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As I write this Coventry City are on the brink of promotion to the Premier League and it might well have been confirmed last night at Blackburn. The Sky Blues have dominated the division all season and except for seven days in February have topped the table since October 4^th. It is a fantastic achievement bearing in mind the parachute payments available to the three relegated clubs as well as Sheffield United. With Ipswich losing to Portsmouth in midweek the title may not be far away either and could happen this weekend or in midweek. 

Last Saturday's game with bottom club Sheffield Wednesday was a lack lustre affair and I thought the nerves of the occasion got to both players and fans in the CBS Arena. The club managed to squeeze in enough fans to break the record attendance at the stadium for the second time this season with 31,647 fans crammed in. It was the 14^th time in this momentous season that the attendance has been over 30,000 and six of the all-time top ten gates have occurred this campaign.

The average home attendance for the season is now 30,214 and with the final two home games sold out the final average is certain to be greater than this figure. That will be the fourth highest seasonal average in the club's history and the best ever average outside the top flight. The highest averages are as follows:

1. 1967-68 Division 1 34,705

2. 1968-69 Division 1 33,223

3. 1969-70 Division 1 32,405

4. 2025-26 Championship 30,214*

5. 1966-67 Division 2 28,269

6. 2024-25 Championship 27,817

The Good Friday victory over Derby County was a bit of a nail-biter but the Sky Blues got the victory thanks to a brilliant performance from substitute Jack Rudoni. Jack hasn't had the best of seasons with injuries – he missed two months in the autumn then on his return he struggled for form. Finally, in March, we saw the best of him with three goals in three games before another injury blow. There were no signs of rustiness when he entered the field as a substitute against Derby and within five minutes he had conjured up a magical goal out of nothing and followed it up twelve minutes later with a striker's finish to win the game. He is only the ninth Coventry player to score two goals off the bench and he joins an impressive group started by Bobby Gould back in 1967 at Nottingham Forest – he was substitute for George Curtis after the Iron Man was carried off with a broken leg.

The full list is:

Bobby Gould Nottingham Forest (a) 1967-68 (3-3 draw)

Jay Bothroyd Rushden & D (LC) (h) 2002-03 (8-0 win)

Patrick Suffo Torquay United (LC) (h) 2004-05 (4-1 win)

Chris Maguire MK Dons (a) 2013-14 (3-2 win)

Ryan Haynes Wycombe (EFLT) (a) 2016-17 (4-2 win)

Max Biamou Yeovil (h) 2017-18 (2-6 loss)

Amadou Bakayoko Charlton (a) 2018-19 (2-1 win)

Matt Godden Oxford U (FAC) (h) 2023-24 (6-2 win)

Jack Rudoni Derby (h) 2025-26 (3-2 win)

The Derby victory was the club's 25^th win of the season and sets a new club record surpassing the 24 wins of 1935-36 and 1958-59. Both those seasons were promotion campaigns and relied heavily on strong home form. In 1935-36 City won 19 out of 21 home games and only five on the road. In 1958-59 there were 18 out of 23 home wins and only six away wins. This season the away form has been better than those two seasons with 10 wins so far and the potential for two more.

Jim's Column 13.1.24

Coventry City continued their good form with a comfortable 6-2 home victory over Oxford United in the FA Cup Third round. Big cup victories are a rare thing for the Sky Blues and it was the club's biggest victory in the competition since 1999 when Macclesfield Town were put to the sword 7-0 at Highfield Road. Since City joined the Football League in 1919 there have only been five instances of them scoring six or more goals in the FA Cup:

1929-30 Coventry City 7 Bath City 1

1934-35 Coventry City 7 Scunthorpe & Lindsey United 0

1963-64 Trowbridge Town 1 Coventry City 6

1998-99 Coventry City 7 Macclesfield 0

2023-24 Coventry City 6 Oxford United 2

In the first three instances the opponents were non-league clubs whilst Macclesfield were in the third tier of the league as are Oxford.

Matty Godden came off the bench to score two goals – the first City player to achieve that feat since Amadou Bakayoko did it at Charlton Athletic in a League One game in 2018-19. He is only the eighth Coventry sub to score two goals in a game and the first in an FA Cup game. After substitutes were introduced to the domestic game in 1965 Bobby Gould was the first sub to score two (at Nottingham Forest in 1967) and since then has been followed by Jay Bothroyd, Patrick Suffo, Chris Maguire, Ryan Haynes, Max Biamou, Bakayoko and now Godden.

