2007-08 Season Review

Points:
Despite avoiding the drop by a single point with 53 points the total was higher than in 2002-03 (50) and 2004-05 (52). City’s records in those two seasons would have seen them relegated.

Wins:
City won only eight league games at the Ricoh, not quite as bad as the pitiful six wins in 2002-03 but still a poor performance. Seven games have been lost including games against most of the top sides like West Brom, Bristol City, Watford, Palace and Stoke. Of those seven defeats six were in the Dowie era and since Iain’s departure only one of eight has been lost.

Defeats:
21 games were lost, one less than the worst season in club’s Football League history, last season. Only Scunthorpe and Colchester lost more games in the division.

Away Form:
With some notable exceptions (the wins at Stoke and West Brom) the away form was poor – six wins was one more than last year but the side went 11 away games without a win between winning at the Hawthorns in early December and the vital 5-1 at Colchester three weeks ago, including a miserable eight straight losses the worst run since 2000.

Biggest win:
The biggest victory was that 5-1 over Colchester. It was the biggest away win for four years since Walsall were beaten 6-1 in Eric Black’s first game in charge.

Biggest defeat:
The 0-4 defeat to Blackpool in December was matched by West Brom in the league encounter in November but the Baggies went one better in the FA Cup Fifth round tie scoring five without reply.

Goals Conceded:
It was feast or famine as far as goals conceded. For most of the winter City could not keep a clean sheet, failing to keep the opposition out in 15 league games in a row, then suddenly, with the introduction of first Dan Fox and then Scott Dann, they kept six home clean sheets in a row, the best run since 1959.

Final position:
The final position of 21st was the lowest since the club was relegated from the Premier League and the lowest since they came out of Division Three in 1964.

Leading scorers:
Michael Mifsud was top scorer with 17 goals (10 league, 4 League Cup and 3 FA Cup) whilst Leon Best ended the season with 9 goals (8 League and 1 League Cup). Amazingly Mifsud went 25 league games without scoring in the league until he netted at the Valley but still scored as many goals in a season as any Coventry player since City were relegated in 2001.

Doubles:
City did the double over two sides – Colchester and Barnsley. Four clubs, Bristol City, Watford, Sheffield United and Burnley achieved the feat against City. As in the previous season (against Sunderland) City had the honour of beating the eventual champions West Brom.

Appearances:
No Coventry player was an ever present. Michael Doyle made the most league appearances, 42, and his four missed games were through suspension. Jay Tabb and Isaac Osbourne both made 42 appearances but included substitute appearances, two in the case of Tabb and five in the case of Osbourne.  One player, Chris Birchall, made just one league appearance, whilst neither Wayne Andrews or Zavon Hines started a match both made seven appearances from the bench.

Players used:
Thirty players were used in league games – the lowest since the relegation season in 2000-01. In addition Robert Page and Colin Hawkins made League Cup appearances. Twelve players made their debuts during the season. In addition to the 32 players used, four more, goalkeeper Danny Ireland, and outfield players Donovan Simmonds, Liam Francis and Lee Hildreth all sat on the bench as substitutes but were not used. Lee was released by the club and holds the unwanted record of the shortest career in a Coventry City shirt – he played around one minute as a sub at Burnley last season. Arjan De Zeeuw did little right in his brief time at the club but goes into the record books as the 800th first team player since the club joined the Football League in 1919.

Records:
By the end of the season Marcus Hall had clocked up 273 first team appearances for the club, lifting him to 20th in the all-time appearance chart. This season Marcus has overtaken Lloyd McGrath, Dave Clements and Ronnie Rees. Michael Doyle reached 234 appearances by the end of the season and is now 34th on the all-time list.

Substitutes:
Robbie Simpson, in his first season, made the most substitute appearances (18). Andy Marshall sat on the bench 24 times without being brought on.  Six City substitutes scored goals: Mifsud, Best, Adebola, Kyle, Hines and Simpson (League Cup). 

