occasion with a winner in added time. It's a testament to the team's never say die attitude, the level of fitness and the game management of Mark Robins. Bristol City, a team that had won on five of their seven visits to the stadium before Saturday, followed Nottingham Forest, Reading and Fulham in being turned over by a gutsy home performance.

One extra twist on Saturday was the fact that they did it with ten men, following the dismissal of Ian Maatsen on the stroke of half-time for a foul inside the penalty area which resulted in a spot-kick for the visitors. It's only the fourth time in the club's history that a ten-men City team have come from behind to win and the first since 1999 when Charlton Athletic succumbed 2-1 at Highfield Road after City's John Aloisi was shown a red card for lashing out at a far from innocent Danny Mills with the score 1-0 to the visitors. Goals from Noel Whelan and substitute Trond Soltvedt saw the Sky Blues home.

The other two occurrences were in away FA Cup games in the 1990s. In 1995, in a Third Round replay at the Hawthorns, City's Paul Cook was sent off early in the game before Albion took the lead just after half-time through Paul Raven. Minutes later the Baggies were also reduced to ten men when Darren Bradley saw red. Roared on by a large Sky Blue Army, City left it late but won the game through Dion Dublin and a brilliant solo effort from Peter Ndlovu. Perhaps as both teams finished with ten men it doesn't count.

The following season Ron Atkinson's team travelled to Plymouth for a Third Round tie. After eighteen minutes Dave Busst was ordered off for a foul on the edge of the penalty area. From the resulting free-kick Argyle took the lead through Ian Baird. Early in the second half ten-men City came to life and scored three goals in six minutes to clinch a 3-1 victory and a place in Round Four. The scorers were Ally Pickering, his only goal for the club in 75 appearances, John Salako and Paul Telfer.

Several readers have asked me if Coventry City's rise through the leagues has been matched or bettered by anyone in the same period. The low point, position-wise, for City was in February 2018 at Mansfield when a late controversial penalty by Jonson Clarke-Harris grabbed a point. After that game City were ninth in League Two (or 77th in the 92) and six points outside the play-off positions. Now they lie fourth in the Championship (24th in the 92) – an improvement of 53 places in just over three and a half years and the most spectacular rise in the club's history and even better than Jimmy Hill's on-field improvement.

Looking at the league tables back in February 2018 the only other club to jump two divisions in the intervening period are Luton Town, who led League Two on the date (69th in the 92). Luton currently stand 11th (31st in the 92)in the Championship, an improvement of 38 places. The next best club is Blackpool with a rise of 30 places to their current 10th place in the Championship. When one looks at teams currently in League One it is fascinating to see the big clubs that City have leapfrogged over in that time. Ipswich, Sheffield Wednesday and Sunderland were all in the Championship that season whilst Wigan, Portsmouth and Bradford City were all in the top half of League One.

Last week I had the pleasure of attending the 45th anniversary of Coventry City London Supporters Club's formation. Held in London, 70 City fans from the capital and the South East enjoyed a great evening and were joined by a large contingent from the football club including Joy Seppala, Tim Fisher, Mark Robins and Dave Boddy. It was great to catch up with many old friends who came out to celebrate a great milestone in CCLSC's history.

As one of the original eleven members I was asked to pay a tribute to the founder Colin Heys who was in attendance. Colin placed an advert in the Tottenham programme for City's game there in October 1976 and the following month organised the first get together. Colin, who has lived in Kent for all that time, was a leading light in CCLSC for many years but travelled all over the country watching the Sky Blues. He has now watched over 2200 matches and that includes a staggering run of 684 consecutive first team games over 13 ½ years.

If you have a question about the history or statistics of Coventry City please drop me an email at clarriebourton@gmail.com and follow me on Twitter @clarriebourton

Jim's Column 19.9.2020

 Last Saturday’s unlucky defeat to Bristol City ended Coventry City’s fantastic unbeaten run that stretched back to mid-December when City last lost, at Shrewsbury. There are two unbeaten runs worth mentioning, league games and all competitive games. The unbeaten league run ended at 14 games, the club’s fourth best run and bettered only by the 25 game run by Jimmy Hill’s 1967 Division Two champions, the 17 game run in 1937 by Harry Storer’s Second Division team and another Hill run (16 games) in Division Thee in 1962-63.

