As John Lennon sang, “another year’s over a new one’s just begun.” So yet another boring year were not much had happened apart from the football itself, if only it could be that simple for City?
We pushed for a play off place with a ten point handicap, failed, sold anyone of any value, held a mass rally, rebuild the team, played in four different venues, Northampton, the Ricoh, a Paddyfield and finally a rugby ground before starting a relegation fight include being beaten by a town more famous for its sauce.
In 2014 we have used 47 players, the highest number in our league history, 13 of those came from our youth set up, and one more than the previous year and 16 came in on loan this beats the previous record of nine players on loan in seasons 2004 and 2005.
This year we have earned 47 points which is the lowest since 2011 when we only managed 40. Out of the 87 years as a league side we have had 18 worse years. We have scored 50 League Goals, one higher than the terrible year of 2011, we had 32 worse years in terms of goal scoring out of 87 since becoming a league side.
January (Don’t go, don’t go)
City started the year in 12th place some 9 points off the play offs if it wasn’t for the ten point deduction City would have been right in the running.
First game of the year was a tough one away to 6th place Rotherham. Rotherham’s New York Stadium was rumoured to be the similar to the one Sisu hoped to build as they were said to be close on revealing the site. The line-up for the first game of the year was in goal Joe Murphy, with Cyrus Christie, Andy Webster, Jo rdan Willis and Blair Adams in defence with Carl Baker, Franck Moussa, Billy Daniels and Connor Thomas in midfield leaving Callum Wilson and Leon Clarke, up front.
Rumours were doing the rounds about City players as Spurs were supposed to be in for Christie whilst Huddersfield and Wolves were fighting over Wilson. Rotherham started the better and took the lead, Pressley was sent off by the referee before City hit back in great style in the 2nd half and really got back into the game when a home defender was ordered off after a foul on Wilson, City scored from the spot kick before minutes later Wilson went down in a fair challenge but had to be stretchered off with a shoulder injury. City went 2-1 up before Thomas went off injured then Rotherham won a penalty, saved by Murphy becoming only the third keeper in our history to save three spot kicks in a single season. Rotherham won a corner deep in injury time and their keeper joined the attack but the ball was cleared and fell to Baker who coolly slotted it home form near the halfway line and City won a remarkable game 3-1. Chris Dagnall, Aaron Phillips and Adam Barton all came off the bench in that game.
Three days later City were in F.A. Cup action away to struggling Championship side Barnsley and it couldn’t be considered a shock when City came away with a victory with a late goal in a 2-1 win. Playing for the first time in the year was Jon Fleck, and new signing Denzel Slager from Dutch Club R.K.C. Waalijk, scoring for Barnsley that day was an energetic midfielder called Jim O’Brien. City came from a goal down with Leon Clarke scoring the winner as it turned out it would be the last of his goals for the Sky Blues.
City drew Arsenal away in the 4th Round. Finally a solid rumour about the new location of the mythical ground was to be in Exhall but residents pledge to fight proposals for the ground. In the end it was a false dawn as the club claimed they were still on the verge of buying ground somewhere else. City played their first “home” game of the year on a Sunday as just over 2,000 turned up to see City take a two goal lead with 8 minutes to go against Crawley but still end up 2-2. Jordan Clarke from the start and Ryan Haynes from the bench played their first games of the year.
A day later a massive bombshell to City’s play off ambitions as Leon Clarke handed in a transfer request. The next day City strengthen the defence by signing Danny Seaborne when we left the transfer embargo, before turning down a half million bid from Wolves for Leon.
News on the ground as Council leader Ann Lucas wanted to move on from dispute over the ground. Next up was a trip to Preston, infamously a ground we have never won a league game on in seventeen attempts. Danny Seaborne made his debut but City seemed to be heading for a single goal defeat very deep into injury time as Preston wasted time but they were punished by a brilliant long range goal from Moussa as City rescued a point.
Then all roads led to London as 5,000+ City fans headed to Arsenal played on a Friday night. There was a planned protest by “Keep Cov in Cov” group who handed out posters with the large word “Why?” on one side, that was to be held up after 35 minutes by the away fans to represent the 35 miles from home City were forced to play. The protest happened as the City fans sang “I want to go home, I want to go home, back to the Ricoh, the Ricoh’s our home”. This happened but many posters found their way in the home ends as Arsenal fans in a show of solidarity joined in. Then after 61 minutes to represent 1961 when Jimmy Hill became manager, the other side was held up to the sound of the Sky Blue Song, with the message “When?” The game itself saw City go down 4-0 to a very strong Arsenal side and City left the cup with our heads held high. Arsenal went on to lift the F.A. Cup beating Hull 3-2 in the final.
