Jim's column 6.4.24

What is it about Coventry City and Welsh clubs? On Easter Monday Cardiff City did a smash and grab raid at the CBS Arena thanks to Liam Kitching’s two own goals and once again City have succumbed to a Welsh club.

Dave Long asked if it was his imagination about the Sky Blues and teams from the Principality and I can assure him it’s not, our recent record against teams from Wales is dreadful.

All City fans know we can’t beat Swansea - the last league victory was back in Division 1 in 1983 and the Sky Blues have never won at the Liberty Stadium unless you count a EFL Trophy win against their under 23s in 2017! Admittedly the clubs didn’t meet in league games for 25 years but since hostilities recommenced in 2008 we have failed to beat the Swans in fourteen league games.

                Pl.     W       D       L      F    A       Pts

Home         7      0        4       3        8     11      4

Away         7       0        4       3        3      7       4

Similarly Cardiff City weren’t league opponents of City between 1967 and 2003 but in the last 21 years City haven’t fared well against the Bluebirds. Last season they did win at the Cardiff City Stadium for the first time in six visits but then succumbed this season in a sloppy display.

                    Pl     W     D     L     F     A             Pts

Home         13         3     5     5     12   15             14

Away         13         3     2     8       10 19             11

Then we have Newport County. The Sky Blues came up against them in League Two in 2017-18 but failed to win either of the games, County winning 1-0 at the CBS and drawing 1-1 on a very wet day at Rodney Parade.

Finally there is Wrexham. We haven’t met the North Wales side in league games since 1963-64 but they did cause a major FA Cup shock last season as a National league side, winning 4-3 at the CBS Arena.

Our overall league record against Welsh clubs since 2003 is pretty miserable:

                    Pl     W     D     L        F     A     Pts

Home         21     3         9     8       20   27     18

Away          21     3         7     11     14   27     16

A total of 34 points out of 42 games.

Liam Kitching joined an elite group of Coventry City players to score two own goals in a match. He became only the third player to achieve the feat following 1950s hero Roy Kirk and recent favourite Fankaty Dabo. Kirk scored his brace in a 2-2 home draw with Leyton Orient in September 1954 and his goals were not disimilar to Kitching's. The first was a deflected header on a shot that was not going on target and the second was Kirk trying to clear danger in front of his own goal.

Dabo's goals came at Oxford United in a 3-3 draw in August 2019 and the first was an attempted clearance and the second bounced off his foot just ahead of an Oxford striker who would have scored anyway.

Jim's column 22.10.22

By the virtue of successive victories the Sky Blues climbed off the foot of the table where they had laid since the Hull game in September. The first away win of the season came at Cardiff on Saturday and was followed by another 1-0 win over Sheffield United on Wednesday. Thus ended the longest spell the club has spent in last place in a league table since 2017 in that horrendous season when they were relegated from League One.

Two more clean sheets made in five out of six since the draw at Luton and three in a row away from home. At the moment the team has conceded less goals per game than anyone in the Championship – a far cry from the nine goals shipped in three away games at Millwall, Hull and Norwich.

It was a rare three points at Cardiff – the first victory at the City of Cardiff Stadium after four defeats and a draw since the Bluebirds moved from Ninian Park in 2009. The last win in the Welsh capital was a 1-0 at Ninian Park in August 2007 courtesy of a Jay Tabb goal. City's win was also the first in Wales since then – a run of 13 games since that 2007 win (six at Cardiff, six at Swansea and one at Newport) although they did beat Swansea's under 21s on penalties in the EFL Trophy in 2017.

The winner was a rare home penalty for the Sky Blues – the first at the CBS Arena since early November last year in the 3-2 victory over Bristol City and the seemingly nerveless Martyn Waghorn buried it with his trusty left foot. Substitute Waghorn was substituted within a few minutes and became only the second City substitute to score and be subbed. The only other was Jay Bothroyd in a 2-0 away win over Gillingham in 2002. He also became only the sixth City substitute to score from a penalty and the first since Carl Baker at Gillingham in 2013. The others were Gavin Strachan, Don Hutchison, Patrick Suffo and Gary McSheffrey.

Referee Keith Stroud came in for some criticism after Wednesday's game and the implication of some was that City never did well when Stroud was the ref. I checked the records and it's not true. Last season Stroud was in charge when City won away at Blackpool, Peterborough and Fulham. He was also in the middle for the home games with West Brom (loss) and Preston (draw) and although he arguably missed a handball for one of the Baggies' goals he did add on nine minutes in the latter game for Preston's time-wasting which allowed Tavares to grab an equaliser. Since 2019 Stroud has been in charge of 11 City games and they have won four, drawn five and lost two.

Paul Tebbutt was in touch last week about his father Gordon Tebbutt, aged 88, who has been supporting Coventry City for most of his life. Gordon saw his first game in the 1945/46 season at the age of 11 and recalls watching Harry Barratt score four goals in an 8-1 win but he can’t remember who it was against. There were no 8-1 victories that season but Harry Barratt did score four goals on two occasions.

The first was on 15 November (a Thursday afternoon) when City beat Newport County 7-1. The other goal scorers were George Lowrie (2) and Dennis Simpson. The attendance was 3,146.

The second was against Millwall on 9 February 1946 which ended 7-2 to City. Barratt did score 4 goals and the other scorers were Emilio Aldecoa, Jose Bilbao and Dennis Simpson. Aldecoa and Bilbao were refugees from the Spanish Civil War who arrived in the U.K. before the war. City led 6-0 at half time. The attendance was 13,712.

                            The team that beat Millwall 7-2 in 1946

The games that season are not classified as 'official' games. Peacetime football did not recommence until August 1946 and the 1945-46 season was a transitional season run on a regional basis. City were in Football League South and played against all the top London sides as well as Aston Villa and Birmingham and finished 13th.