Jim's column 12.11.2016

There was nothing to play for on Wednesday night at Wycombe other than home advantage in the first of the knockout stages of the Football League Trophy, a somewhat devalued competition since the inclusion of several club's Under 23 teams. The game did however qualify as a competitive first team game and has to be included in the club's historical records. The 250-odd City fans who made the trip to Adams Park saw three interesting records set.

Firstly, the Sky Blues came from 0-2 behind to win a competitive game for only the fourth time in the last thirty years and the first time in an away game since 1970. After failing to come back from a two-goal deficit in almost twenty years, City have now done it three times in three seasons with Peterborough on the receiving end in the last two seasons.

2016-17 Wycombe Wanderers (FL Trophy) 4-2

2015-16 Peterborough (h) 3-2

2014-15 Peterborough (h) 3-2

1995-96 Tottenham (League Cup) (h) 3-2

1985-86 Southampton (h) 3-2

1980-81 West Ham (League Cup) (h) 3-2

1970-71 Derby (a) 4-3

1963-64 Peterborough (h) 3-2

You have to go back to that famous win at Derby's Baseball Ground in 1970 for the last such away result. City were not only 0-2 down but had seen their new £100,000 record signing Wilf Smith stretchered off in the first few minutes. Kevin Hector and Alan Hinton put the Rams 2-0 ahead in the first thirteen minutes but goals from Neil Martin & Dave Clements pulled City level by half-time. Martin put City ahead early in the second half before John McGovern made it 3-3. Bill Glazier saved a Hinton penalty before Willie Carr popped up with the winner two minutes from time.

Secondly, Ryan Haynes became only the fifth City substitute to score two goals coming off the bench. Some people have called the second goal as an own goal but I am crediting to Ryan in the absence of any official decision. The other four two-goal subs were:

Bobby Gould v Nottingham Forest (a) 1967-68

Jay Bothroyd v Rushden & Diamonds LC (h) 2002-03

Patrick Suffo v Torquay LC (h) 2004-05

Chris Maguire v MK Dons (a) 2013-14

Thirdly, the crowd of 912 at Adams Park for this dead rubber was the lowest crowd to watch a City first-team competitive game since 1930 when 683 watched a 2-2 draw between Merthyr Town and Coventry in the old Division Three South. The game, played at Merthyr's Penydarren Park took place on a Monday afternoon in April and the home side were bottom of the league having lost their previous two games 0-10 and 1-5. At the end of the season despite winning three of their last five games, they finished bottom and were voted out of the league. That crowd is the lowest to watch a Coventry City league game.

Last weekend the crowd at Morecambe (1,732) was the lowest to watch a Coventry City FA Cup tie since 1914 when the Bantams, a Southern League side at the time, travelled to Glossop, then a Second Division side, for a 6^th round Qualifying tie. Only 539 paying customers watched the tie which Glossop won 3-1. Glossop, who had one season in the First Division, finished bottom of Division Two that season and after the war were not re-elected to the League. They have been a non-league side ever since.

If the Sky Blues manage to win the replay they will face the winners of the Dover v Cambridge United replay on the weekend of 5 December. City have never played Dover but were the victims of a Cambridge giant-killing act in 1992 when a Dion Dublin goal earned Cambridge a 1-1 draw at Highfield Road and cost Terry Butcher his job as manager. By the time of the replay, Don Howe was in charge but Dublin scored a late winner in a goalmouth scramble after Oggy had saved Dion's penalty.

Jim's column 1.11.14

With the Sky Blues losing 0-2 to Peterborough at half-time last Saturday few City fans would have been prepared to back a City victory, but even less would have bet on that outcome if they had realised that the team had failed to comeback from two down in 19 years!

But first senior goals from Ryan Haynes & Jim O'Brien & a swash-buckling third from Frank Nouble secured a famous 3-2 victory over Posh. I was aware that City had not achieved a comeback from two down since a League Cup victory over Tottenham at Highfield Road in 1995 when trailing at half-time through goals by Chris Armstrong & a Dave Busst own goal, Ron Atkinson threw Dion Dublin on & watched as goals from Peter Ndlovu (a penalty), Dave Busst & John Salako secured a third round victory. What I hadn't realised until I did my research was that two goal turnarounds are few & far between for the Sky Blues. In fact Saturday's was only the ninth such comeback since World War 2. The last five before last week were:

1995-96 Tottenham (League Cup) (h) 3-2

1985-86 Southampton (h) 3-2

1980-81 West Ham (League Cup) (h) 3-2

1970-71 Derby (a) 4-3

1963-64 Peterborough (h) 3-2

It wasn't the first time that Posh were on the wrong end of a three-goal comeback - the only comeback in the Jimmy Hill era was in a dramatic victory over Posh in the autumn of 1963. Peterborough's record at Coventry is extremely poor. Since they arrived in the Football League in 1959 they have played nine away games against City but having won on their first visit in 1961 they have lost seven & drawn one of the subsequent games.

