Jim's column 17.12.22

Coventry City’s excellent run of four victories came to an end at Reading last Saturday with the Royals grabbing a fortuitous 1-0 victory. The goal also ended Ben Wilson’s similar run of clean sheets. Amadou Mbengue’s 57th minute goal was the first goal conceded by Wilson for 427 minutes - since Blackpool’s Jerry Yates 80th minute winner at the CBS Arena.

Wilson bettered his run from earlier in the season when he kept a clean sheet for 384 minutes and his latest run is the fourth longest in league games in the club’s history. 1930s goalkeeper Horace Pearson holds the record (608 minutes) with Steve Ogrizovic (572) in second place for his run in the Don Howe era in 1992. Reice Charles-Cook (445) is third but if cup games are included his minutes without conceding increases to 580 minutes. That was seven years ago and Reice’s career has gone downhill since. After being a virtual ever present in 2015-16 he lost his place to Lee Burge in 2017 and sat on the bench at the EFL Trophy final. That summer the former Arsenal academy player left for Swindon and subsequently played for Shrewsbury and Macclesfield before dropping into non-league with Boreham Wood in 2020. He has bobbed around various south east clubs and is currently with Bromley in the National League. In 2021 he won his first cap for Grenada.

                             Horace Pearson, record-holder

Several readers asked me which Coventry City player was the last to play at the World Cup finals. The answer is Stern John for Trinidad & Tobago in 2006. John played in all three group games, including against England. He was the seventh Coventry player to appear in the finals, the others being Tommy Hutchison (1974), Phil Babb (1994), Roy Wegerle (1994), Viorel Moldovan (1998), Gary Bremen (2002) and Magnus Hedman (2002). Stern won 32 international caps whilst at Coventry between 2004-07.

Mark Smith asked if any former Coventry City players had played in a World Cup final. The answer is no, however a former City manager, George Raynor, managed Sweden to the 1958 final which they lost 5-2 to Brazil. Raynor, who had taken Sweden to the Olympic title in 1948 and third place at the 1950 World Cup, had been brought to Highfield Road as assistant to manager Jesse Carver in 1955. When Carver was lured back to Italy after just six months, Raynor took over. Sadly his progressive tactics weren't suited to Division Three South and after being demoted to coach a year later he left the club and within two years was a national hero in Sweden for his achievements.

                      George Raynor

Glenn Hancock contacted me regarding his father-in-law Joe Davis. Joe was captain of Bristol Rovers when, in December 1963, Rovers beat the Sky Blues 2-1 in a FA Cup second round tie at Highfield Road. Glenn understood that Tv cameras were present that day and wondered if I had access to the film of the game. Dean Nelson helped me out by telling me that the cameras were there to record some excerpts for an episode of the BBC police drama, Z Cars which was aired about a year later. The cup result was a shock as City were leaders of Division Three at the time whilst Rovers were in the bottom half of the same division and had lost the league game between the clubs 4-2 two weeks earlier. Geoff Bradford and Harold Jarman scored the visitor's goals and Ken Hale got a late consolation in front of over 26,000.

            Bob Wesson can't stop Geoff Bradford's goal for Bristol Rovers

Jim's column 25.10.14

Another disappointing away defeat at Oldham on Tuesday night saw the Sky Blues plunge to 20^th place in League One. It was the tenth away league game without a win, since Steven Pressley's men won 2-1 at Crewe at the end of March. Of the side who started at Oldham only two appeared at Crewe that day, Andy Webster & Jordan Willis. The fact there are so many new faces in the side might be one of the reasons behind City's form but having said that the side went seven games unbeaten earlier in the season.

The run has to get a lot worse to match the woeful away record under Andy Thorn when the team went 21 away league games without a win between April 2011 & April 2012, or the club's worst ever run of 28 in the 1920s.

The defeat at Boundary Park was the worst league defeat since the 1-5 thrashing by Tranmere at home last season & the worst on the road in the league since the 0-4 at Walsall in 2013.

City's away following on Tuesday night, 223, was the lowest of the season and you have to go back to March 2012 to find the previous lowest when 211 brave souls travelled to Cardiff for a midweek 2-2 draw. City's average away following is currently 1,190, one of the best in the division.

Last Saturday league leaders Bristol City had almost 3,800 fans at the Ricoh to see them win 3-1. That was the best away following at the Ricoh since Birmingham City brought 5,700 supporters in March 2012. In a crowd of over 22,000 City drew 1-1 – Marlon King replying for Blues two minutes after Gary McSheffrey had put City ahead.

Last week's review of the George Raynor book attracted a lot of interest from readers. Graham Smith tells me that there is a feature film coming out in the next couple of months about the legendary Brazilian Pele and George Raynor, played by Irish actor Colm Meaney. Raynor was the Swedish coach in the 1958 World Cup final when a 17-year old Pele introduced himself to the world, scoring twice & helping Brazil to beat the Swedes 5-2.

