Coventry City gave their fans another exciting season culminating in another crack at the Championship play-offs, an outcome which looked highly unlikely at Christmas following an embarrassing capitulation at Portsmouth. Although the club had another mediocre start to the season (for the third campaign running) it was a surprise to many that Mark Robins was sacked in November. His replacement, Frank Lampard took a few weeks to improve matters but by January they were making their annual rise up the table. A club record nine league wins in 10 put them right in the play-off mix and although their was a dip in the away form in the last few weeks a fifth place finish was sealed on the final day.
After the frantic 2023 transfer summer 2024 was a little more sedate. Legends Liam Kelly and Matty Godden left the club along with Simon Moore and they were soon followed by Kasey Palmer who joined Hull City before the transfer deadline. In came Swedish goalkeeper Oliver Dovin from Hammarby, Jack Rudoni from Huddersfield, Brandon Thomas-Asante from West Brom and Raphael Rodrigues Borges from Australian A-league club Macarthur FC. Ephron Mason-Clarke finally arrived following his loan-back to Peterborough and with the transfer window closing raw Belgian striker Norman Bassette was signed from Caen. In summary an upgrade to the squad but perhaps a little less experience. The biggest news of the summer however was the sudden and unexpected departure of first team coach Adi Viveash. The lack of an explanation from the parties resulted in numerous conspiracy theories surrounding his leaving.
Early season form was poor with only two league wins in the first 11 games which saw three home losses. Matters seemed to have improved with the wins over Luton and Middlesbrough but then another home defeat, to Derby, caused Doug King to press the eject button on Mark Robins. After 7 ½ years of almost uninterrupted success the manager responsible for two promotions and four trips to Wembley was gone.
Rhys Carr and George Boateng were given the interim reins and managed creditable draws with Sunderland and Sheffield United before a defeat at Burnley ushered in the arrival of Frank Lampard.The former Chelsea and England star brought in Joe Edwards and Chris Jones with Boateng, coach Mark Delaney, and eventually Carr leaving the club. In a fan's forum King accused Robins of 'dismantling' the coaching set up with a fall-out with his assistant Viveash and failing to appoint a replacement first team coach choosing instead to surround himself with four coaches.
Early results under Frank were promising but a disastrous loss at Portsmouth exposed all the old frailties in defence and in goal but it was to prove a watershed in the season. Following an unlucky injury-time loss at Norwich the team roared up the table with several players showing vastly improved form under the new regime including Mason-Clark, Dovin, Kitching, Rudoni and Torp. Four away wins, including the ending of the Swansea hoodoo,, and a superb vein of home form, only spoilt by an outstanding Leeds team, elevated the team into the top six. The arrival of Matt Grimes from Swansea in January gave a stability to midfield and Rudoni's goals and assists went off the charts. Although it was too late for a top two finish the final two play-off places were up for grabs. An injury to Dovin at Bramall Lane was a big blow and threatened to derail the momentum especially with the inconsistent form of Brad Collins. However the home form continued until the end of the season – 11 wins in 15 following the arrival of Lampard – and although there was only one point from the final five away games, fifth place was sealed on the final day against Middlesbrough in front of a febrile atmosphere generated by a ground record crowd of over 31,000.
A fifth trip to Wembley was denied them by a well-drilled Sunderland side who capitalised on two defensive errors in the first leg of the play-off semi final and then snatched a late equaliser at the Stadium of Light after being outplayed for 120 minutes. It was a night of heartbreak for City fans whose fanatical and loud support had not only impressed opposition fans during the season but who had created an amazing atmosphere that had been an important factor in the outstanding form at the CBS.
Games: Coventry City played 53 competitive games, 46 league, 2 play-offs, 2 FA Cup and 3 League Cup. This is exactly the same number as 2023-24.
Points: From 46 league games the Sky Blues gathered 69 points, five more than the previous season and one less than the 2022-23 campaign.
Home Form: 14 wins, 3 draws, 6 defeats. Only Leeds and Sheffield United won more at home. The three draws was the lowest in the division. The team gathered 45 home points, ten more than 2023-24 and the fifth best in the division. It is also the second highest total since the club joined the Football League in 1919, bettered only by 46 in 1986-87.
Away Form: 6 wins, 6 draws, 11 losses. 24 away points, the twelfth best in the division. Disappointingly they beat only one team from the bottom half of the table.
Biggest win: The biggest league win of the season was the 4-0 home win over Plymouth on Boxing Day.
Biggest defeat: The biggest defeat was 1-4, at Portsmouth. Ipswich won by the same scoreline at the CBS in the FA Cup.
Goals for: The total of 64 league goals six less than 2023-24 and the fourth best in the division, bettered only by Leeds, Burnley and Norwich. In total they failed to score ten times in 46 games.The team scored 40 home goals, the third highest since we left the Premiership in 2001.
