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 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.