Two victories at bogey grounds take City closer to promotion

Four successive victories have enabled the Sky Blues to not only regain the leadership of the EFL Championship but build a five point lead over second-placed Middlesbrough who although they beat Birmingham comprehensively on Monday night had suffered two home draws against relegation candidates Oxford and Leicester. It's interesting how quickly things can change in this division as we Sky Blues fans know only too well from the post-Christmas charges City have made in the last three seasons. I'm sure there will be twists and turns over the final two months of the campaign but right now Coventry City have their destiny in their own hands.

After the long run of away games without a win it was good to get back to their winning ways at West Brom. Since the win at Middlesbrough at the end of November they had gone seven away games without a win, with four defeats and three draws. Thankfully the home form, with the exception of the Ipswich game, has remained solid. The Hawthorns hasn't been a happy hunting ground for City in many years and the 2-0 win was the first there in six visits since 2007 when, under Iain Dowie, a 4-2 victory was achieved with two goals each from Leon Best and Michael Mifsud just three weeks after Tony Mowbray's Baggies had won 4-0 at the CBS. West Brom recovered to go on and win the title whilst two months later Dowie's time at Coventry was over.

Four days later Lampard's team came out on top in a thilling 2-1 game at Sheffield United with a tremendous comeback and goals from Haji Wright and Jack Rudoni. Like the Hawthorns, Bramall Lane has been a bit of a bogey ground for City and the win was the first in six visits since February 2013. That was one of the final games of the first Mark Robins spell as manager and Leon Clarke's two goals gave City a 2-1 win. In 33 visits to Bramall Lane this was only City's eighth win.

Last Saturday marked the return to the CBS Arena of Mark Robins and his Stoke City side. City, dominant for most of the game, failed to put the game to bed when they were on top and needed a 94^th minute goal from Jack Rudoni following a mistake from the Stoke goalkeeper Tommy Simkin to seal the victory. In the thirteen months since Robins took over at Stoke he has lost all three league games to the Sky Blues, all to a single goal and all in the last few minutes of games. Last season at the CBS Stoke thought they had grabbed a point when Sam Gallagher scored in the 86^th minute to make it 2-2 but Bobby Thomas popped up in the seventh minute of added time to score the winner. Then at the Bet365 stadium this season it was Ephron Mason-Clark's 86^th minute goal that clinched the points. Stoke's form has been abysmal since then with only five wins in 20 games and they have slipped from second place to fourteenth and with Stoke's record of changing managers Robins' position must be in jeopardy.

The Stoke game attracted 31,516, the biggest attendance of the season at the CBS and also a new ground record topping the previous record of 31,452 set in the final regular game of last season against Middlesbrough. That takes the home average to 30,140 and it looks virtually certain that Sky Blues will record a final average over 30,000 for the first time since 1969-70 when they averaged 32,043 in the old First Division. Seven years ago in the season the club were relegated to League Two the average was 9,203 – how times have changed.

Jim's Column 28.8.2021

As the stadium clock ticked towards 90 minutes at the Reading game on Saturday I noticed very few home fans leaving the ground. Perhaps early leavers had been frustrated having missed the late winner in the previous home game against Nottingham Forest and didn't want a repeat disappointment. Those fans who stayed were rewarded with a City winner in the eighth minute of added time courtesy of the left boot of Matty Godden. For the second successive home game the team had turned a 1-0 deficit into a win thanks to an injury time winning goal.

Only once last season did the Sky Blues come from behind to win, at home to QPR in September when Kyle McFadzean scored an 85th minute deciding goal. In the 2019-20 promotion season however the team came from behind to win on five occasions including three times at home with added time winners. Callum O'Hare scored a 91st minute winner to complete a 3-2 comeback from 0-2 against Blackpool at St Andrews and in the following home game Liam Walsh netted in the 93rd minute to beat AFC Wimbledon 2-1 after trailing to an early goal. Later Max Biamou scored an injury-time winner to complete a hat-trick in an EFL Trophy game v Southampton.

Until Saturday that was the last time City came from behind to win successive home games and they had never achieved that feat at the CBS/Ricoh Arena since the move there in 2005. You have to go back to 1989 to find the last time it happened. The 1988-89 season was an excellent campaign for the Sky Blues despite the FA Cup shock at Sutton. John Sillett's team were never out of the top eight and in February, with the team in third place, there was even talk of a title challenge. Sadly attendances were poor and on Easter Monday there were less than 12,000 for the home game with struggling Southampton. Danny Wallace gave the Saints an early lead but Brian Borrows equalised before half-time. The winner came from a superb David Speedie chip which sailed over Tim Flowers' head in the 71st minute.

