League Cup 3rd round for first time in 12 years

The Sky Blues progressed to the third round of the League Cup with a 1-0 victory over Oxford United at the CBS Arena on Tuesday evening – the first time they have reached this stage of the competition since 2012. The competition has been a disaster for City in those twelve years with some of the most embarrassing defeats in the club's history and it was hard to believe that the club were interested in the competition in the intervening years.

Back in 2012 City were newly relegated from the Championship and won their first round tie at Dagenham & Redbridge, 1-0, thanks to a Kevin Kilbane goal. Before the next round manager Andy Thorn had departed after a poor start to the league campaign and Richard Shaw and Lee Carsley were the caretaker managers. A thrilling 3-2 extra-time win over higher status Birmingham City earned a first trip to the Emirates Stadium to face the might of Arsenal. Days before the tie Mark Robins was appointed manager and his first game in charge had seen City lose their fifth successive league game and slide to 23^rd in League One.

Robins brought in two debutant loanees for their trip to Arsenal, Derby's James Bailey and Wolves' Jamie Reckord. The line up was: Joe Murphy: Jordan Clarke, Reckord, Carl Baker, Reece Brown, Richard Wood, Adam Barton, Franck Moussa, Callum Ball, Stephen Elliott, Gary McSheffrey, James Bailey. Arsenal fielded a reserve team which included current Aston Villa 'keeper Emi Martinez, Theo Walcott, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, French international Olivier Giroud and current Bayern Munich star Serge Gnabry. In a mismatched game the Sky Blues managed to keep it to 1-0 at the break and only trailed 3-0 with eighteen minutes remaining. City sub Callum Ball scored a stunning goal in front of the 8,000 Coventry fans but the home side rubbed home their superiority with three more goals to make the final score 6-1 and Joe Murphy saved a Giroud penalty.

Coventry now face their old foe from 1987, Tottenham Hotspur in round three with home advantage. A large crowd can be expected for this tasty-looking tie – Spurs' first trip to the CBS Arena. We may well see the return to Coventry of James Maddison and lets hope he gets a warm welcome from the Sky Blue faithful. There have been some epic games between the two clubs in the past including an epic League Cup tie in 1995 when City trailed 2-0 at half-time but roared back to win 3-2 with second half goals from Peter Ndlovu (penalty), Dave Busst and John Salako. Bussty managed the feat of scoring at both ends.

Someone pointed out this week that City had played Oxford United in all three major competitions in the last eight months and asked if that was a first. The only similar occurrence was in 2013-14 when the Sky Blues played Leyton Orient in the League Cup in August and the EFL Trophy and the league during October. Orient, managed by Russell Slade, won the League cup tie 3-2 and the EFL trophy game on penalties after a 0-0 draw but City turned the tables by beating the Londoners, who were the league leaders, 3-1 at Sixfields with goals from Baker, Moussa and Leon Clarke. I believe Moussa's goal won goal of the season.

In the early 1960s City fans got fed up with playing Portsmouth. Between January 1962 and March 1963 the clubs met six times, two Division Three games, a League Cup tie and an FA Cup tie that went to three games. Honours were even in the league, Pompey won the League Cup game 5-1 but City prevailed at the third attempt in the FA Cup, winning 2-1 at White Hart Lane in the second replay.

If you enjoy this column and would like to hear more about Coventry City's history you can listen to the Sky Blue History Podcast which is available on Spotify and YouTube. Claudio Cardellino and I talk about all things Sky Blue. Just search for 'Sky Blue History Podcast'

League Cup success at last

Coventry City bounced back from the disappointing defeat at Stoke on the opening day of the season by winning 1-0 at Bristol City in the League Cup First Round tie on Tuesday evening. It was the perfect riposte to the Stoke defeat with a much better defensive performance and an inspiring five-man substitution just after the hour mark. Within two minutes Ellis Simms, on for Haji Wright, slotted home from Kasey Palmer's clever pass. After that City looked the better side for the first time in the match and saw out the game with few tense moments.