Days after the Arsenal game City turned down a 2nd bid form Wolves for Clarke. The next night an injury hit City made their third trip of the season to play Leyton Orient. George Thomas made his debut. First choice forward, Leon Clarke was out with an alleged injury as he looked set to join his home town club of Wolves but City went down to the promotion chasing team 2-0.
City weren’t playing at the Ricoh but others were as Leicester U21’s organised a couple of games at the ground.
Finally Leon Clarke rejoined Wolves for three quarters of a million, a move that disappointed the manager and saddened the fans as Leon had a place in the first team, was scoring goals and was popular, most fans warned him he would not have it as easy at Wolves.
To date he has scored two goals in twenty five games before being released for a loan period, should have listened to the City fans.
Pressley acted quickly to replace the forward in came Swansea’s highly rated Rory Donnelly but after only one training session he returned home for personal reasons and has yet to play for Swansea. The other forward seemed a good transfer as Nathan Delfouneso came in from Villa, he was the 19th player that City got from that team but most of them were failures.
It was announced that no more players were to leave before the deadline but another club that wasn’t City was to play on the ground as a non-league Northamptonshire side called FootballCv Reds became yet another non Coventry team to play at the ground.
February (Month of purification, City are purified of a play off bid)
City started the month in 12th place, 12 points behind the play offs but only 7 points above the drop zone. The first day of the month saw something that hasn’t happened for 17 years as a home game was called off. Sixfields had turned into Swampfields so the Walsall game was rearranged.
Finally Sisu and A.C.L. seemed to agree on something as they both backed calls from fans to have a Parliamentary debate over the running of the club. First game of the month was at a rainy Bristol in mid week. Nathan Delfouneso made his debut and City played well to come away with a 2-1 win with a lively and pacey winger called Mark Marshall coming off the bench for his debut.
Four days later another wet day saw City travel to face Notts County. The Magpies were fighting a relegation battle so hopes were high. Murphy played his 120th game only 13 keepers have bettered that. This week also saw the passing of the former City and Notts County player Tony Hateley who scored five goals for City in twenty games. It was the biggest away following in England that day as the fans staged another “Why” protest but we returned in a right grumpy mood as City crumbled 3-0 with the blame for the second goal being levelled at Marshall by the management for failing to pick up a six foot plus defender. A new player did make his bow, Dylan McGeouch a loan transfer from Celtic who the manager had great faith in but proved to be a big disappointment. City failed to get a shot on target and almost certainly signalled the end of any hope of a play off challenge.
More signings arrived at City both from the Premiership, Arsenal’s Chuba Akpom a forward but a clause in his contract meant he was allowed to return to Arsenal to play youth games and Q.P.R.’s Michael Patrasso a wide player who became the first Canadian to play for City. They both had to wait for their debuts as the Bradford game at Swamfields was called off.
Finally a game was on at Northampton as City played Carlisle in front of a new record low crowd of 1,603. Patrasso and Akpom both made their debuts but to no avail as City lost 2-1 and slipped closer the relegation zone.
Next up was a trip to Tranmere as Steve Waggott promised to invest money into Northampton’s pitch for next season describing it as a “pudding of a pitch”. He also stated that they would return to the Ricoh if the price is right and Sisu wanted an independent valuation of the ground which came out of a meeting a day before.
Tranmere were relegated at the end of the season but still managed a double over City scoring eight goals, five at Northampton and winning 3-1 on their own patch the only bright sparks for City were Marshall and Patrasso who score a consolation goal for City.
March (The month of the god of war as Wilson rides back to save City)
We started the month in 16th place 2 points above the drop zone and 15 off a play off place. City again played on a Sunday at Northampton where just under 2,000 saw a 0-0 bore draw where City failed to get a shot on target. The good news was Wilson was back from his injury but would he be the same player without Clarke alongside him?
Mid week saw a big dilemma for City fans who also liked to watch England as the Nation was beating Denmark 1-0 in a World Cup warm-up with a goal from former City Youth team player Daniel Sturridge, 1,637 turned up for a local derby with Walsall and they saw a 2-1 win, Wilson was back on the score sheet but it was Delfouneso who scored in the last ten minutes to give City our first “home” victory in the league since Boxing Day.
A few days later it was announced City were seven millions pounds in debt despite Sisu claiming for years they were debt free. Steven Pressley had reached his first year anniversary in charge of the team becoming only the 5th manager to achieve this since the top flight days.
To celebrate City had a game in Colchester but no one was in celebratory mood as City lost 2-1.