Godden has now scored 50 goals for the club and is the first player to reach that level since Gary McSheffrey. The two Cup goals take him to 21^st in the all-time table which is headed by Clarrie Bourton with 189, followed by Billy Lake with 129. He is now within striking distance of Ernie Hunt (51) Ronnie Rees (52) and Terry Gibson (52). 

The draw for the fourth round gave City a trip to their favourite Cup ground, Hillsborough, the scene of their sixth round and semi final victories in 1987. It also means trips to Sheffield Wednesday in successive weekends with a league game next Saturday followed by the Cup trip the following weekend. I'm not a great one for omens but several readers have reminded me that in City's memorable 1986-87 season City played Wednesday on successive Saturdays. The teams fought out a tough league game at Highfield Road with City prevailing 1-0 in a snow-affected game. Lloyd McGrath scored the winning goal and Dean Emerson, then in the form of his life and being tipped for an England call-up, suffered a bad knee injury following a challenge by Gary Megson. Seven days later the Sky Blues pulled off one of their greatest Cup results, winning 3-1 at Hillsborough where the Owls were unbeaten in 23 FA Cup ties. 

Another footballing legend died this week. Following hard on the heels of Bobby Charlton, Franz Beckenbauer, the man who marked Charlton in the 1966 World Cup final and the 1970 quarter final, passed away aged 78. 'Der Kaiser', the Emperor, started his career as a midfield player but later became an outstanding central defender winning the European Championships with West Germany in 1972, the World Cup in 1974 and the European Cup three times with Bayern Munich (1974-76). I particularly remember his imperious performance in the 1976 European Cup final against St Etienne at Hampden Park when he didn't misplace a pass all game. He also managed Germany to victory in the 1990 World Cup in Italy.

                       Franz Beckenbauer can't stop Neil Martin scoring at Highfield Road in 1970

Franz captained Bayern against Coventry City in the UEFA Fairs Cup in 1970. Bayern destroyed the Sky Blues 6-1 in the first leg in Munich but City won the second leg 2-1 at Highfield Road and Beckenbauer was given a tough time by City's centre-forward Neil Martin but still managed to show the Coventyry crowd his outstanding ability.

Jim's column 13.10.2018

Coventry City's luck has not been in at times this season but it was definitely in at the Valley last Saturday. Trailing with ten minutes remaining the super sub Amadou Bakayoko struck twice to give the Sky Blues three points they had never looked like winning in the previous eighty minutes. Bakayoko joined an elite group of seven Coventry City players to score two goals from off the bench. The full list is:

1967-68 Bobby Gould (Nottingham Forest (away)) 3-3

2002-03 Jay Bothroyd (Rushden & Diamonds (LC) (home)) 8-0

2004-05 Patrick Suffo (Torquay (LC) (home)) 4-1

2013-14 Chris Maguire (MK Dons (away)) 3-1

2016-17 Ryan Haynes (Wycombe (FLT) (away)) 4-2

2017-18 Max Biamou (Yeovil (home)) 2-6

2018-19 Amadou Bakayoko (Charlton (away)) 2-1

The first, Bobby Gould's brace at Nottingham Forest after he came on for captain George Curtis who had broken his leg in only City's second game in the top flight, was the first time any City substitute had scored. The most dramatic brace was Chris Maguire's at MK in 2013. The scores were level at 1-1 with five minutes left when Maguire buried two sublime free-kicks in front of a large Sky Blue following. We have had some great moments at that stadium, it's a shame we won't be going there this season.

                                                  Gould nets at the City Ground (August 1967)  

In the 53 years that substitutes have been allowed only four opponent's substitutes have scored two goals, the most famous being West Ham's Tony Cottee in 1982-83, the last being in the Yeovil home game last season when Sam Sturridge came off the bench to score two against a red-faced City defence.

The Checkatrade Trophy (or EFL Trophy to give its proper name) continues to attract miniscule crowds throughout the country. There were less than 500 at the games at Cambridge and Gillingham on Tuesday night and City's pathetic 1,341 was in the top six highest gates of the night. From my vantage point the crowd looked to be under 1,000 which would have made it the lowest for a Coventry competitive home game since the club joined the league in 1919, held by the 1,111 for the Millwall Full Members Cup tie in 1985. However the final figure crept up to just beat the Crawley attendance (1,338) in the same competition two years ago. Despite the attraction of a Wembley final isn't it time for this competition to be put out of its misery. I fully envisage a Wembley final between two Premier League Under 21 sides that would attract a very low attendance.