The victory ended the dreadful run in the competition which has seen City fail to reach the second round in the past three seasons being knocked out by Northampton (2021), Bristol City (2022) and AFC Wimbledon (2023). The poor form in the competition goes a lot further back with only seven wins in 24 matches since the famous win at Old Trafford in 2007 and they have failed to clear the first hurdle in 11 of the last 15 seasons. Many City fans will have forgotten the embarrassing losses against Hartlepool (2009), Morecambe (2010), Bury (2011) and Rochdale (2015) not to mention Hereford (2006) and Tranmere, when the club were in the Premiership in 1999. In the 34 years since reaching the semi final (and losing to Nottingham Forest) in 1990 the Sky Blues have reached the last eight once (in 1991) and the last sixteen on just five occasions. The League Cup may not have the kudos it once had but it still has a Wembley final and if City were to have home ties in the last sixteen or beyond then a large attendance would be guaranteed. 

At Ashton Gate manager Mark Robins brought all five allowable subs on simultaneously – a first. The use of five subs was introduced in 2020-21 (the Covid season) but the following season it was back to three subs except for FA Cup ties which remained at five. Since 2020 City have used all five subs on 35 occasions and this was the first occasion that all five entered the field at the same time. The club record is four in a home defeat to Burnley in 2022-23 when messrs Doyle, McFadzean, Walker and Palmer were replaced by Eccles, Rose, Godden and Tavares. 

If you enjoy this column and would like to hear more about Coventry City's history you can listen to the Sky Blue History Podcast which is available on Spotify and YouTube. Claudio Cardellino and I talk about all things Sky Blue. The latest podcast features the history of Highfield Road and can be found here:

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6tQLAR8PJdHXVvgJncnHRh?si=CNLx_igCQuyctEC3D-C2ug

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoMVwjLuo4Q

Jim's column 13.8.22

Coventry City's start to the season has been thrown into chaos by the pitch debacle at the CBS Arena following the Commonwealth Games Rugby Sevens tournament. Last Sunday's opening home game against Rotherham was called off at short notice and ever since we have had a undignified and unhelpful war of words between the parties. Somehow the club managed to organise for the Carabao (League) Cup game with Bristol City to take place at Burton Albion's Pirelli Stadium on Wednesday evening.

This was only the second match ever called off at the Arena since it opened in 2005, and the first because of the state of the pitch. Bristol City became the first team to play away games against City at five different locations as they have previously played at both Sixfields and St Andrews.

Meanwhile Mark Robins's team will be playing catch up with the rest of the division until they can rearrange the Rotherham game and we have to hope that the next two home games can go ahead or that catch up will be increased. The situation is not dissimilar to the 1968-69 season when the club's new Main Stand wasn't ready for the start of the campaign and the club had to call off the first two home games and then start with two away games, both which were lost. So after every other club had played four games City had played just two and were bottom of the table. The club struggled to get out of the relegation zone all season and only avoided relegation because Leicester City had a massive fixture backlog as a result of weather and an FA Cup run. Let's hope that the Arena pitch is fit to play on soon and that the team can deal with what sounds like it will be an inferior playing surface.

The League Cup game went ahead in Burton but turned into a nightmare with a pumped up Bristol team thumping a City team, largely made up of fringe players, for an easy passage to the second round. The first half performance was abysmal and although things improved after half-time the final scoreline of 4-1 didn't flatter Bristol. It was the club's worst home defeat in the competition since 1964 when Leicester City thumped Jimmy Hill's side 8-1. There were some mitigating circumstances that night – captain George Curtis had to leave the field injured before half-time and there were no substitutes in those days plus the fact that Leicester were a top six First Division side and had their best team in their pre-2016 history.

The club's fans travelled in good numbers and good humour to Burton on a beautiful evening and the crowd, with just a few hundred away fans, was 2,680. The club have had lower home crowds in the competition at Sixfields and St Andrews but the receipts will probably be a quarter of what they could have expected at the CBS and the hire of Burton's facilities will make it a loss-making event. With valuable income lost with the Rotherham postponement one has to worry that one of the club's top players will have to be sold before the transfer window closes to fill the inevitable shortfall of cash.

