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.

Jim's column 3.9.2016

The re-named, re-launched Football League Trophy (for the time-being called the Checkatrade Trophy) kicked off this week with the Sky Blues entertaining West Ham's Under 23 team and emerging with a 4-2 victory. I am not in favour of the 'pilot' re-structuring which sees a number of Premiership & Championship club's Under 23 teams participating in the new group stages. Fans around the country turned their backs on the competition this week with the vast majority of attendances for the first round of matches under 1,000 and some as low as 400. There were 2,091 at the Ricoh – an attendance only topped at Bramall Lane – and the pitiful crowds may convince the Football League that they have made a mistake. Billed as ‘innovation’, a phrase that is not always a good thing, first impressions are that this is a half baked solution to a problem that never existed in the first place and one that pleases no one, especially the fans.

It's still not clear to fans why the FL made these radical changes and it does not bode well for next summer when the 72 League clubs vote on a major restructuring of the League to expand the current three divisions of 24 clubs to four divisions of 20. Coventry City have always been known as innovators, especially under Jimmy Hill and Derrick Robins, but the latest changes and the proposals on the table next summer would surely have those two giants from the club's history turning in their graves.

There are still however some benefits of the re-jigged competition, primarily a Wembley final. Try telling the 40,000 Oxford United fans who followed their team to Wembley for last year's final that the competition is a waste of time. And, if the Sky Blues happen to get a whiff of Wembley in their nostrils, the fans will turn out in hordes, as they did in 2013 when over 31,000 watched the Crewe game.

Many people have asked me this week how Tuesday night's crowd ranks in the club's all-time low crowds. Putting aside the attendances at Sixfields (there were 12 crowds below 2,000 there with the lowest 1,214 v Hartlepool in the FA Cup) the lowest in the club's time in the Football League (post-1919) for senior games are as follows:

1,086 v Millwall (Full Members Cup) 1985-86

2,059 v Crystal Palace (Division Three South) 1927-28

2,091 v West Ham Under 23s (Football League Trophy) 2016-17

3,781 v Wimbledon (Full Members Cup) 1989-90

3,974 v Newport County (Division Three South) 1954-55

4,744 v Hartlepools (Division Three North) 1925-26

4,785 v QPR (Division Three South) 1953-54

4,976 v Portsmouth (League Cup) 2016-17

I'm pretty sure the next game in the competition (at home to Northampton on 4^th October) will generate a larger crowd than Tuesday's, and with one win under their belts there is a good opportunity to progress in the trophy.

Jim's column 11.10.2014

The big story of the week was Coventry Council's sale of their shares in ACL to Wasps RFC & the possible ramifications. The story obviouslyovershadowed events on the pitch – a welcome point against Crawley after three successive defeats & progress in the Football League Trophy (aka Johnstone's Paint Trophy) with a very young side.

The Crawley game was watched by a pitifully low crowd of 7,708 – the lowest home league crowd in the city since January 1986. Then City, struggling in the relegation zone, lost 0-2 to Graham Taylor's Watford for whom John Barnes scored both goals in front of 7,478. That was the lowest league crowd since April 1962 when the club had two end of season crowds under 6,000. Watford were making their second visit to Highfield Road in fourteen days having won 3-1 in an FA Cup Third round tie two Saturday's previously when the attendance was 10,500. Fourteen months after that miserably poor crowd the Sky Blues were at Wembley in the FA Cup final in front of 98,000! It shows how a club's fortunes can change in a short space of time.

On Tuesday night a crowd of 7,273, far more than many were expecting, attended the Exeter tie in the Football League Trophy. They witnessed a solid 3-1 victory from Steven Pressley's side who worked hard to break down a packed Exeter defence. With a 2-0 half-time lead Pressley was able to introduce two more of the promising under 18 side, George Thomas & James Maddison. The former made one appearance last term & Maddison was making his third appearance from the bench this campaign & both gave mature & exciting performances. With the Sky Blues also fielding youngsters Lee Burge, Aaron Phillips, Ryan Haynes, Jordan Willis & Conor Thomas I had a feeling that the side that finished the game was one of the youngest City X1s of all time.