The games at least give managers the opportunity to give promising youngsters a run out against stronger players than they're used to and on Tuesday we saw several City debutants. Jak Hickman and Morgan Williams got their first starts and then 17-year old Jack Burroughs and recent signing Dexter Walters came on as a substitutes. Burroughs became the first City player born after the millennium to appear for the first team. None of the youngsters looked out of place with Williams and Jordon Thompson especially impressive.

Dick Graham was the manager of Crystal Palace when they were promoted from Division Three alongside the Sky Blues in 1964. Dick passed away in 2013 but his son Mark is writing a book about his father's football career and I was able to help him with a few facts and figures. Graham and Jimmy Hill, City's manager at the time, had a few spats in their time. After a 1-1 draw at Selhurst Park in December 1963 JH was critical of Palace's tactics saying 'I have never been so pleased to have won a point. To me it proved that constructive football can triumph over the purely destructive. This is our third experience of Palace's rough play this year'.

In those three games four Palace names had been taken – in the days when you almost had to a maim an opponent to go into the referee's book, with full-back Bert Howe picking up two bookings for flying tackles on City's winger Willie Hunphries. Graham retorted by calling Hill's comments undignified and saying 'We play the game men should play it'.

Both teams were promoted and the two managers were in opposition for a further two seasons before Graham was sacked in early 1966.

Jim's column 7.4.2018

What a shocker on Easter Monday! A larger than normal crowd turned up expecting City to put lowly Yeovil to the sword and extend the unbeaten run to eight games only for the Glovers to tear up the form-book and pull off a sensational 6-2 victory. Whilst City's defending was appalling it seemed that every time Yeovil attacked they scored. The statistics bear this out with the Somerset team having seven shots on target and six goals.

There are lots of historical stats resulting from a game which whilst depressing for Sky Blue fans was a thrilling encounter. The start by Yeovil was sensational with three goals without reply in the first 15 minutes. Trawling through the record books I can find only one worse start for City – in September 1956 at Northampton's County Ground the Cobblers were 3-0 ahead in 13 minutes, eventually losing 4-0. Incidentally in the very next away game City were 3-0 down after 16 minutes to Ipswich Town, again a 4-0 defeat. Unfortunately goal-times are notoriously inaccurate before World War Two and there may have been worse starts before then.

The size of the defeat was staggering and the worst at the Ricoh since 2008 when West Brom won an FA Cup tie 5-0. It was only the second time in 92 seasons of league football that City have let in six goals in a home league game – the other a 6-1 thumping by champions Liverpool on the final day of the 1989-90 season. Older fans will remember an 8-1 League Cup home defeat to Leicester in 1964 but there were mitigating circumstances, George Curtis limped off injuries and there were no substitutes.

The total of eight goals in the game was the most City fans have seen at the Ricoh since it opened in 2005 but those who travelled to Sixfields in 2013-14 saw nine goals (5-4 v Bristol City) and eight goals (4-4 v Preston) respectively in the first two home games there. The previous highest at the Ricoh was seven in the 6-1 victory over Derby in 2006.

Three Yeovil players (Fisher, Zoko and Surridge) scored braces and with Max Biamou also scoring two the total of four braces in a City game was only the third time this has occurred and the first in a home game. The last time was in the 5-5 draw at Southampton in May 1982 – arguably the most exciting City game of all-time. Mark Hateley (3) and Steve Whitton (2) netted for the Sky Blues whilst Kevin Keegan (2), Keith Cassells (2) and Alan Ball were on target for the Saints. The only other occasion was at Exeter in 1926 when four home players scored braces in the Grecians 8-1 victory.

Biamou also achieved a personal landmark by scoring two off the bench. He is only the third City player to achieve this in a league game, the others being Bobby Gould (at Forest in 1967) and Chris Maguire (at MK Dons in 2013).

City's outstanding defensive record went to pot – before Monday they had only conceded 32 goals and looked capable of breaking the club's all-time record of 38 in 1970-71 but that won't happen now! They could possibly still set a new record for a 46-game season – currently 47 goals in 1958-59.

Most fans feel that it was just one of those days and a somewhat freak scoreline. The team have a tough away game at Notts County today and the omens aren't good there, it is a real bogey ground for the Sky Blues. They have won only twice in 18 visits there since they entered the league and there have been five defeats and two losses since the last win there – in August 1963 when George Hudson (2) and Willie Humphries netted in a 3-0 victory.

Thanks to all my followers on Twitter for helping with this week's stats.