Average attendance:
Home 19,124 (2006-07 20,344).
Away 16,336 (2006-07 17,801).
The home average attendance fell by 6%.

Highest home attendance:
28,163 watched the FA Cup fifth round tie with West Brom (a Ricoh club record). Then in the final home league game of the season against Wolves 27,992( a Ricoh league record) came through the turnstiles.  The latter was City’s biggest home league crowd since the visit of Liverpool in January 1980 attracted 31,578.

Lowest home attendance:
14,036 v Scunthorpe. This was the lowest league crowd since the move to Foleshill.

Highest away attendance:
Away gates were down due to the loss of Derby and Sunderland and the arrival of Scunthorpe and Blackpool. The biggest league crowd was the one at the Valley last Sunday, 26,130. However the League Cup tie at Old Trafford attracted 74,055, the biggest crowd to watch a Coventry game outside of Wembley and the biggest ever crowd for a League Cup tie outside Wembley.

Lowest away attendance:
5,836 v Colchester United.

Won from behind:
(4) Preston (h), Blackpool (h), QPR (a), Colchester (a).

Lost from in front:
(1)  Stoke (h). Stoke remain the only visiting side to come from behind to win since the move to the Ricoh Arena, having now done it twice. No side have come from behind to beat City away since October 2005 when Leicester did it at the Walkers’ Stadium

Firsts:
The win at the Hawthorns was the first league win there since Easter 1982 and the 2-1 victory over Ipswich ended a drought against the Tractor Boys stretching back to 1994. City’s first ever league visit to Scunthorpe (and hopefully their last for a while) ended in defeat.

Hat-tricks:
(0) It is six years since Lee Hughes scored City’s last league hat-trick (in a 6-1 win at Crewe). Mifsud (twice), Best (twice), Doyle and Ward all scored two goals in a game.

Opposing hat-tricks:
(0) None.

Own goals:
For City: (0) None.

Own goals:
By City: (2) Konstantopoulos (Bristol C h) and Hall (West Ham h LC).

Penalties:
For City: (10) 6 Ward (Blackburn a FAC, Leicester h, Sheffield U a, Stoke h, Colchester a (2)), 2 Doyle (Blackpool h & Scunthorpe h) and 1 Thornton (Scunthorpe a). Ward’s double penalty against Colchester was the first time a City player has netted two spot-kicks in a game since Gary McAllister versus Blackpool in 1997. One penalty was missed by Doyle (Crystal Palace h), the first miss by a City player at the Ricoh.

Penalties:
Against City: (7) Howard (Barnsley a), Lawrence (Stoke a), Hoolahan (Blackpool a), Fuller (Stoke h), Ebanks-Blake (Wolves h) and Bednar (West Brom h FAC). Darren Purse of Cardiff (a) was the only player to miss a penalty.

Fastest Goal scored:
6 minutes: McKenzie (Barnsley a) and Best (West Brom a). 

Fastest Goal conceded:
4 minutes Varney (Charlton a).

Man of the match awards:
10 Tabb, 5 Best, S Hughes, 4 Mifsud, 3 Thornton, Ward, Marshall, Adebola, 2 M Hughes, Doyle, Fox, McKenzie, Gray 1 Konstantopoulos, Osbourne, Dann, Schmeichel. 

Red cards:
Coventry: (4) Mifsud (West Brom), Kyle (Blackpool a & Burnley h), Doyle (West Brom h FAC). 

Red cards:
Opponents: (9) Ricketts (Hull h), Gorkss (Blackpool h), Sheringham (Colchester h), Murphy and Youga (Scunthorpe h), Robinson (West Brom a), Miller (Ipswich h), Doherty and Russell (Norwich).

Cup form:
For the first time in eight years the Sky Blues reached the fifth round of the FA Cup only to suffer a record home defeat in the competition, 0-5. For the first time since 1964 City defeated a team from a higher division and achieved the feat twice, with the wins at Old Trafford and Blackburn. The game against Notts County was the first League Cup tie the new stadium has hosted.