The record youngest City X1 is the team that started versus Manchester City away on 22 November 1980 which had an average age of 21 years and 58 days. Geoff Moore who tracks this interesting statistic tells me that Tuesday's final X1 averaged just 21 days more, so it was probably the second youngest of all time and the youngest ever for a home game. For the second time this season the finishing line-up was comprised of nine home-grown players – a fantastic achievement by the club & the Academy set-up ably led until last season by Gregor Rioch.

Talking of Aaron Phillips, the youngest scored a superb brace of goals & supporters were asking if a full-back has ever scored a hat-trick for the club. I can find no record of a defender ever scoring three in a game. The last full-back to score two in a game was Steve Morgan in a 3-0 League Cup victory over Wycombe Wanderers in 1993-94 season and Steve Phelps reminded me that Brain Borrows got two in a 5-1 victory over Liverpool in December 1992. Over the years City have had very few prolific full-back goalscorers. Bobby McDonald scored a few goals as did Danny Thomas and of course Aaron's father David was playing at full-back when he scored at Sutton in 1989.

                                                                Steve Morgan              

Exeter, making their first trip to the city since 1958-59 season, had a vociferous band of almost 500 supporters who never gave up their chanting & were rewarded with a late consolation goal. Coventry is not a happy hunting ground for the Grecians; they have won only twice in 19 visits & the last time was back in 1934 in a Division Thee South Cup tie.

Kevin Ring found last week's piece about the 1964 friendly with Brazilian America FC interesting & remembers attending the game. He recalls that the old Atkinson's Stand had been demolished in the few days since the final league game with Colchester, leaving the two wing stands (that had been erected during the 1963-64 season) either side of a big gap of rubble. In the subsequent weeks the centre blocks of the new Sky Blue Stand were erected in time for the start of the new season. He pointed out that in the Jimmy Hill era the club played many foreign sides in friendly games at the old stadium including Slovan Bratislava, TSV Aachen, Ferenvaros of Hungary & Stade Francais, several of whom were 'big' clubs in Europe at the time.

Jim's column 6.9.14

I am writing this before the Ricoh homecoming on Friday night when the Sky Blues will run out at their home ground for the first time in nineteen months to a large excited crowd. With tickets being released in dribs & drabs and no certainty about how much of the stadium will be open, the attendance is difficult to predict but people in the know are expecting around 25,000. Numerous people have asked me how that will match up against other City attendances at the stadium & here are the top crowds before last night.

31,407 v Chelsea (FA Cup) 2008-09. Lost 0-2

30,154 v Crewe (JPT) 2012-13.  Lost 0-3

28,184 v Leeds United  2010-11.  Lost 2-3

28,163 v West Brom (FA Cup) 2007-08. Lost 0-5

28,120 v Middlesbrough (FA Cup) 2005-06.  Drew 1-1

27,992 v Wolves 2007-08. Drew 1-1

27,212 v Birmingham 2006-07. Lost 0-1

26,856 v Wolves 2005-06. Won 2-0

26,723 v Leicester 2005-06. Drew 1-1

Let's hope the result against Gillingham was better than the majority of packed crowds there have been at the stadium since it opened in 2005. Only one of the nine games above were won!

With two good away draws at MK Dons & Swindon & an away win at Wycombe in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy, the Sky Blues have now gone five league & cup games without defeat since the League Cup exit to Cardiff. This is the best run by Steven Pressley's team since the start of this year when the Boxing Day victory over Peterborough sparked a six game unbeaten run which was ended on 24 January at the Emirates Stadium. For a time on Saturday it looked like the Swindon hoodoo might be broken but in the end City had to be content with one point. It is now fifty four years and seven league visits since the Sky Blues won at the County Ground in a league game.

Dan Donovan wanted to know if he was correct in thinking that the five smallest crowds at Sixfields last season were the lowest in the club's history. It was worse than that Dan – prior to last season the smallest League home crowd for the club was 2,059 against Crystal Palace in 1927-28 but last season City had TEN league crowds lower than that, six of them under 1700.