                  David Speedie challenges Southampton's Tim Flowers

Less than two weeks later Norwich City, the surprise team of the season, arrived at Highfield Road. The Canaries were lying third in the table only four points behind leaders Arsenal and still in the title race. Robert Fleck put them ahead on 14 minutes but David Phillips equalised in the 28th minute. In a controversial second half Speedie scored the winner, his fifteenth goal of the season, from a narrow angle after Norwich goalkeeper Bryan Gunn saved from Phillips. In injury time Gunn was adjudged to have brought Speedie down and his protest to the referee earned him a red card. Mark Bowen donned the green jersey to face Brian Kilcline's penalty but Killer put his shot wide – his fourth penalty miss of the season.

Prior to 1989 you have to go back to November 1978 for the previous time City had won from being behind at home in successive games. Then they defeated Middlesbrough and Derby County.

On Saturday we saw two City substitutes scoring in a game. Jamie Allen and Matty Godden came off the bench just after the hour and Allen netted within two minutes with Godden scoring the late, late winner. This was the seventh time that two substitutes have scored for the Sky Blues. The previous ones are:

1999-2000 Norwich (away) FA Cup 3-1 (Cedric Roussel and John Eustace)

2010-11 Barnsley (home) 3-0 (Carl Baker and Jordan Clarke)

2016-17 Wycombe (away) FL Trophy 4-2 (Ryan Haynes and Gail Bigirimana)

2017-18 Luton (away) 3-0 (Jordan Shipley and Duclons Nazon)

2019-20 Southend (away) 2-0 (Callum O'Hare and Max Biamou)

2020-21 Stoke (away) 3-2 (Viktor Gyokeres and Max Biamou)

If you have a question about Coventry City's history please drop me an email at clarriebourton@gmail.com and follow me on Twitter @clarriebourton

Jim's column 17.10.2015

Another great result at Fleetwood last week cemented City's place in the top six of League One. With Steven Pressley's appointment as Fleetwood's manager ahead of the game I was fearing the 'new manager bounce' but City finished the stronger side and snatched a deserved winner in the final minute courtesy of ex-player Richard Wood. The last former City player to score for us was Jon Stead against Bristol City in 2011-12 in the defeat at Ashton Gate that virtually condemned us to relegation.

City left it late at Fleetwood and it was the second time this season that a goal at the death has won them the points, the other being in the 3-2 home win over Crewe. In contrast City haven't so far gone down to a late defeat this term, something that has been very familiar in the last few years.

Keith Rogers who sits behind me in the East Stand and has been a City fan for around 50 years, has asked me if we have ever scored a winner so late in the game. Wood's goal was timed as the 90^th minute and there are several examples of the team scoring in added time. At Crawley last season, James Maddison scored in the 91^st minute, and in 2011-12 both Leon Clarke and James Bailey netted winners in the 94^th minutes against Preston (JPT) and Oldham respectively.

Keith's question reminded me that it would be worthwhile updating my stats on late goals. The table below shows the number of goals scored and conceded after the 80^th minute in games.

Goals scored after 80 minutes (all games)

	By City	By Opponents
2009-10 (Coleman)	11	7
2010-11 (Bothroyd/Thorn)	6	8
2011-12 (Thorn)	6	17
2012-13 (Thorn/Robins/Pressley)	18	11
2013-14 (Pressley)	21	15
2014-15 (Pressley/Mowbray)	13	9
2015-16 (Mowbray)	3	0

The statistics disprove the theory that City concede more late goals than they score. It was certainly the case in the Championship and those goals hastened relegation, but since 2012 the Sky Blues have the upper hand, including this season where City have yet to concede a late goal. Another interesting fact is that of the 13 late goals scored last season eight of them were winning goals.

On the question of statistics, Craig Evans asked whether 22 points from the first 11 games of a season is a record. Craig, it is the best haul of points from 11 since a win was upgraded from two to three points in 1981. If three points had been awarded prior to 1981 then only two seasons better this term's figure. In 1963-64 the team would have won 23 points from 11 and in 1937-38 Harry Storer's team would also have reached 23 points. It's a good omen; in 1964 City won the Third Division title and in 1938 they finished fourth in the old Second Division. 

Two weeks ago I asked for help recognising former City player Horace Matthews from an old team picture of AWA Baginton taken in 1942-43. Regular reader Ron Dickinson contacted me to say that he was pretty certain that Horace is second from the left in the back row. Ron writes: 'The team captain was Bill Beaufoy, in the centre of the front row, behind the big trophy. Beaufoy was a leading player in junior soccer in the war and possibly played a few games for City's reserves.'