PLAYER	LEAGUE			FA CUP			LEAGUE CUP			TOTAL
	Apps	Subs	Goals	Apps	Subs	Goals	Apps	Subs	Goals	Apps	Subs	Goals
DOYLE, Michael	42		7	3			4			49		7
TABB, Jay	40	2	5	3			3	1	1	46	3	6
OSBOURNE, Isaac	37	5		3			4			44	5
MIFSUD, Michael	34	7	10	3		3	3		4	40	7	17
WARD, Elliott	35	2	6	3		1	2			40	2	7
HUGHES, Stephen	32	5	1	1		1	3			36	5	2
BEST, Leon	29	5	8	2	1		3		1	34	6	9
BORROWDALE, Gary	20	1		2			3			25	1
GRAY, Julian	20	6	3	1			2			23	6	3
KONSTANTOPOULOS, Dimi	21			2						23
TURNER, Ben	19			1			2	1		22	1
MARSHALL, Andy	16			1			4			21
ADEBOLA, Dele	15	11	4	2		1	3	1	1	20	12	6
HALL, Marcus	17	1		1			1	1		19	2
HUGHES, Michael	16	2		2						18	2
DE ZEEUW, Arjan	16	1		1			1			18	1
FOX, Daniel	18		1							18
DANN, Scott	14	2								14	2
SIMPSON, Robbie	10	18	1	1	1		1	3	1	12	22	2
McNAMEE, David	12	1						1		12	2
THORNTON, Kevin	9	10	1		1					9	11	1
McKENZIE, Leon	9	2	2							9	2	2
SCHMEICHEL, Kasper	9									9
KYLE, Kevin	7	6	2					1		7	7	2
CAIRO, Ellery	4	3					2			6	3
DAVIS, Liam	2	4		1						3	4
PAGE, Rob							2			2
DUFFY, Richard	2									2
BIRCHALL, Chris	1				1			1		1	2
HAWKINS, Colin							1			1
ANDREWS, Wayne		7									7
HINES, Zavon		7	1								7	1

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On 31 July, a day after Paul Fletcher had set the scene by announcing there would be no deal with Manhattan Capital Partners before the end of August, he turned his guns on to Coventry City Council accusing them in a thinly veiled attack of holding out for too much money for its 50% share of the Ricoh Arena. He reiterated that the club was missing out on millions of pounds of revenue because of the deal the football club struck when they sold their half share of the stadium – they received no income from food, drinks and parking. Despite the worsening financial situation the board, against the wishes of the executive, sanctioned another mass change of personnel in the summer of 2007.

Nine players came in and only four left, thus increasing the wages bill. Some of the players looked bargains: Greek goalkeeper Konstantopoulos had built an excellent reputation at Hartlepool and came free, as did veterans, Michael Hughes and Arjan De Zeeuw and Dutch winger Ellery Cairo. Julian Gray, like Hughes, a former Palace man from the Dowie era, arrived on a free but with hefty wages from Birmingham where he had under-performed. The remaining three all cost fees. £40,000 was paid for Robbie Simpson from Cambridge United. Southampton’s young striker Leon Best came for £650,000, and £400,000 was paid for Palace full-back Gary Borrowdale. The four who left were Don Hutchison, by now 34 and with creaky knees, Andy Whing, Adam Virgo and Colin Cameron.

Dowie’s team had a dream start winning three of their first four games to go top and with two League Cup wins in August he was given the Manager of the Month award. City proceeded to win only one league game from the next eight and by the end of October the team had slipped to 14^th place. Amazingly they pulled off one of the finest Cup results in their history by winning 2-0 at Old Trafford, albeit against an under-strength United team. The performance was a great team effort but Michael Mifsud snatched the headlines with his two goals. Mifsud was an enigma, his speed was blistering and his shooting was powerful but often erratic, but he seemed only capable of scoring in the big games and away from home. The League Cup run ended at the next hurdle when City lost to Premiership West Ham.

