There was a very
welcome win at Crewe's Gresty Road last Saturday after six
consecutive away defeats. Although City have not played at Crewe much
over the years it is a ground that City have rarely done well on. It
was the Sky Blues' first league victory there since 2002 when Lee
Hughes notched the last City away hat-tick in a 6-1 win. Since then
there have been four consecutive league defeats before Saturday's win
with that meaningless 2-0 Johnstone's Paint Trophy victory last
season. Older fans will remember in 1966 when City, then a top Second
Division club, almost got knocked out of the FA Cup by the Fourth
Division Railwaymen. Only a late Ronnie Rees goal earned City a
Highfield Road replay which they duly won.
Steven Pressley's 'win
ugly' strategy worked at Gresty Road and after the 0-0 home draw with
Bradford City on Tuesday evening the team has now gone unbeaten in
three & probably banished the relegation blues. The strategy
however cost City seven yellow cards in the Crewe game & I was
scouring the records to discover any other instances. By my reckoning
it was the most in a game for the club - I could find several
instances of five bookings in a game but not more. In December 1971
at Old Trafford in a 2-2 draw the referee booked the whole of City's
five-man defensive wall for not retreating ten yards. Then at the
opening game at the Ricoh Arena City had five men booked in the 3-0
victory over QPR. Allegedly there was some bad blood from a
pre-season game between the clubs in Ibiza & Rangers had their
centre-back Danny Shittu ordered off just after half-time.
Several readers have
asked me if this season is a record for the number of penalties
conceded by City. They have now given away 12 spot-kicks in all
competitions with seven scored and five saved by Joe Murphy. I wrote
some time ago that Joe had surpassed Jim Blyth & Bill Glazier's
post-war record of penalty saves but as far as penalties conceded
this season's total is, I believe, the worst season in the club's
history.
Rod Dean read last
week's piece about the Tottenham friendly in 1964 which ended 6-5 to
the Londoners & was at the game. He noted that the late John
White appeared for Spurs & asked me to try & confirm if it
was the last game he played before his tragic death in a lightning
strike on a golf course that July. I do know it was his final
appearance in a Spurs shirt but he did play an international for
Scotland in West Germany two weeks later.
Some weeks ago Steve
Burroughs asked me to confirm whether this season's side has featured
the most home grown players in the club's history. I was pretty
certain that in the early 1980s City had a stronger contingent of
players who had come through the ranks if measured by number of
appearances but did some research.
As of Tuesday City's 10
home grown players have made 191 league appearances this season:
Conor Thomas 37
plus 2 subs
Jordan Clarke 33
plus 2 subs
Callum Wilson 31
Cyrus Christie 28
plus 1 sub
Jordan Willis 15
plus 7 subs
Billy Daniels 10
plus 8 subs
Others 5
plus 12 subs
Total 159
plus 32 subs (191)
Between 1979 and 1983
City played 30 different home grown players from the memorable such
as Mark Hateley, Garry Thompson, Les Sealey & Danny Thomas to the
less well-known such as Keith Thompson, Derek Hall, Steve Murcott &
David Barnes.
In those four seasons
the total number of appearances by home grown players was as
follows:
1979-80
259 (19 players)
1980-81
354 (17 players)
1981-82
383 (19 players)
1982-83
391 (16 players)
It is easy to forget
how many of the team in those days, under Gordon Milne & Dave
Sexton, were products of City's youth scheme. In the latter two
seasons the only non-home grown players making any substantial number
of appearances were Steve Hunt & Gerry Francis. Effectively the
club's youth strategy kept the club in the top flight.
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