                                              AWA Baginton 1942-43

'Probably the best known member of the team was Bob Ward (front row, second from the right, behind the smaller trophy), who also went on to play for Coventry City and was later trainer at Bedworth Town and Lockheed Leamington. Bob was a jovial person yet regarded as a bit of a 'hardman'. I remember seeing him play at Villa Park in the mid week FA Cup game at Villa Park in 1946. It was an early afternoon kick off (no floodlights in those days) and the coach driver made a detour to pick up three of us from school at lunch time to take us to Villa. The City finished with ten men and the newspaper headline the next day referred to them as the "10 commandos". The player sent off was Bob'.

Ron is correct. The first FA Cup competition after the war was played before the Football League commenced and the FA decided to make all ties up to the semi-final, two legged. City were drawn against Villa and beat them 2-1 at Highfield Road on Saturday 5^th January. The second leg, four days later, is the game that Ron remembers and Villa won 2-0 to make it 3-2 on aggregate.

Still on the subject of Horace Matthews, Bobby Gould kindly sent me a picture of the full Coventry City staff from 1965 with Horace's son John, who later became such a success in Ireland, pictured third from left in the third row.

Jim's column 18.2.12

Andy Thorn’s Sky Blues came good on Tuesday night and deservedly won an entertaining encounter with Leeds United. For once the team lasted the distance and grabbed the winner from the penalty spot in added time. On four occasions this season (Palace (away), Burnley (home), Blackpool (away) and Ipswich (home)) City have lost the game in added time but on Tuesday the boot was firmly on the other foot. I had to look back a fair way to find the last time the Sky Blues managed this and it seems it was in November 2007 when Kevin Kyle needed a 92^nd winner in a 2-1 victory at Loftus Road. There have been a few instances of City scoring a late goal for a point, but only one this season, Richard Wood’s late goal at Elland Road earlier this season, and only one last season, Lukas Jutkiewicz’s injury-time penalty at Watford to make it 2-2. Prior to Kyle’s late winner in 2007 one has to go back to the Highfield Road days and a very late Johnnie Jackson winner against West Brom in 2003! So Gary’s winner on Tuesday night was the latest home winner for many years.

Lots of readers wanted to know when a City player last scored two penalties in a game. It wasn’t that long ago – last April to be precise when Marlon King scored two from the spot in the 3-0 win at Fratton Park, City’s last away win. Prior to that Elliott Ward, now playing in the Premier League with Norwich, scored two penalties in a 5-1 win at Colchester in 2008.

Sadly City’s away form continues to cause concern with the defeat at Reading the eighth consecutive defeat on the road. This run equals the worst run since the club were relegated from the Premier League in 2001. Between December 2007 and March 2008 City lost the first eight away games of the SISU era as follows:

Dec	22	2007	a	Blackpool	L	0-4
Dec	26	2007	h	Crystal P	L	0-2
Dec	29	2007	h	Ipswich T	W	2-1
Jan	1	2008	a	Bristol City	L	1-2
Jan	12	2008	a	Leicester C	L	0-2
Jan	19	2008	h	Burnley	L	1-2
Jan	29	2008	a	Hull C	L	0-1
Feb	2	2008	h	Barnsley	W	4-0
Feb	9	2008	a	Preston NE	L	0-1
Feb	12	2008	h	Cardiff C	D	0-0
Feb	23	2008	h	Leicester C	W	2-0
Feb	26	2008	a	Burnley	L	0-2
Mar	1	2008	a	Scunthorpe U	L	1-2
Mar	5	2008	h	QPR	D	0-0
Mar	8	2008	h	Norwich C	W	1-0
Mar	11	2008	a	Sheff. Utd.	L	1-2

With Chris Coleman having replaced Iain Dowie after a brief reign of Frankie Bunn and John Harbin, City were sliding towards relegation when the run came to an end with a 0-0 at Southampton.

Several readers have pointed out that City have not kept a clean sheet away from home this season, and wondered if this was a record. On four previous occasions City have gone a whole season without an away clean sheet. The last time was in the relegation season of 2000-01 when, despite winning four games on the road (Southampton, Manchester City, Everton and Leicester) they conceded in every away game and couldn’t even muster a 0-0 draw. The other three occasions are very strange as they coincide with high-scoring seasons.

In 1931-32 and 1932-33 City netted 108 and 106 goals respectively but their success was founded on virtually unbeatable home form (17 wins out of 21 in the former season and 16 in the latter). The away form was poor in both campaigns with one win and 69 goals conceded in the former and three wins and 53 goals conceded in the latter. The other instance was in 1977-78 – probably City’s best season of the 34 spent in the top flight. Like the early 1930s though, success was based on good home form with 13 wins out of 21 and 48 home goals but they still managed five away wins but couldn’t stop the opposition scoring. I haven’t researched the highest number of clean sheets away from home in a season but suspect it was probably 1969-70 when they did not concede in 10 away games on their way to a sixth place finish under Noel Cantwell.