When runs of all competitive games are compared the 1962-63 team lead the way with 22 unbeaten games which was only ended by an FA Cup quarter final defeat to eventual winners Manchester United. Mark Robins 2020 team were unbeaten in 19 league and cup games (counting the penalty shoot-out defeat against Birmingham as a draw). The great 1967 team had their 25-game league run interrupted by an FA Cup defeat to Newcastle.

City got the shock of their lives at Bristol as Coventry fan Jamie Paterson scored the opening goal in 20 seconds. This was the fastest goal conceded by the Sky Blues since 1995 when Dwight Yorke, then of Aston Villa, headed home in 13 seconds at Highfield Road. Villa went on to win 3-0 that night with Milosevic scoring two late goals. Fast goal times are fairly easy to record in the present day when there are television cameras at every game but in the ‘old days’ it’s hard to be accurate with the times of goals with newspaper reporters usually being the source. In contemporary newspaper reports quick goals are often described as ‘scored in the first minute’. Not very helpful for the football historian.

The only other goal conceded by City in less than 25 seconds was another Villa goal, scored by Cyrille Regis at Villa Park in 1992. That was timed at 21 seconds and for a good part of the game looked to have sealed City’s relegation. Then, well into the second half Notts County, already doomed, came from behind to send Luton Town down instead.

Dave Evans is a Coventry City fan who lives and works in Moscow. He asked a question via the SBI (Sky Blue International), the organisation for overseas City fans. He wanted to know if City’s second kit in 1963 was the green and black stripes.

City had the same 'change' kit from 1962 through to 1969 which was red shirts, shorts and socks. The newspaper colour picture taken at Cardiff in 1967 illustrates the kit. The all red kit was replaced in 1969-70 by the green and black striped shirts with black shorts and socks.

I have to feel sorry for Colin Heys, The founder of the Coventry City London Supporters Club. He informed me last week that the game at MK Dons was the first City League Cup tie he had missed since 1977 when he couldn’t get to Huddersfield for City’s tie at the old Leeds Road ground. I make that 121 consecutive games that Colin saw in the competition and included midweek trips from his Kent home to far flung places such as Morecambe, Scarborough, Chester, Tranmere & Rochdale. 

Jim's column 19.10.2019

I have belated congratulations this week for Kent-based Coventry City fan Colin Heys who two weeks ago celebrated 50 years of watching the Sky Blues. Colin, the founder of the London Supporters club in 1977, watched the team for the first time in October 1969 at Highbury where Ernie Hunt’s goal gave City their first ever win at the famous stadium.

                                                  Ernie Hunt scores the winner at Highbury in 1969                  

Since then Colin has watched the team play over 2000 games and reached the milestone of 2200 at Telford’s New Bucks Head ground in the friendly in July. Coincidentally Colin grew up half a mile away from that ground. Not that he normally watches friendlies - only two of the previous 2,199 were friendlies, the rest being competitive games. Earlier this year, at Accrington, he notched up the hundredth different away ground that he has seen the Sky Blues play on. Colin has barely missed a game, home or away, in the last 40 years and has had many tortuous midweek journeys to and from away games. Congratulations Colin!

Several readers spotted that Rotherham striker Michael Smith scored two penalties against the Sky Blues in the 4-0 defeat at the New York Stadium two weeks ago. This is is a very rare occurrence and the first time since Bradford City’s Tony McMahon netted two penalties in the 3-3 draw at Valley Parade in 2016.

Another two penalty man was Ade Akinfenwa who netted two for Gillingham in a 4-2 defeat at the Priestfield Stadium in 2014, a game that saw four penalties scored with Callum Wilson and Carl Baker scoring City’s spot-kicks.