The season was on the up in November and three league wins in a row lifted the Sky Blues to fifth place but a week later West Brom destroyed City’s promotion credentials. Mifsud was sent off after ten minutes and the Baggies ran out easy 4-0 winners. The hangover from this game carried over four games when only one point was gained but when City travelled to the Hawthorns in December they pulled off an outstanding 4-2 win. The mixed fortunes of the autumn were played out against the backdrop of the protracted takeover. In October two key players in the saga suddenly resigned. Paul Fletcher resigned in the hope that with him out of the picture the council would agree to sell their stake in the Ricoh. A week later Geoffrey Robinson stepped down as chairman, ‘to spend more time on parliamentary duties’.

Mr Coventry City Joe Elliott stepped into the chairman’s seat with a monumental task ahead of him. By now some £38 million in debt, City were battling to avoid going into administration and the potential deduction of 10 points. In November SISU had made a serious offer that appealed to most of the parties, but a second bid, from a consortium headed by Geoffrey Robinson was also on the table. On 14 December just half an hour before the club would go into administration, the deal with SISU was signed subject to acceptance by the shareholders. The deal was given the blessing of Robinson and Sir Derek Higgs, who between them represented over 70 percent of the shares. Several directors were nursing big losses including Robinson, who had lost close to £20 million.

SISU’s representative Ray Ranson was unveiled as the new chairman and claimed the club were “a penny short of being £40m in debt” but, with that burden now removed, “the financial situation is as good as any (club) in the country”. In January, with Ranson in control of City’s transfers the promising Walsall defenders Danny Fox and Scott Dann arrived for undisclosed fees thought to be in the region of £350,000 and £500,000 respectively. Despite the poor league form City once again pulled off a shock in the Cup, this time knocking out Blackburn Rovers 4-1 at Ewood Park. But inconsistency continued to blight league form and a 4-0 win over Barnsley was the only league win in six games after the New Year. On the Monday morning after a defeat at Preston had left City 20^th in the table, Dowie and Tim Flowers were sacked just eight days short of their first anniversary. Ranson said that Dowie wasn’t the modern type of manager he wanted at the helm of the club.

Coach Frankie Bunn and fitness coach John Harbin were placed in temporary charge to face Cardiff City and then West Brom in the fifth round of the FA Cup. When a rudderless City were humiliated 5-0 by the Baggies Ranson responded by announcing that Chris Coleman would be taking charge. Coleman got off to the perfect start with a 2-0 win over relegation rivals Leicester City. Defeats at Burnley and Scunthorpe brought everyone down to earth however and Coleman made no bones about the relegation battle he had inherited, admitting, ‘It could get worse before it gets better’. The new recruits Dann and Fox earned rave reviews and England under-21 call-ups as Coleman tightened things up at the back – but goals were still hard to come by. A 5-1 win at relegated Colchester revived hopes that the team could avoid going into the final game of the season needing a result, and they took on play-off chasing Wolves knowing that if they won or Leicester beat the struggling Owls they would be safe. But City drew and the Foxes lost, leaving fans facing their 11th nail-biting final- match decider since 1967.

An estimated 3,500 Sky Blue fans travelled to The Valley for the Sunday afternoon showdown but the players had a nightmare afternoon. Early in the second half with City 3-1 down the game became a non-event as all ears were tuned in to Stoke versus Leicester. The desperate Foxes hit the post and Stoke keeper Carlo Nash pulled off two top saves to deny the goal that would have sent City down and saved Leicester from the drop. At the final whistle there were surreal scenes as the fans relieved that the club were safe from relegation had no desire to salute the players, the manager or celebrating directors. However at least the purchase of the club had guaranteed the club’s survival at the end of seven woeful years.