2008-09 Season Review

Even the most optimistic Coventry City fans thought that Chris Coleman’s first full season in charge was ever going to end in a play-off position let alone automatic promotion, but at the end of February there was a better than good chance that a top half position could be achieved. Sadly in typical Coventry City fashion the team’s form sunk like the Titanic and thankfully they had enough points in the bag to avoid a relegation battle. 

In summary there were too few good days, especially at home. There were superb wins over the two promoted clubs Wolves and Birmingham plus a memorable Cup replay win over Blackburn. The win at Birmingham was immense and the Cup draw at Ewood a great result. Apart from those there were few memorable games and a dearth of goals. 

It is 38 years since City finished in the top six of any division and on the form of the last two months it is hard to imagine that dire run, the worst of any Football League club, being broken next season. 

On the positive side the club have, for the first time in a long time, got some outstanding prospects who are coveted by other clubs. Westwood, Fox, Dann and Gunnarsson would all command big fees if City were to consider selling them. With the club still losing substantial sums of money, I wouldn’t bet on all four of them being here at the end of next season.

Points:
The team collected 54 points, one more than last season’s total when they almost were relegated. 47 of those points came before 1 March in 34 games, the remaining seven came from the 12 games since 1 March.

Home Form:
The home record of won 8, drew 8, lost 7, was identical to the previous season. Goals scored were one more at 26 and the same number were conceded, again identical to the 2007-08 season. Between the Plymouth defeat in November and the Watford game only two home defeats were suffered in 13 games. One positive statistic! Four of the seven defeats were against mid-table sides: Plymouth, Watford, Bristol City and Crystal Palace. Only Burnley and Sheffield United of the top six won at the Ricoh.

Wins:
City won only thirteen league games, one less than last season and the worst since 2004-05. Only the three relegated teams won less games.

Away Form:
Five away games were won, one less than last year. The away form fell away badly however from February, with five of the eleven defeats coming in the last six away games. Like the home form City succumbed to average or poor sides too often, losing to Doncaster, Nottingham Forest, Plymouth, Ipswich, Derby and Watford. The outstanding away result was the win at St Andrews, with the other four wins coming at struggling sides. 

Biggest win:
The biggest victory was a 4-1 home win over Southampton, the only occasion that City scored more than two goals in a league game all season.

Biggest defeat:
The 0-4 defeat to Plymouth in April was the heaviest defeat with all the goals coming in the first half. This was City’s worst first half scoreline since a 5-0 defeat at Arsenal in 1975. 

Goals:
Keiren Westwood kept eleven clean sheets and helped the defence to the least goals conceded (58) since 2003-04 when 54 were let in. The statistics show that the problem was at the other end with only 47 goals scored, only one more than in 2002-03, the worst season since relegation from the Premier League. 

Final position:
The final position of 17th means that the Sky Blues have finished in the top ten only once in eight years of second tier football. Now they are the only club, bar long-serving Premiership clubs and recent promotees from the Conference, not to have been promoted or reached the play-offs since the play-offs were introduced in 1987. City are the third longest serving Championship club, after Preston and Burnley. Both Lancashire clubs have at least been in the play-offs (Preston have been there four times in eight years!).

Leading scorers:
Clinton Morrison was top scorer with 12 goals (10 league, 2 League Cup) No other player scored more than six (Elliott Ward) with Simpson and Fox netting five each.

Doubles:
City did the double over three sides – Birmingham, Norwich and Sheffield Wednesday. By beating Blues home and away, City did the double over a promoted club for the first time in their eight-year spell in this league. Four clubs, Bristol City, Watford, Cardiff and Plymouth achieved the feat against City.  It was the second season running that Bristol City and Watford have done the double. Watford have done the double over City four times in the last seven seasons they have met.

Appearances:
Keiren Westwood started every league game this season, the first City player to do this since Gary McAllister in 1999-00 and the first goalkeeper since Steve Ogrizovic in 1996-97. Keiren however did not play every minute of every game – he was twice substituted in league games. Freddy Eastwood appeared in every league game but nine of his 46 appearances were as a substitute. Clinton Morrison appeared in 45 games, coming off the bench in five games and missing only the Barnsley home game. Four players failed to start a game but made substitute appearances (Ashley Cain, Andy Marshall, Jermaine Grandison and Adam Walker. 