There are a few other instances of opponents scoring two penalties in a game against the Sky Blues - Liverpool's Jan Molby managed three in the League Cup tie at Anfield in 1986 and other instances include Swindon's Jan Age Fjortoft (1994), West Ham's Ray Stevens (1984), Tottenham's Glen Hoddle (1980), Manchester City's Gary Owen (1978), West Ham's Geoff Hurst (1969) and Sunderland's Neil Martin (1967). I think Martin is the only opposing player to score two penalties at Highfield Road and also score two penalties in a game as City player, against Crystal Palace for the Sky Blues in 1969.

Jim's column 9.12.2017

The Sky Blues travel north to play Morecambe today in the first of three league games with significant interest to City statisticians. The next three opponents are playing City in a league game for the first time. Morecambe today is followed next Saturday by Cheltenham Town at home, and then Wycombe Wanderers are at the Ricoh on the Friday before Christmas. Morecambe become City's 117th different opponent since the club joined the Football League in 1919, Cheltenham will be the 118th and Wycombe 119th. City are trailing a few other clubs in this total, notably Grimsby who have met 138 different clubs and Lincoln on 136 however after the Wycombe game City will also have faced all of the current 91 other league clubs – a feat only achieved by three other clubs, Port Vale, Swindon and Notts County.

City have played at Morecambe's Globe Arena before – they were Morecambe's first opponents at the ground after it opened in 2010 and suffered an embarrassing 2-0 League Cup defeat, and also played an FA Cup game there last season. They have also faced Wycombe in cup action before – the infamous two-leg League Cup game in 1993 when after winning the first leg 3-0 Bobby Gould's team were losing 4-0 at Adams Park in the second leg before two late goals saved red faces. Last season the clubs met twice in the Checkatrade Trophy.

The Globe Arena is the 149th different away ground City have played at in league action since 1919 and the fourth new league stadium for City fans this year following Cambridge's Abbey Stadium, Accrington's Wham Stadium and the Hive stadium at Barnet. The 149 includes many exotic grounds no longer with us such as Gateshead's Redheugh Park, Nelson's Seedhill, Ashington's Portland Park and Darlington's Feethams. By the end of this season the total number of grounds will creep up to 153 with trips to Forest Green, Wycombe, Newport and Cheltenham. At that point in time there will be only five grounds in the present 92 that haven't hosted the Sky Blues in a league game: The Etihad (Manchester City), the Emirates (Arsenal), the new Wembley (Tottenham), the London Stadium (West Ham) and the Galpharm (Huddersfield).

One of Coventry City's most ardent fans is Colin Heys who has travelled to City's games from his home in Kent for over 40 years. He told me recently that up to the end of last season he had watched 2090 City first team competitive games on 118 different grounds. He has seen 1047 home games, 1038 aways and five on neutral grounds. But for a ruptured achilles tendon in 2012 he would have seen every City game since 1998 and that injury ended a run of 684 consecutive matches. It's a phenomenal record especially when you consider the distance he lives away from Coventry. I'm sure Kevin Monks has a similar impressive record.

City eased comfortably past Boreham Wood last Sunday after a slightly uncomfortable first twenty minutes and recorded their biggest FA Cup victory since they beat Arlesey Town 3-0 in 2012 to reach the third round for the first time in four years. They now face Premier League opposition in the shape of Stoke City who will be the first top flight side to come to the Ricoh in the competition since Portsmouth in 2010. City and Stoke have only met once before in the competition – in 1987 when the Sky Blues won at the Victoria Ground in the fifth round on their way to Wembley.

Next Wednesday evening I will be with fellow author Steve Phelps at Waterstones in Smithfield Way signing copies of our respective new books. We hope to have several former players with us including Ronnie Farmer, Andy Blair, Peter Bodak and Garry Thompson. Both books are excellent Christmas presents with mine, 'Play Up Sky Blues, Champions 1967', telling the fascinating story of the 1967 promotion season and Steve's, entitled '29 minutes from Wembley' recounting the famous 1981 League Cup run. Come and say hello on Wednesday from 5pm until 6.30 and pick up a present for your loved ones.