Goals against: City conceded 58 goals, one less than 2023-24 and the twelfth best in the division.
Clean sheets: The team kept 13 league clean sheets, one more than 2023-24. Oliver Dovin kept eight (in 28 games), Brad Collins three (in 14) and Ben Wilson two (in 4).
Final position: The final position of 5th was remarkable considering they were 22nd after 11 games and 17th at Christmas. Then, a run of 14 games with only two defeats took them to fifth place in March. The team never got higher than fifth place.
Leading scorers: For the second season running Haji Wright topped the league scorers list with 12 goals. Runner up was Jack Rudoni who scored nine from midfield. Fifteen different City players were on the score-sheet in league games and additionally Liam Kitching and Joel Latibeaudiere scored in the FA Cup.
Doubles: City achieved three doubles - over Middlesbrough, Blackburn and Oxford United. It was the second successive double over Middlesbrough. It was the first over Blackburn since 1966-67 and the first over Oxford since 1985-86.. Four teams did the double over City – Leeds, Burnley, Norwich and Derby.
Appearances: No player started all 46 league games but Milan van Ewijk started all but one – missing Luton away. Rudoni started 40 and was a used sub three times. Two players, Joel Latibeaudiere and Luis Binks, were in every league squad.
Players used: 26 players were used in league games (the same as 2022-23) - and one, Jack Burroughs, appeared as a sub in one FA Cup game. Of the 27 players, eight made their debuts during the season. In addition to the 27 players used, nine more: Luke Bell, Harvey Broad, Dan Rachel, Greg Sandiford, Aidan Dausch, Ryan Howley, Isaac Moore, Kai Andrews and Callum Perry sat on the bench as substitutes but were not used. For the first time since 1997-98 the club did not have any loan players.
Substitutes: Brandon Thomas-Asante made the most sub appearances (22 league, 1 playoff). Ellis Simms made the second most substitute appearances (17 league, 2 Cup). Victor Torp was the most substituted player (20 times in league, 1 Cup). Four goals were scored by substitutes: Palmer (Bristol C a), Torp (Luton h and Cardiff h) and Paterson (Portsmouth h). Torp became only the eighth substitute to score a penalty for the club. Brad Collins was the most unused substitute, staying on the bench 29 times and Luis Binks was unused in 26 games. In the playoff second leg Josh Eccles was a rare incidence of a substitute being subbed.
Won from behind: (2) City won from a losing position twice (Luton and Hull at home) compared to five the previous season. They did achieve draws after falling behind five times, at home to Sheffield United and Cardiff and in away games at Bristol City, Sunderland and Cardiff. Against Sunderland they came from two down to share the points. One surprising stat is that eighteen points were won from losing positions compared to seven points in 2022-23. The Sky Blues scored first in 25 league games.
Lost from in front: (4) City lost four league games from a winning position (at Portsmouth and Norwich (for second season running) and at home to Sheffield Wednesday and Burnley). They also lost from in front against Tottenham in the League Cup. On four occasions City took the lead only to be pegged back for draws – Sheffield Wednesday (FAC) at home, Watford, QPR and Sunderland (Playoff). 18 points were lost from leading positions.
Best run: The Sky Blues best unbeaten run was five, all wins, in February-March. After the home loss to Leeds they won the next five games before defeat at Derby. The four games prior to Leeds were also won and the nine wins in 10 was the best ten-game run in the club's league history.
Worst run: There were two runs of five league games without a win, the first in August-September and the second in November covering Mark Robins' final game, two games under Rhys Carr's brief interim managership and Frank Lampard's first two games.
Hat-tricks: (1) Haji Wright netted a hat-trick in the home win over Sunderland. Wright is the first Coventry player to score a league hat-trick against the Black Cats although Steve Livingstone scored four in the 5-0 League Cup victory in 1990. Six players scored braces: Wright, Eccles, Rudoni, Simms and Torp, twice.
Opposing hat-tricks: (1) Portsmouth's Callum Lang scored all four goals in City's 4-1 loss at Fratton Park. He is the first opposition player to net four since Cambridge's Luke Berry in an FA Cup game in 2016-17 and the first to do it in a league game since Chelsea's Jimmy Floyd Hasselbainkin 2000. Lang only scored one more goal in 16 games for Portsmouth.
Former Players: Sheffield United's Gus Hamer was the first former City player to scored against the Sky Blues since Gary Madine for Blackpool in 2022.
Own goals: For City: (1) Swansea's Brazilian Ronald was the only opponent to score in his own net for City.
Own goals: By City: (3) Three City players scored in their own net. Bobby Thomas (Derby h), Liam Kitching (Watford h) and Joel Latibeaudiere (Sheff Wed a)
Penalties: For City: (4) Four awarded, two scored. Torp scored v Cardiff (h). Wright scored v Sunderland (h). Torp's v Hull (h) saved. Simms' penalty at Oxford saved.
