Second row (l-r); Mick Coop (Youth Team Coach), Neil Sillett (Assistant Physiotherapist), Brian Borrows, Steve Sedgley, Steve Ogrizovic, Jake Findlay, Nick Pickering, Martin Lane, Howard Clark, Mick Kearns (Reserve Team Coach), George Dalton (Physiotherapist)
Third row (l-r); Steve Livingstone, David Smith, David Phillips, Dave Bennett, Michael Gynn, John Sillett (Manager), Greg Downs, Lloyd McGrath, David Speedie, Michael Cook, John Gowens
Front row (l-r); Anthony Smith, Paul Jones, Robert Smith, Lee Hurst, Steve Cockrill, Chris Galley, Paul Bastock, Dean Kiely, Jason Bond, Martyn Booty, Lee Middleton, Mark Taylor, Craig Middleton, Paul Shepstone
By Jim Brown
Three months after the FA Cup triumph, 50,000 Coventry fans descended on Wembley for the Charity Shield fixture against league champions Everton. The size of the City support demonstrated the expectations of the fans; the Cup final victory was to be the launch-pad for an assault on the league and then, who knows, Europe. Within three months those dreams were shattered as City went through a disastrous ten-game run without a win and the heroes were shown to be mere mortals.
The Wembley outing gave City fans a first look at new striker David Speedie, purchased from Chelsea for £780,000. During the summer John Sillett had stepped up from coach to manager, and as he unveiled his prize new signing he uttered the immortal words: ‘for too long this club has shopped at Woolworth’s, from now on we’ll be shopping at Harrods.’ The truth was that though the club’s cup run had helped to pay off the overdraft, success would have to come knocking regularly for Sillett to return to the Knightsbridge emporium.
The fixture computer perversely sent Tottenham to Highfield Road on the opening day, and they lost again, Speedie scoring after 21 minutes of his league debut. Four days later a Kilcline penalty at Luton meant City had kicked off with two wins. Liverpool, howÂever, were made of sterner stuff and outclassed a slapdash and cocky Sky Blues to win 4-1. That result brought City fans and players alike down to earth with a bump.
The real problems, however, started in October, with two bad home defeats in four days. Southampton won at Highfield Road for the first time since 1949 and Newcastle, with Gascoigne and Mirandinha in dazzling form, won with something to spare. Luton dashed City’s League Cup hopes in a tie played at Filbert Street because of Luton’s ban on away fans, and the large City following expressed their frustrations by chanting ‘What a load of rubbish’. It seemed light years away from Wembley. As Christmas approached the side drew five games in a row, three of them without a goal, and doubts about the pairÂing of Regis and Speedie in attack intensified.
It was at home that City really suffered. The team went from early October until mid-February without a home league win. Fortunately the away form went some way to redress the balance, and wins at Everton, QPR and Sheffield Wednesday kept Sky Blue heads above the relegation waters. City began their defence of the FA Cup by making heavy weather of what should have been a straightforward home tie with Torquay, on a pitch that because of drainage problems resembled a beach. Three weeks later lowly Watford ended a feeble defence of the trophy, with the pitch again shouldering much of the blame.
It had been Coventry’s misfortune to win the FA Cup during the five-year penance English clubs served following the tears of Heysel. Denied a place in the Cup-Winners’ Cup, they sought consolation in the Simod Cup, a meaningless Mickey Mouse compeÂtition introduced by the English football authorities to compensate clubs for the lost revenues of competing in Europe. The two teams reaching the final would be granted a Wembley showcase. City defeated Ipswich and Wimbledon in front of small crowds to set up a semi-final at Second Division Reading. The thought of a third visit to the Twin Towers in a matter of months – no matter the reduced circumstances – was enough to entice thousands of City fans to queue for hours in the rain to buy tickets. Defeat in a penalty shoot-out denied them a further visit to the national stadium.
Paradoxically, it was as if Watford’s FA Cup ambush lifted a weight from the City players’ minds. Their form picked up, and a sixteen-game league run brought only two defeats, both at home, with the away form going from strength to strength. Injuries and vagaries of form meant that by the end of the season Sillett’s preferred line-up contained only five of his Wembley heroes. Bennett and McGrath had suffered broken legs, the form of Phillips, Gynn and Downs had lost its cutting edge, while Houchen was picked only interÂmittently. Borrows had regained his full-back place, and Dean Emerson and Steve Sedgley policed midfield. Gary Bannister had returned to the club for £300,000 from QPR, and young David Smith, on the verge of being freed the previous summer, had forced his way into the side in February and made a major impact on the left flank. Regis recovered from a poor autumn, ironically after he had been recalled to the England squad after a six-year break. But as ever, Regis seldom threatened to score, preferring to win the plaudits for leading the line with style and leave the goalscoring to others. The popular Speedie, despite playing in almost every game, netted only six goals.
City finished tenth, the same as the previous season, which would have been creditable enough in an earlier era, but not now that Sillett had promised fans the moon. The supporters, with their appetites whetted, looked upon the mid-table position not as a glass half-full but as half-empty, which confirmed the extent to which raised aspirations can affect fans’ perceptions. Home gates were the best for seven years, the average of 17,530 being up ten per cent on the previous season