Players used:
Twenty nine players were used in league games – the lowest since the relegation season in 2000-01. In addition Danny Ireland made one League Cup appearance. Of the 30, 15 players made their debuts during the season, two of them loan players. In addition to the 30 players used, five more, Dimi Konstantopoulos, Chris Birchall, Jordan Clarke, Sean Fraser and Gary Borrowdale all sat on the bench as substitutes but were not used. 

Records:
By the end of the season Marcus Hall had clocked up 300 first team appearances for the club, lifting him to 15th in the club’s all-time appearance chart. This season Marcus has overtaken Willie Carr, Cyrille Regis, Micky Gynn and Ernie Machin. Michael Doyle reached 278 appearances by the end of the season and is now 20th on the all-time list. Isaac Osbourne (119), Elliott Ward (119) and Jay Tabb (104) all reached the 100-game milestone this season.

Substitutes:
For the second successive season Robbie Simpson made the most substitute appearances (19). Andy Marshall sat on the bench 41 times and was used twice.  Four City substitutes scored goals: McKenzie, Morrison, Ward and Simpson.  

Average attendance:
Home 17,411 (2007-08 19,124). Away 17,592 (2007-08 17,801). The home average attendance fell by almost 9% and was 18% down from the first season at the Ricoh in 2005-06. The average was however higher than any of the last four seasons at Highfield Road.

Highest home attendance:
31,407 watched the FA Cup sixth round tie with Chelsea (beating the Ricoh club record by over 3,000). The gate was City’s biggest home crowd since the visit of West Ham to Highfield Road for a League Cup semi-final in 1981 when the crowd was 35,411. The biggest league crowd was 22,637 for the visit of Birmingham in February.

Lowest home attendance:
14,621 v Burnley. 

Highest away attendance:
Away gates were steady with the return to the division of Derby and Nottingham Forest.  The biggest league crowd was 29,710 at Derby’s Pride Park in January 

Lowest away attendance:
8,462 v Blackpool.

Won from behind:
(1) Blackpool (h) for the second season running. 

Lost from in front:
(4) Wolves (a), Burnley (h), Preston (a) & Watford (h). Wolves were the first side to come from behind to beat City away since October 2005 when Leicester did it at the Walkers’ Stadium. Watford became the first side to come from two goals down to win at the Ricoh. 

Firsts:
Certain away wins were milestones. The wins at Hillsbough and Norwich the first since 1989, at Birmingham, the first since 1985, at Charlton, the first since 1967 and the first visit to Torquay since 1962 ended in victory. There was no win at Blackpool but they did score there for the first time since 1925! Preston’s Deepdale remains a bogey ground – City have now played 13 league games there and failed to win. City’s first ever league visit to Doncaster’s Keepmoat Stadium and the first meeting with Donny since 1952 ended in defeat. 

Hat-tricks:
(0) It is seven years since Lee Hughes scored City’s last league hat-trick (in a 6-1 win at Crewe). Tabb (v Southampton) and Simpson (v Aldershot) both scored two goals in a game.

Opposing hat-tricks:
(0) None.

Own goals: For City:
(0) None.

Own goals: By City:
(1) Turner (Preston a).

Penalties: For City:
(4) Ward (Norwich, QPR, Burnley and Barnsley (all at home). Ward also missed two (Southampton h and Sheffield United a). 

Penalties: Against City:
(3) McCormack (Cardiff a), Burton (Charlton a), Smith (Watford a).  Ebanks-Blake (Wolves h) was the only player to miss a penalty against City – Westwood saving (only the second by a City keeper at the Ricoh).

Fastest Goal scored:
37 seconds: Morrison (Ipswich h) – the fastest home goal since the move to the Ricoh Arena. This came just two weeks after Ward’s 75-second goal against Nottingham Forest.