Penalties: Against City: (2) Luton's Carlton Morris and Ipswich Town's George Hirst scored penalties against the Sky Blues. No penalties were missed.
Penalty Shoot-outs: The Sky Blues ended their run of five shoot-out defeats in all competitions by beating Sheffield Wednesday 4-3 in the FA Cup after a 1-1 draw at 90 minutes. Since 1988 when they lost their first at Reading in the FMC (Simod) Cup the Sky Blues have won eight and lost 10.
Fastest Goal scored: Norman Bassette scored in the third minute in the away game at Portsmouth.
Fastest Goal conceded: Ipswich Town's George Hirst scored his penalty in the FA Cup game in the second minute.
Late goals: Once again the team excelled in late goalscoring with 13 goals after the 80th minute and seven after 90 minutes, six of them winning goals. The super six were: Oxford (h), Luton (h), Sheffield Wed (a), QPR (h), Stoke (h) and Portsmouth (h). The Sky Blues conceded 14 after the 80th minute with six in added-time, three of which were winners: Tottenham (h), Sheffield Wed (h) and Norwich (a).
Red cards: Coventry: (1): The Sky Blues almost went the whole season without a player receiving a red card for the first time since 1986-87 until Jay Dasilva got his marching orders at Luton in the penultimate league game. Unfortunately manager Frank Lampard was shown a red card at the end of the Burnley home game and served a one-match suspension. To my knowledge he is the first City manager to receive a red card in a senior game although Terry Butcher was sent off when he was player-manager and when he was assistant manager Gordon Strachan was sent off in a reserve game.
Red cards: Opponents: (7) Seven opponents were sent off against the Sky Blues. One of largest number ever but well short of the record of 13 set in 2003-04. This season's culprits were: Holmes (Luton), Hackney (Middlesbrough), Ahmedhodzic (Sheffield U), Wright (Plymouth), Robinson (Cardiff), Styles (WBA), Walsh (Luton). Liam Walsh is only the third former City player to receive a red card against the Sky Blues, Gary Deegan and Steve Hunt are the others. Walsh's red card was later rescinded.
FA Cup: After the momentous efforts in the 2023-24 competition the Sky Blues went out in the fourth round to Premiership Ipswich Town after a penalty shoot-out victory over Sheffield Wednesday. The 4-1 defeat to the Tractor Boys was the biggest home defeat in the competition since West Brom won 5-0 at the CBS in 2008.
League Cup: The Sky Blues ended a poor run in the competition by advancing to the third round by virtue of wins at Bristol City and at home to Oxford United before losing unluckily to Tottenham at home.It was the first time they had not lost in the First round since 2020.
Bookings: Three players shared the dubious honour of most yellow cards. Liam Kitching, Josh Eccles and Ben Sheaf all picked up eight cards. Eccles was the only one of the three suspended, having picked up five bookings in the first 14 games.
Home Attendances: The average home attendance increased again. Boosted by a record 21,000 season tickets the average was 27,817, up 9% from 2023-24. That is the highest since 1969-70 when the Sky Blues finished sixth in the old First Division and qualified for Europe and averaged 32,043. It was the fifth highest in the Championship and the fifth highest in the club's history, only bettered by the four seasons between 1966-70. An average of 2,027 away fans attended City's games at the CBS.
Away Attendances: An average of 21,935 watched City's away games, a dcrease of 7% – the third highest in the Championship.
Highest home attendance: The Middlesbrough game broke the CBS attendance record for a City game with 31,452 topping the Chelsea FA Cup game crowd in 2009 by 47. You have to go back to January 1980 for the club's previous highest when 31,644 watched a 1-0 win over Liverpool. The Ipswich FA Cup tie attracted 30,055, the second highest FA Cup attendance at the Arena.In total there were six crowds over 30,000, something unthinkable even three years ago.
Lowest home attendance: 24,583 v Blackburn on a Tuesday night in October.
Highest away attendance: The biggest league crowd was 43,374 v Sunderland which was the highest regular season league crowd to watch a City game since they left the Premiership in 2001. It was also the second highest crowd in the Championship. For the play-off semi final at the Stadium of Light there was an even bigger crowd – 46,530.
Lowest away attendance: The smallest league attendance was 11,405 at Oxford. There were 10,940 at Bristol City for the League Cup tie.
Away followings: An average of 2,168 City fans followed the team away down 8% from 2,375. The drop was mainly down to reduced away allocations, and but for many restricted capacities would have been considerably higher. The largest away following was at Sheffield Wednesday where 3,345 City fans attended. There were also over 3,000 at Derby and Millwall, with the smallest 981 for the midweek game at Blackburn in January. The away allocation at the CBS was reduced to 3,000 for league games and several clubs sold their full allocation. There were over 4,800 away fans for the two FA Cup games with Sheffield Wednesday and Ipswich. The smallest following at the CBS was 714 for Hull City's visit.
