Jim's column 18.2.23

Two home games in four days have given Coventry City fans plenty of talking points and the Sky Blues have gathered four points to push them three places up the table. The Luton game saw the visitors net a goal in 37 seconds with defender Tom Lockyer taking advantage of some sloppy defending to put the Hatters ahead. I was thinking it was the fastest goal by an away side at the CBS Arena but after checking I can cofirm that it is the second fastest after Gregor Rasiak's 27-second goal for Reading in October 2009. Rasiak's effort set up the Royals for a 3-1 win with the veteran Pole scoring a second after Jobi McAnuff had scored – Freddy Eastwood scored a consolation for City. 

Rasiak loved playing the Sky Blues – in six starts against them he scored seven goals, for Southampton, Derby, Watford and Reading, and was never on the losing side.

The four fastest goals by visiting players since the move to the Arena in 2005 are:

27 seconds Rasiak (Reading) 2009-10

37 seconds Tom Lockyer (Luton) 2022-23

53 seconds Matt Rhead (Lincoln) 2017-18

59 seconds Marc Richards (Northampton (FLT)) 2016-17

There were faster away scorers in the Highfield Road days with the quickest ever being Aston Villa's Dwight Yorke's 13-second effort in Villa's 3-0 win in 1995. The fastest City goal at the CBS Arena was Daniel Agyei's 20-second goal in a EFL Trophy game with Northampton in 2016. Agyei, who was on loan from Burnley, had scored on his debut for the club at Bradford and in total scored five goals in 19 appearances before returning to Burnley in January 2017. Agyei is currently playing for Crewe in League Two. The fastest City league scorer at the Arena is Clinton Morrison who netted in 37 seconds in a 2-2 draw with Ipswich in 2008-09.

Last week I wrote about Bob Dennison, City's caretaker manager in 1972 following the departure of Noel Cantwell. Since World War Two there have been 16 occasions when Coventry City were under 'caretaker' management. The first six instances were in the last century:

1947 Following the death of manager Dick Bayliss, the chairman Frank Stringer took over team matters for 15 games until the end of the season when Billy Frith was appointed.

1948 Frith was sacked in November 1948 and chairman George Jones took over for three games until Harry Storer arrived as manager.

1953 Storer's six-year reign ended in November 1953 and chairman Jones took over temporarily for ten games until new boss Jack Fairbrother took the reins.

1954 Fairbrother stood down in November 1954 after the death of his wife in a domestic accident (City were fourth in Division Three South at the time). Chief Scout and former player Charlie Elliott took over and managed the team for 33 games until the end of the season.

                                           Charlie Elliott as a player in the 1930s

1972 Bob Dennison took over after the sacking of Noel Cantwell (see last week's column).

1992 Terry Butcher was sacked in January 1992 and his assistant Don Howe was appointed caretaker. Don managed to keep the Sky Blues up despite a last day defeat at Villa Park. He was never officially given the manager's role and at the end of the season he turned down the offer of a co-manager role with Bobby Gould.

                                           Don Howe

Next week I will cover some of the caretaker managers from this century.

Jim's column 8.10.2016

Back-to-back wins in four days this week have lifted spirits amongst Sky Blues' fans. The league run of 10 without a win was finally ended at Port Vale and this was followed by a second victory in the Football League Trophy, Northampton becoming the latest victims.The victory in the Potteries was very welcome and ensures the club record of 19 without a win from the start of the season, set in 1919, stays intact.

Tuesday night's attendance was another pathetically low 2,085, six less than the West Ham game in the same competition, and therefore the lowest since that infamous game v Millwall in 1985. Since writing about that game a few weeks ago I have been doing some more research and discovered from the club's attendance books, that the crowd, reported as 1,086 at the time, was later revised slightly to 1,111. With the Sky Blues now through to round two, one can only hope that crowds will pick up.

It was an exciting start to the match on Tuesday with two goals in the first ninety seconds. Dan Agyei netted with a brilliant solo effort initially-timed at 24 seconds before Marc Richards equalised after 60 seconds. Several City fans have pointed out that Agyei's goal was scored after 20 seconds and having watched the clip on Sky Blue Player I have concluded that it hit the net 19.5 seconds after the kick-off. Many fans were wondering if Agyei's effort was the fastest goal by a City player but sadly this is not the case. It was however the fastest goal at the Ricoh since the move there in 2005 – beating the 27-second goal by Reading's Grzegorz Rasiak in the Royals 3-1 victory in 2009. The previous fastest by a City player at the ground was Clinton Morrison 37-second effort in a 2-2 draw with Ipswich in 2008. It was also the fastest by a Sky Blue man for fourteen years – since Gary McSheffrey netted after 12 seconds against Colchester United in a League Cup tie at Highfield Road.

Goal-times in pre-war games are notoriously dubious and the fastest City goals that I have recorded are:

1954/55	Eddie Brown	Reading	H	12 secs	2-1
2002/03	Gary McSheffrey	Colchester (LC)	H	12 secs	3-0
2001/02	Youssef Chippo	Barnsley	H	13 secs	4-0
1982/83	Mark Hateley	Southampton	A	14 secs	1-1
1962/63	Jimmy Whitehouse	Lincoln (FAC)	A	15 secs	5-1
1977/78	Mick Ferguson	Birmingham	H	25 secs	4-0
1981/82	Gerry Daly	Stoke	H	27 secs	3-0
1989/90	Steve Livingstone	Chelsea	H	28 secs	3-2
1948/49	Peter Murphy	Lincoln	H	30 secs	1-0
1953/54	Gordon Nutt	Walsall	H	30 secs	2-0

My recent piece about the 1967 game at Highfield Road against West Ham for the Winston Churchill Trophy generated a lot of interest and David Whitlock emailed to say he has the programme and was at the game as a 13-year old. Paul Richardson also emailed to point out that he and several of his school friends went to the Friday night game specifically to watch the three West Ham World Cup stars. In those days there were few opportunities to see the real stars of British football – BBC's Match of the Day only featured one game and ITV's Star Soccer focused on Midland clubs – and there was no wall to wall coverage of domestic football. For Coventrians this was one of the first chances to see Messrs Moore, Hurst and Peters (although Peters was ruled out of the game with injury) since the 1966 World Cup final. Paul became a City fan that night and remains one to this day. I've had no responses to my question: 'What happened to the trophy?' although West Ham contacts have confirmed that it isn't in their trophy cabinet. I have to conclude that Coventry City kept the trophy after the West Ham game and it was destroyed in the Main Stand fire twelve months later.