Haji joins the post 1967 top ten scorers

The Sky Blues bounced back from a three-game winless run with a comprehensive 3-1 victory over league leaders Middlesbrough in front of almost 31,000 on Monday night. The 'Boro' must be fed up with playing the Sky Blues – it was their seventh defeat in a row versus City stretching back to 2023. That run started with the second leg of the Championship play-off semi final that year when Gus Hamer's goal secured a Wembley trip in one of the Sky Blues' finest away performances of recent years.

The seven wins are:

May 2023 Boro 0 City 1 (Hamer)

Aug 2023 City 3 Boro 0 (Godden, Wright, own goal)

Jan 2024 Boro 1 City 3 (Sakamoto 2, Wright)

Nov 2024 Boro 0 City 3 (Thomas, Wright, Eccles)

May 2025 City 2 Boro 0 (Rudoni 2)

Nov 2025 Boro 2 City 4 (Simms 2, Kitching 2)

Feb 2026 City 3 Boro 1 (Wright 3)

Prior to that famous night at the Riverside in 2023 City had drawn three successive meetings between the clubs so it is 10 games unbeaten against the Teessiders. There has certainly been a massive turnaround in results with Boro because before that Hamer winner City had failed to win in 13 league and cup visits to the new stadium since it was opened in 1995.

The star of the show on Monday night was Haji Wright who scored his second Sky Blue hat-trick and made it six goals in five games against Boro. The American striker has now scored 45 goals for the club, 41 in the league plus 4 cup goals. The 41 league goals takes him into the top ten post 1967 scoring list.

                                                   Games         Goals   Minutes/goal

1.      Dion Dublin            168+2 subs    61          208

2.     Gary McSheffrey     201+46          61          261

3.     Ian Wallace              128+2             58         196

4.    Mick Ferguson          128+6             55          203

5.    Cyrille Regis             231+6             47          435

6.    Matty Godden           102+36            46          200

7.    Ernie Hunt                 140+6              45          280

8.    Terry Gibson               97+1               43          198

9.    Haji Wright                 76+25             41          171

10.    Viktor Gyokeres        92+18             41          208

(league games and goals only)

Haji has had his detractors in the three years he has been at the club but his scoring record is second to none. Amongst Coventry strikers who have scored 30 or more league goals he is the only one to score a goal every other game in the last 60 years. Haji went 13 league games without scoring between October and January this season but many forget that Gyokeres had an identical run in 2021-22 after scoring nine in the first 11 games. Godden also had his arid scoring runs as did many of the above list.

This season Wright has overtaken several legendary Coventry strikers in the list including Bobby Gould, Neil Martin, Peter Ndlovu and Garry Thompson. Let's hope Haji can continue his form for the remainder of this season.

Jim's column 6.1.24

An impressive Christmas and New Year programme saw the Sky Blues rise seven places up the league table to eighth place with 10 points out of a possible 12. The unbeaten run was extended to seven games and there has only been one defeat in 11 - away at high-flying Ipswich at the start of December.

The latest victory came at Middlesbrough’s Riverside Stadium - their first win there in a regular season fixture. Despite winning the play-off semi final second leg there last season City had played 11 league games since the stadium replaced Ayresome Park in 1995 and never won.

Three days earlier Swansea City had grabbed a fortuitous point at the CBS Arena with a late goal from a free-kick just as the fans were about to celebrate a comeback from behind victory for the first time since Good Friday 2022. Goals from Haji Wright and Ellis Simms had cancelled out Liam Walsh’s early goal and a victory had looked certain until Liam Cullen’s clever free-kick. On New Year’s Day however the long wait for a win from behind ended with an impressive second half display from the Sky Blues to seal a 3-1 victory. Between April 2022 and Monday City had fallen behind in 29 league games and failed to win. They had managed 11 draws but 18 times had ended up losing the game. The run stretched back to the 4-2 win at St Andrew’s when City came from 2-0 to take the points.

I have mentioned City's remarkable attendances this season before but have to point out that the Christmas games pushed this season's average to 24,807 and with likely sell-outs at the Leicester and Leeds home games to come the 25,000 barrier may be broken by the end of the season. If the average remains at this level then it will be the club's highest average since 1970-71 when it was 26,039. The Boxing Day crowd of 29,208 for the Sheffield Wednesday game was the second highest for a league game at the CBS Arena bettered only by the 30,175 for the Birmingham game last season. It was also the largest Boxing Day home crowd since 1969 when 32,649 watched the Sky Blues beat Ipswich Town 3-1.

On Thursday I was at the CBS Arena for the launch of the appeal for donations to the statue of George Curtis and John Sillett. Joe Elliott’s committee have done a fantastic job in raising over £130,000 towards the cost of the new statue but £87,000 is still required to make the monument a reality. Joe introduced several of the 1987 FA Cup squad including Trevor Peake, Lloyd McGrath, Steve Ogrizovic, Dave Bennett and Dean Emerson as well as Mick Kearns, former teammate of George and John and a member of the 1987 coaching staff. The legends’ families were represented by Jean and Neil Sillett and Inga and Julie Curtis and the sculptor Douglas Jennings was introduced. Douglas has previously produced a number of football-related statues including George Cohen (Fulham), Graham Taylor (Watford) and Jimmy Dickinson (Portsmouth).

If you would like to make a donation to the fund go to www.CCFC.Co.uk/statue-appeal