Fastest Goal conceded:
2 minutes: Santa Cruz (Blackburn a).

Red cards: Coventry:
(2) Stephen Wright (QPR a), Danny Fox (Watford h).  

Red cards: Opponents:
(2) Hume (Barnsley a), Jihai (Sheffield U a).

Television:
City appeared on live television four times, three times on Sky and once on ITV (the Chelsea Cup game). Of the three Sky games City won two (Southampton (h) and Birmingham (a)) but lost the third at Reading.

Cup form:
City were drawn against non-league opposition in the FA Cup for the first time since 1997 when they faced Kidderminster Harriers in round three. After beating the Harriers they faced a second Conference side Torquay in the fourth round. For the second season in a row City knocked Premier League Blackburn out of the FA Cup. The victory, in a replay at the Ricoh, was the first time since 1963 that the Sky Blues have eliminated a team from a higher status from the competition in a replay. It was also City’s first FA Cup victory over a Premier League side at the Ricoh.

Brothers:
In the space of five days two City players came face to face with their brothers in a Championship game. On Easter Monday Elliott Ward faced his brother Darren, who was on loan from Wolves to Charlton. Then on the following Saturday at Forest, Isaac Osbourne was on opposite sides to his brother Isaiah who was on loan from Aston Villa. It was the second time that the Ward brothers have faced each other since Elliott came to City. The only other known occurrence of this since the war was Dave Bennett facing his brother Gary in 1984-85 season.

Farewell:
Several former Coventry City players and staff passed away in the last twelve months including Regis Genaux, Alan Moore, Alan Daley, Ernie Ward and Tommy Casey (former coach).

Awards:
Gunnarsson took most of the Player of the Season awards, including the important Fans award. Westwood and Fox were named in the PFA Championship team of the season, the first City players ever honoured in this poll.

4 July 2008
Away
Attendance: 300
FC RFE VOCKLABRUCK 1-2 COVENTRY CITY
Scorers: Rade Djokic (41) – Donovan Simmonds (59), Robbie Simpson (72)
Coventry City: Keiran Westwood, Steven Wright, Daniel Fox, Ben Turner, Scott Dann, Guillaume Beuzelin, Michael Mifsud, Aron Gunnarson, Leon Best, Leon McKenzie, Jay Tabb
Subs: Danny Ireland, Chris Birchall, Julian Gray, Marcus Hall, Kevin Kyle, Donovan Simmonds, Manuel Cotto
FC RFE Vocklabruck: Feuerfeil Markus, Kreuzwirth Florian, Winkler Thomas, Feichtinger Andreas, Winsauer Michael, Obermair Michael, Djokic Rade, Rottensteiner Diego, Falk Christian, Riedl Peter, Winkler Bernd, Laganda Thomas, Hackinger Dominik, Wieser Marco, Mattes Denny, Schößwendter Christoph, Toth Hannes, Steiner Mario
Referee: C Lo Fara

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12 July 2008
Away – at Warwick University
Attendance:
SOLIHULL MOORS 1-1 COVENTRY CITY
Scorers: Manuel Curto
Coventry City:
Solihull Moors: 

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16 July 2008, 6.30pm
Away
Attendance: 30
FC BRASOV (Rominia) 3-1 COVENTRY CITY
Scorers: Marius Maldararasunu (2), Doel Zaharia (55), Atilla Hadnagy (57) – Leon Best (39)
Coventry City (1st half): Westwood, Wright, Fox, Hall, Ward, Beuzelin, Mifsud, Tabb, Simpson, Best, Gray
Coventry City (2nd half): Westwood (Ireland 63), Birchall, Borrowdale, Dann, Thornton, McKenzie, Kyle, Eastwood (Morrison 71), Gunnarssen, Simmonds
Booked: Simpson, Niclaue

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Not even the most optimistic Coventry City fans thought that Chris Coleman’s first full season in charge was ever going to end in a play-off position let alone automatic promotion, but at the end of February there was a better than good chance that a top half position could be achieved. 

Sadly in typical Coventry City fashion the team’s form sunk like the Titanic although thankfully they had enough points in the bag to avoid a relegation battle. 