Kevin Ring reminded me that there is another, much older book, written by Raynor himself - 'Football Ambassador at Large'. There is a whole chapter on Coventry City and his year long battle with Erle Shanks and the Coventry board and he talks about the couldn't care less attitude of some City players. In the new book Ashley Hyne mentions Raynor's autobiography, which was ghost-written by famous BBC commentator Kenneth Wolstenholme. It's publication in 1960 by Stanley Paul was controversial in that Raynor strongly criticised the Football Association, who took legal action which had the book removed from book shops but not before several thousand copies had been sold. The book later had the offending passages removed & was re-printed by the Soccer Book Club. If Raynor had any chances of a job in the FA the less than subtle comments in the book scuppered them. Kevin also tells me that George lived on the Binley Road, on the corner of Uxbridge Avenue & the property is still standing.

Reader Tom Cope posed an interesting question- how many corners were there in the 1987 FA Cup final? The answer is that over the full 120 minutes including extra time there were 17 corners, 12 to Tottenham & five to the Sky Blues.

Another reader Keith Ballantyne asked me who the second Coventry City player to win a full international cap for England. He knows that Reg Matthews was the first in 1956 when the Cov kid won five caps in goal and was never on the losing side. The second came 27 years later when Danny Thomas won two caps on a summer tour of Australia. Both games, played in Sydney & Melbourne, ended in draws & Danny (pictured below) started in Sydney but was only a substitute in Melbourne. The only other Coventry City players to win full England caps are Cyrille Regis (one cap v Turkey in 1987) and Dion Dublin (three caps in 1998).

Jim's column 18.10.14

                                                        George Raynor

Sixty years ago next year Coventry City, then a struggling Third Division South outfit hit the back pages of the national newspapers by enticing top English coaches Jesse Carver and George Raynor from their well-paid positions as head coaches of AS Roma & Lazio respectively. It was seen as a massive coup by the City board & its chairman Erle Shanks & the highly respected men arrived in Coventry to a fanfare of publicity.

Carver, who had won Serie A with Juventus & built up a great reputation in Italy, would only stay at Highfield Road for six months, before being lured back to Italy with a massive salary but Raynor would stay for almost eighteen months. After Carver jumped ship George stepped into the manager's position but in the summer of 1956 he was demoted to coach again after the arrival of Harry Warren. Raynor was a football purist who had led Sweden to the Olympic gold medal in the 1948 London Olympics & third place in the 1950 World Cup. His ideas didn't sit well with Warren's out-dated & neanderthal tactics & when Sweden came again, seeking a man to lead them in their home World Cup in 1958, George was grateful to leave the primitive, up and under Third Division style of play.

Amazingly for a man who football has largely forgotten about, there have been two books published this year on George Raynor. Italian journalist Federico Farcomeni has written a short E-book of 64 pages entitled 'George Raynor- The Untold Story of English Football's Forgotten Giant' which makes for interesting reading and is available in Kindle form for only £1.53. Meanwhile Ashley Hyne has produced a far more meatier biography of Raynor entitled 'The Greatest Coach England Never Had'. Hyne's research is excellent, for instance he interviewed former City player Lol Harvey, one of the few ex-City men still alive who played under Raynor. Whilst the section about his time at Coventry are fairly brief the author weaves a story of a man misunderstood in his own country but revered in Sweden. Returning to Sweden in 1957 with just a year to prepare a team for the '58 World Cup he had the job of revitalising a team that had failed to qualify for the 1954 final stages & had regressed considerably since he had left them to go to Italy in 1953.

With the help of clever tactics & his own brand of motivation Raynor prepared his team with infinite detail & became the first Englishman to coach a team to the World Cup final. Unbeaten in the group stage, they went on to defeat USSR & holders West Germany to reach a final against the odds-on favourites Brazil. Sweden took an early lead but the silky skills of Garrincha, Didi & 17-year old Pele swept the hosts away in a 5-2 defeat. Raynor however was a Swedish national hero but when he returned to England a few months later the only job he could get was at Midland League Skegness.

One of the best stories in the book is about Sweden's meeting with the great Hungary side of the early 1950s. The Magyars were unbeaten in three years when Sweden arrived in Budapest just a week before Hungary were due to meet England at Wembley in what would turn out to be a watershed game for England. Raynor had done his homework & recognised the danger of Hidegkuti, the deep-lying centre-forward. He played a zonal marking system to counter Hidegkuti & instructed his forwards to close down their markers when they were not in possession (in modern parlance, a pressing game). The plan worked and Sweden got a creditable 2-2 draw. The arrogant English press saw the result & said England had little to fear from the Hungarians at Wembley. After the match Raynor met up with England manager Walter Winterbottom & gave him advice on how to play the Hungarians. Sadly Winterbottom ignored the advice, gave Hidegkuti the freedom of the pitch & England suffered their first home loss to continental opposition in an embarrassing 6-3 defeat.

George Raynor's death went unrecorded by the local & national press and he is still a largely forgotten man in football circles but Ashley Hyne's book does the man's fascinating life justice.

Today, the league leaders Bristol City are in town, rejuvenated by Steve Cotterill & boasting a couple of outstanding strikers in this division in Aaron Wilbraham & Kieran Agard. City did the double over them last season but it will take a massive effort to beat the Robins today. Cotterill's team have an amazing record at the Ricoh, winning four of the six meetings and drawing one. The only City victory was in the last meeting on Boxing Day 2011 when a Gary Deegan goal gave the Sky Blues their first win in 11 games.