The competition has been extremely unproductive for City in recent years – it was the seventh time in the last ten seasons that they have exited the competition. It is now 15 years since the club last progressed beyond the third round – the year they won at Old Trafford and only once since then have they reached the third round! The Sky Blues are not alone – 19 Championship clubs played in the competition this week and all but four were eliminated, the majority to clubs from the lower divisions. This suggests that Championship clubs are so focused on the league campaign and gaining promotion to the Premier League that they have little or no interest in the competition even though there is the lure of big pay days if they draw one of the big clubs later in the competition. Sadly it seems the League Cup is on its last legs and that will mean that smaller clubs will lose their opportunity of financial windfalls and exciting giant-killing exploits and all because of the greed of the bigger clubs.

Jim's column 16.8.14

What a Coventry City debut at Bradford for new captain Reda Johnson. The French-born son of an American Beninese father & an Algerian mother not only became the first Coventry City central defender to score on his debut but then added a second goal to become only the seventh City player to score more than one goal on his first Football League appearance.

Reda was the 89^th City player to score on his competitive debut since City joined the League in 1919, and follows the following to score more than one: 

 

1928 Tommy Bowen v Norwich (h) 2

1954. Jack Lee v Crystal Palace (h) 2

1963.  George Hudson v Halifax (h) 3

1992.  Mick Quinn v Man City. (h)  2

1999.  Robbie Keane v Derby County (h)  2

2013.  Chris Maguire v MK Dons (a) 2

Sadly his goals were unable to help City avoid defeat at Valley Parade & it is now 55 years & 13 visits without a win there. The Sky Blues equalled another record last Saturday by taking the field with seven debutants and then using Shaun Miller to make it eight new men in total. That equalled the club's post-war record set in 2003 when Gary McAllister used seven debutant starters plus one new sub in a League Cup tie against Peterborough at Highfield Road. For the record those debutants eleven years ago were: Scott Shearer, Stephen Warnock, Patrick Suffo, Michael Doyle, Dele Adebola, Graham Barrett, Claus Jorgensen with Andy Morrell a substitute. City won 2-0 with goals from Adebola & Barrett.

On Wednesday evening the Sky Blues were dumped out of the League Cup by Cardiff City to extend City's poor recent record in the competition. Only once in the last six seasons have they progressed past the First Round. Cardiff joined Hartlepool, Morecambe, Bury & Leyton Orient as first round victors over City. The one exceptional season in the last six was two seasons ago when Andy Thorn managed the side to a victory at Dagenham & Redbridge before handing over to caretaker Richard Shaw who inspired an exciting win over Birmingham City -one of only three League Cup victories at the Ricoh. By the time the third round tie at Arsenal was played, Mark Robins was in charge & he oversaw a brave but heavy defeat at the Emirates. City's record in the League Cup might seem poor but I read this week that Ipswich have lost to lower league opposition in nine of the last 12 seasons.

As expected the attendance for the Cardiff game was the smallest for a League Cup tie involving the Sky Blues since the competition was inaugurated in 1960. The previous low was 1,904 at Dagenham two years ago & the previous home low was 5,519 for a second round game in October 1985 when Chester were the visitors to Highfield Road & were comprehensively defeated with Cyrille Regis grabbing five goals in a 7-2 victory.

Steve Menary wanted to know about City's pre-season friendlies in 1992-93 season. Under new manager Bobby Gould, the team played the following games:

20 July 1992 Morton (a) 2-2 Scorers; Bowen & Ndlovu.

22 July 1992 Clydebank (a) 1-0 Flynn

25 July 1992 Airdrie (a) 1-1 Sansom

8 August 1992 Brescia (at St Andrews) 1-0 D Smith (International tournament)

9 August 1992 Birmingham (at St Andrews 0-1 (International tournament)