In summary there were too few good days, especially at home. There were superb wins over the two promoted clubs Wolves and Birmingham plus a memorable Cup replay win over Blackburn. The win at Birmingham was immense and the Cup draw at Ewood a great result. Apart from those there were few memorable games and a dearth of goals. 

On the positive side the club had, for the first time in a long time, got some outstanding prospects who are coveted by other clubs. Keiren Westwood, Danny Fox, Scott Dann and Aaron Gunnarsson would all command big fees if City were to consider selling them – Westwood & Fox were both named in the PFA Championship team of the season. With the club still losing substantial sums of money, nobody would bet on all four of them being there at the end of the next season.

After the narrow escape from relegation the previous season, manager Chris Coleman was justifiable in seeking new players. His predecessor, Iain Dowie’s signings the previous summer had turned out to be disastrous and several were jettisoned including Michael Hughes, Ellery Cairo, Aarjan De Zeeuw, Julian Gray (on loan to Fulham) and Gary Borrowdale (on loan to QPR). David McNamee, beset by injuries for two seasons also left. Coleman was given the go-ahead to sign goalkeeper Keiron Westwood (from Carlisle), Stephen Wright (Sunderland), Guillaume Beuzelin (Hibs), Aaron Gunnarsson (AZ Alkmaar) and Clinton Morrison (Crystal Palace). All these players were on small fees or free transfers. Wolves striker Freddy Eastwood was the major acquisition of the summer and cost the club around £1.2m. The squad was big but such was the state of the transfer market that several players not in Coleman’s plans had to be retained because of contractual commitments. 

Three wins in the first week of the season including the traditional win at Barnsley, boosted fans expectations but the side’s inconsistencies were soon clear for all to see. Despite the presence of Morrison & Eastwood, goals were hard to come by and apart from a 4-1 home win over Southampton wins were scarce especially at home where only three of the first twelve league games were won. 

Injuries were rife in the camp with Leon McKenzie, Isaac Osbourne, Stephen Wright and Scott Dann all out for long periods. Captain Dann’s spell out with a shoulder injury incurred in early December coincided with a pick up in form and only three defeats in 15 games came during his absence with his stand-in Ben Turner showing the club had another great talent on their books. By the time Dann returned in February the club had moved a few places up the league to mid-table but any play-off hopes were optimistic. However in the FA Cup Premiership Blackburn were knocked out for the second season running in a thrilling replay after a fighting draw at Ewood. 

Coleman was given support by the board in the January window and David Bell joined from Norwich, Scots centre-half James McPake arrived from Livingston but the books had to be partially balanced and Jay Tabb joined Reading for £500,000 having made it clear he would sign a new deal. Kevin Kyle finally left too, joining Kilmarnock. Two young loanees came for a month, Jordan Henderson (Sunderland) who looked an excellent prospect and Chelsea’s Lee Sawyer who barely featured after an anonymous debut.

Chris Birchall went on loan to Carlisle before having his contract cancelled, the enigmatic Kevin Thornton went on loan to Brighton and Dimi Konstantopoulos was loaned briefly to Swansea. Somehow City managed to permanently offload Borrowdale to QPR and Michael Mifsud was ushered out to Barnsley until the end of the season when his contract would expire.

January & February were the best two months of the season and three 20,000 crowds saw the Blackburn cup win and excellent home wins over league leaders Wolves and promotion aspirants Birmingham.

The FA Cup run came to an end at the hands of Chelsea in the Sixth round. City missed the influence of the injured Fox but were not disgraced and at least got a share of the receipts from a near 32,000 record crowd.

Sadly the season petered out after the Chelsea game with just one win in 11 games. The only victory came at home to Doncaster courtesy of a brilliant David Bell goal. The lowest point came at Plymouth where the team conceded four goals in 22 minutes and Coleman said afterwards he would like to drop all eleven players. Sadly his squad wasn’t big enough to carry out his threat. In the final home game there was another capitulation – 2-0 up against Watford they somehow lost 3-2.