Television: By my reckoning there were thirteen live televised league games for the club, all on Sky plus the two play-off games and the Tottenham League Cup tie.
Captains: City had six different starting captains during the season, probably a record. Ben Sheaf, who was club captain, Jake Bidwell, Josh Eccles, Liam Kitching, Joel Latibeaudiere and Jamie Allen all wore the armband during the season.
Kits: City wore three different kits during the season. The Sky Blue kit was worn in 28 home games and 10 away games (3 wins, 2 draws, 5 defeats) . The white kit was used in six away games (0 wins, 3 draws, 3 defeats). The black kit was worn in nine away games (4 wins, 1 draw, 4 defeats).
Bogeys: City failed to end their dreadful record at Preston's Deepdale but did end a dreadful home run against the Lancashire club – they hadn't beaten them in 10 home games since 2007. They have never won a league game at Deepdale in 23 visits to the ground. The Swansea away bogey was ended with City winning there for the first time since 1949. Norwich are now a bogey side for City – in thirteen meetings since 2009 City have failed to beat the Canaries. In the play-off semi final Sunderland won in Coventry for the first time in 14 visits since 1985 but City's excellent run at the Stadium of Light continued – they have not lost in six visits since their last defeat in 2007.
Player of the Season: Jack Rudoni picked up most of the Player of the Season awards. I record my personal 1-2-3 man of the match for every game and although it is very subjective my overall 1-2-3 were: 1 Rudoni 2 Van Ewijk 3 Sakamoto
Game of the season: There were some outstanding performances, especially at home but for me the best game was the comeback 3-2 win against Luton. Undeservedly two down at half-time the Sky Blues roared back to take the pointswith excellent goals by Simms, Torp and a 92nd scrambled winner by Wright.
Goal of the season: So many great goals from the Sky Blues. Brandon Thomas-Asante's 30-yard effort at Swansea was superb and Coventry-born Jamie Paterson's late winner against Portsmouth was technically brilliant and perfectly timed. My favourite however was Victor Torp's in the home win against Luton.
With many thanks to Paul O'Connor.
| PLAYER | LEAGUE | PLAY-OFFS | FA CUP | LEAGUE CUP | SEASONS TOTAL | ||||||||||
| VAN EWIJK, Milan | 45 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 49 | 2 | 2 | ||||||
| RUDONI, Jack | 40 | 3 | 9 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 45 | 5 | 10 | ||||
| THOMAS, Bobby | 37 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 44 | 1 | 5 | ||||||
| SAKAMOTO, Takashiro | 30 | 12 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 33 | 15 | 4 | |||||
| LATIBEAUDIERE, Joel | 29 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 32 | 4 | 1 | |||||||
| DOVIN, Oliver | 28 | 2 | 30 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||
| SIMMS, Ellis | 26 | 17 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 27 | 19 | 7 | ||||||
| KITCHING, Liam | 26 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 32 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| ECCLES, Josh | 25 | 14 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 29 | 16 | 3 | |||||
| TORP, Victor | 25 | 11 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 27 | 14 | 6 | |||||
| BIDWELL, Jake | 23 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 24 | 7 | 1 | |||||||
| SHEAF, Ben | 23 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 25 | 8 | 0 | ||||||||
| WRIGHT, Haji | 21 | 6 | 12 | 2 | 2 | 25 | 6 | 12 | |||||||
| BINKS, Luis | 21 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 24 | 1 | 0 | ||||||||
| DASILVA, Jay | 20 | 11 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 26 | 11 | 0 | |||||||
| MASON-CLARK, Ephron | 17 | 13 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 19 | 15 | 6 | ||||
| GRIMES, Matt | 15 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 17 | 1 | 2 | ||||||||
| THOMAS-ASANTE, Brandon | 14 | 22 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 20 | 23 | 6 | ||||
| COLLINS, Brad | 14 | 1 | 14 | 1 | 0 | ||||||||||
| ALLEN, Jamie | 12 | 9 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 16 | 12 | 0 | ||||||
| BASSETTE, Norman | 11 | 14 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 13 | 16 | 2 | |||||||
| WILSON, Ben | 4 | 2 | 3 | 9 | 0 | 0 | |||||||||
| PATERSON, Jamie | 8 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 1 | ||||||||||
| PALMER, Kasey | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 1 | |||||||||
| RODRIGUES, Raphael Borges | 3 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 0 | ||||||||||
| TAVARES, Fabio | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | ||||||||||
| BURROUGHS, Jack | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |||||||||||
| og | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |||||||||||
| 506 | 168 | 64 | 22 | 5 | 2 | 22 | 9 | 2 | 33 | 14 | 3 | 583 | 196 | 71 |
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