The ten smallest crowds were:

1,603 v Carlisle

1,618 v Crewe

1,627 v Port Vale

1,637 v Walsall

1,673 v Bradford C

1,697 v Stevenage

1,789 v Colchester

1,816 v Tranmere

1,961 v Rotherham

1,966 v Shrewsbury

There was also an even smaller crowd for the Hartlepool FA Cup replay in December with 1,214 watching City progress to the Third round.

I saw some great statistics on City's history at the Ricoh Arena (2005-13) produced by Rich Tomlinson for his excellent CCFCTV blog. One of the most interesting highlighted City's W-D-L record at the stadium which is, won 81, drawn 58, lost 67 producing a pitiful win percentage of 40%. This is pretty shocking when you consider that the average between 1919 and 1967 was 57% and the win ratio regularly topped 65% in the 1930s & 1950s with 90% in 1935-36 & 80% in 1966-67. The stats support the view that there might be a curse on the new stadium, perhaps from that Leicester City shirt allegedly buried by one of the contractors. Interestingly the win ratio at Sixfields last season was better than all of the last six seasons at the Ricoh which failed to produce a win ratio over 40%. My conclusion is that the club's home form is going to have to improve dramatically for City to have any chance of featuring in the promotion race.

Jim's column 14.9.13

 Coventry City's attendances hit a new low last Sunday for the visit of Colchester United to the Sixfields Stadium. The attendance of 1,789 was the lowest crowd for a home league game since the club joined the Football League in 1919, beating a record set in 1928 when 2,059 watched a Monday afternoon game against Crystal Palace.

Several readers have pointed out that according to the Breedon Complete Record book published in 1991 there was a crowd of 1,660 for a home game with Hartlepools United in 1926. The attendances in the book were the gates reported in local newspapers & could often be incorrect. However since the book was published I have carried out research on the official Football League records and confirmed that attendance to be incorrect. There was in fact a crowd of 4,744 at that game. The Football League records only go back to 1925 so there may be other attendance inaccuracies in the Breedon book before that date.

Although the Colchester attendance was the lowest of the three gates at the Sixfields the home contingent was the highest. For the Bristol game there were only 1088 home supporters, 1506 for the Preston game & 1517 for Colchester. Colchester traditionally have one of the smallest away followings (only 173 of them turned up at the Ricoh last season) so City's gates at their temporary home may now have bottomed out.

Several readers have asked me to list other smaller crowds for home games. Here are the ten lowest crowds in league games since official records began in 1925:

1,789 v Colchester  2013-14

2,059 v Crystal Palace 1927-28

2,068 v Preston 2013-14

2,204 v Bristol City 2013-14

3,974 v Newport County 1954-55

4,744 v Hartlepools 1925-26

4,785 v QPR 1953-54

5,073 v Ashington 1925-26

5,329 v Brighton 1930-31

5,479 v New Brighton 1925-26

To find a Coventry City league crowd lower than Sunday's gate you have to go back to the Southern League season of 1909-10 when an estimated 1,500 watched the home game against Portsmouth.

Last week whilst writing about Callum Wilson's goalscoring feats, I mentioned the efforts of George Lowrie who scored seven goals in the first three games of 1947-48. By coincidence I received an interesting email from Colin Turner. He tells me that his daughter is an optometrist working in care homes in South Wales & recently tested the eyes of a 90 year old lady who is the widow of George Lowrie. He wanted me to write something about Lowrie's career that his daughter could show Mrs Lowrie.

George Lowrie was born in December 1919 in Tonypandy, South Wales. His football career started with Swansea in 1935 but he was unable to break into the first team and moved to First Division Preston. Having no luck at Deepdale either he signed for Coventry in June 1939 for £1,750 -  big fee for Coventry then. Manager Harry Storer saw George as the ideal replacement for the legendary Clarrie Bourton who had left eighteen months before but never really replaced. Storer guaranteed him first team football but couldn't have foreseen that World War 2 would take seven years out of George's playing career.