When the dearth of similar comebacks was revealed many readers wondered how often we have been on the receiving end of a comeback from two down. Since World War 2 there have been 14 instances, four of them in the last 14 years. The last five will bring bad memories to some City supporters:

2008-09 Watford (h) 2-3

2002-03 Ipswich (h) 2-4

2000-01 Aston Villa (a) 2-3

1999-00 Charlton (FA Cup) (h) 2-3

1987-88 Southampton (h) 2-3

Four of the five were at home with the Villa Park defeat the result that condemned the Sky Blues to relegation from the Premier League & the Charlton Cup defeat (a last minute Jonathan Hunt goal sending City out of the Cup) was for me the start of the club's slow & sad decline to where they are today.

James Maddison didn't get on to the pitch last week but did celebrate a milestone by scoring his first City goal at Oldham's Boundary Park four days earlier. James, who is not 18 until later this month, scored with the help of a deflection off a defender but became the fourth youngest goalscorer in the club's history. The ten youngest are now:

1. Brian Hill v Gillingham (a) 1957-58 16 years 273 day

2. Colin Holder v Shrewsbury (a) 1960-61 17y 78d

3.Tom English v Bristol City (h) 1979-80 17y 307d

4. James Maddison v Oldham (a) 2014-15 17y 332d

5. Willie Carr v Charlton (FAC) (h) 1967-68 18y 21d

6. Peter Hill v Preston 1949-50 (a) 18y 33d

7.Ellis Lager v Bournemouth (h) 1935-36 18y 93d

8. Conor Thomas v Blackpool (a) 2011-12 18y 94d

9. Bobby Gould v Mansfield (LC) (h) 1964-65 18y 124d

10. Steve Sedgley v Oldham (LC) (h) 1986-87 18y 155d

                                                     Brian Hill

Keith Ballantyne asked me how many appearances Spanish International Vicente Engonga made for the Sky Blues during his brief spell at the club in 2002-03. Engonga, a defensive midfield player who played over 350 La Liga appearances for Celta Vigo, Valencia & Mallorca & won 14 Spanish caps, joined City on a short-term contract in February 2003. City were struggling badly at the time (they went 21 league games with only one win during that spring) and in his eight appearances (including three as a substitute) he made little impact on the club's woeful form.

He played in the following games:

Rotherham (a) lost 0-1

Bradford City (h) lost 0-2

Grimsby (a) sub won 2-0

Preston (a) sub drew 2-2

Derby (a) sub lost 0-1

Stoke (h) lost 0-1

Gillingham (h) drew 0-0

Millwall (a) lost 0-2

Jim's column 22.3.14

Coventry City pulled off a rare feat on Sunday in the home game with Port Vale. 0-2 down going into the last ten minutes, goals from Jordan Clarke & Callum Wilson secured a valuable point. The rare feat was coming from two goals behind to draw & it was the second time that the team have done it since Steven Pressley arrived as manager just over a year ago. In March last year in Pressley's first home game in charge, the side were down 0-2 to Colchester but goals from Callum (his first senior goal) and Carl Baker won the point. That was first time  City had got a draw from 0-2 down since a 2-2 home draw with Middlesbrough in 2009.

Just over a year since Callum's first goal against Colchester and we are now marvelling at his stunning form which has harvested 19 goals this term. As I wrote last week his 18th league goal on Sunday brings him level with Dion Dublin (1997-98) as the most successful strikers in one season since Ian Wallace scored 21 in 1977-78. Who would bet against Wilson topping Wally's haul?

Callum's superb late strike against Port Vale was his fourth in consecutive league games a feat not achieved by a Coventry player since Marlon King in April 2011. The next target for Callum is the six in a row which Micky Quinn achieved in his first six games in a City shirt in 1992-93. The club record is nine held, of course, by the legendary Clarrie Bourton in 1932. In 1985 Terry Gibson scored in seven consecutive games but his run included two League cup games & a Full Members Cup game.

Sunday's starting line up was one of the youngest to appear for the club with an average age of 22 years & 329 days. That included two players (Murphy & Baker) who are over 30. Friend Geoff Moore who keeps tabs on this statistic pointed out that if either Billy Daniels or Lee Burge had started instead of Baker or Murphy it would have been the youngest starting line up in the club's history, with an average age of under 21, beating the record set in 1981 at Maine Road of 21.18 years.

Harry Hennessey asked me on Twitter this week if I could list the Bayern Munich side that played against Coventry City in 1970 in that famous European Fairs Cup second round tie. The Bayern side which included four of the West German national side that had reached the World Cup semi finals just four months previously was:

(1st leg in Munich) Maier: Hansen, Koppenhofer, Beckenbauer, Scwarzenbeck, Roth, Zobel, Mrosko, Schneider, Muller, Brenninger.

For the return game in Coventry Pumm replaced Roth and Uli Hoeness replaced Schneider. Hoeness, who was only 18 at the time and in his first season with Bayern, was recently jailed for tax evasion. I'm sure most City fans don't need reminding that Bayern triumphed 6-1 in the first leg before the Sky Blues regained a bit of pride by winning the second leg 2-1. The goals in the first game were scored by Schneider 2, Muller 2, Schwarzenbeck & Roth with Ernie Hunt replying. At Coventry Neil Martin & John O'Rourke scored with Hoeness replying. Bayern reached the quarter finals of the competition before going out to Liverpool who themselves lost to eventual winners Leeds United in the semi-final. In the final Leeds beat Juventus over two legs and on the away goals rule.