George scored on his debut against Barnsley on the opening day of the 1939-40 season, in a game declared void when war was declared a week later, and had to wait until 1946 for his 'official' debut. During the war he was a prolific scorer as a guest for Northampton, then later back at Coventry where he scored 43 goals in 52 games, and also for Wales for whom he won eight wartime caps and scored a hat trick against England at Wembley. Army duties restricted his appearances later in the war and he was still in uniform during 1946-47, his golden season. He scored 29 goals, including five hat tricks, in 36 games. He attracted the attention of several Division 1 clubs during the following season and it seemed to affect his form, although he still managed 18 goals in 22 games, including another three hat tricks. He was transferred to Newcastle for a then club record fee of £18,500 but because of injuries and form failed to win a regular place at St James' Park and eighteen months later moved on to Bristol City for £10,000. In February 1952 with Coventry facing relegation from Division Two Harry Storer re-signed him but he could not help avoid the drop. In 1953 he was given a free transfer & returned to Wales to play for non-league Lovells Athletic. He died in South Wales in 1989.

Jim's column 10.8.13

Saturday's opening day defeat at Crawley Town was unusual in that it was the first time Coventry City have lost an away game on the opening day of the season since 1995. Then Ron Atkinson's side, including big money signings Paul Williams, Paul Telfer & John Salako, lost 0-3 at St James' Park, Newcastle. In the seventeen intervening seasons the Sky Blues had only played away on four occasions and never lost:

2001 won 2-0 at Stockport

2005 drew 1-1 at Norwich

2007 won 4-1 at Barnsley

2012 drew 1-1 at Yeovil

The club's record on the first day of the league season has generally been good. Of the thirteen home games since 1995 only four have been lost:

1996 lost 0-3 to Nottm Forest

1999 lost 0-1 to Southampton

2000 lost 1-3 to Middlesbrough

2011 lost 0-1 to Leicester

Aaron Phillips' appearance as a substitute at Crawley meant he became the 885th player to wear the shirt in competitive football since the club joined the League in 1919. More importantly he became only the fifth City player to follow his father into the first team. His father, David, was a member of the 1987 FA Cup winning side and made 123 appearances for the club between his arrival from Manchester City in 1986 and his move to Norwich three years later. Let's hope it is the start of a long and successful career with the Sky Blues.

The other four father & sons to play for the club are:

Ted and Dudley Roberts

Bobby and Jonathan Gould

Tony and Mark Hateley

Gordon and Gavin Strachan

Talking of opening day games Keith Ballantyne emailed asking to be reminded of a postponed City game in London in the late 1980s. He remembers catching a train to London and being met by City fans telling him the game had been called off. The game in question was at Tottenham's White Hart Lane in August 1988 and the game was called off on the Saturday morning because the local authority would not issue a safety certificate to Spurs' new East Stand.  City also had an opening day game at Watford postponed in 2003 after Watford's on-loan striker Jimmy Davis was killed in a car crash on the M40 earlier that day. The Watford board called the game off in mid morning citing 'tragic circumstances' but it was several hours before the news of Davis' death were released.

For those City fans not travelling to Northampton tomorrow (and there will be many) I urge you to support the charity game at the Ricoh Arena. In a game arranged by the Former Players Association, supported by the Sky Blue Trust & the Diamond Club, a Coventry City Legends XI take on a Midlands all stars XI, kick off 2pm. The game, to celebrate the 130^th anniversary of the formation of Singers FC, will raise money for various charities including the Acorns Children's Hospice. As I write this several City former players have pledged their services including Noel Whelan, Darren Huckerby, Dave Bennett & Claus Jorgensen. It promises to be a fun afternoon. More details can be found at www.ccfpa.co.uk

Meanwhile at Sixfields Stadium the Sky Blues take on Bristol City. A very small crowd is expected & many people have asked me this week what is the lowest crowd for a City league game. The record low was set in February 1928 when 2,059 attended a Monday afternoon game against Crystal Palace in a Third Division South fixture. The game ended in a 2-2 draw. There was a smaller crowd for a competitive game at Highfield Road – in October 1985 1,086 turned up for a meaningless Full Members Cup group game against Millwall. Earlier results meant that neither club could progress in the competition but the game went ahead & ended 1-1.