City were on the road again for another long trip this time to Gillingham and no one could complain about the entertainment. Gillingham took the lead after Seaborne had been sent off for bringing down former City player Cody McDonald, they scored from the spot kick, then Wilson levelled from the spot for his third goal in three games, Gillingham retook the lead before City were deigned a strong penalty shout, then at the other end the referee played advantage after a certain penalty for Gillingham but when they didn’t score he angered the away fans by giving the pen, 3-1 to the home team. Then Wilson was brought down for another penalty but no red card despite him having only the keeper to beat, sub Baker made it 3-2, before Gillingham wrapped it up from distance after a mistake from Murphy, entertaining stuff but another defeat.
For the third game running City went two down this time at “home” to Port Vale in front of just over 1,600 fans but City battled back with two goals in the last nine minutes, Wilson scoring in injury time to salvage a point.
Good news for Franck Moussa as he won League One goal of the season for his chip at “home” against Leyton Orient earlier in the season.
Next up was a tricky trip to Brentford who where flying high in League One but the Sky Blues surprised the 2nd placed team when Wilson gave City an early lead this meant we had scored the 5th highest number of league goals at this time since the 2nd World War. Murphy then saved yet another penalty, despite this Brentford proved why they would end up being promoted by winning 3-1 leaving City every closer to the drop.
Finally Pressley’s patients broke with Akpom who seemed more interested in playing for Arsenal’s kids than a first team game and he ripped up his loan and replaced him with Anton Robinson on loan from Huddersfield.
Meanwhile Akpom returned to Arsenal where to date he had made one sub appearance in the League Cup but he feels he is closing in on a league game.
Next game was a massive a one at Northampton as City played bottom team Stevenage in a six-pointer, again the crowd was just under 1,700 but the fans that turned up saw a debut for Robinson and for another forward Nathan Eccleston who came off the bench after being a loan signing from Blackpool one of the only clubs that can rival City as a “basket case”. With all the attention on the forwards it was Danny Seaborne who scored the only goal it was our first clean sheet in six games and moved City away from the drop zone.
More loan reinforcements came in as David Prutton arrived on loan from Forest. Final game of the month was against another relegation threatened team as City fans made the familiar trip to Crewe. Prutton made his debut and City fans went home happy with a Wilson brace putting him top of the scoring charts City had scored more goals at this time of the season than for 50 years. Wilson had scored seven goals in the month all but securing League One football for the following season but he would never score for City again.
April (The month of the fool as Sisu are proved to be clowns)
City started the month 9 points above the drop zone and the same distance to the play offs with only six games remaining.
April Fools Day saw the first round of court cases resolved and it was Sisu who went one down when their case against The Alan Higgs Trust was thrown out of court.
The same day saw City earn a point in a bore draw in Northampton against Bradford in front of another small crowd. It wasn’t the quality of Sisu in Coventry that was the only bad thing as sand from the Sahara meant the air quality was the worst for ten years whilst the board were maybe the worst in our history.
Meanwhile some success for Sisu in the courts as the judge didn’t force them to pay the £29,000 and it was declared on unhonourable draw.
Franchise club M.K Dons were next at Northampton and came away with a 2-1 win.
Rumours started to appear about next season’s signings and one player in the sights was alleged to be the Bolton forward Tom Eaves but nothing came of it he went on to play for Shrewsbury and Yeovil this season scoring twice in over twenty five games.
Next up was a short trip to play off chasing Peterborough on the twenty fifth anniversary of the Hillsborough Disaster, City looked poor and lost by a single goal. A mysterious group emerged wanting to buy the club but fans had to donate first.
On Good Friday City succumbed to yet another “home” defeat this time against Swindon it was rumoured that Wolves would come in for Wilson? With rumours that Mark Marshall was to sign a contract City came away with a point after an extremely dull 0-0 away at Oldham.
Just over four thousand turned up at Northampton to watch the last “home” league game of the season. There was a staged protest and even some Wolves fans joined in inside the ground the game itself ended in a 1-1 draw with a late equaliser from Delfouneso meaning City were mathematically safe.
The average crowd for City at Sixfields was 2,348 the lowest in League One and only three teams in League Two had lower, Accrington Stanley, Dagenham and Redbridge and Morecombe, six Skrill Premiership teams had a higher average, in all City’s average fell by 78.38%.
May (The month of the spring-time of life: youth, no spring-time for Sisu in the courts)
Last game of the season was at Sheffield United and City went down 2-1 ending the season in 18th place which would have been 8th with the ten points back. Callum Wilson ended up in League One team of the season whilst City had the 8th biggest away support outside the Premiership. Those fans that went to every game spent £81 on programmes, £201.50 on petrol based on five sharing a car, £547 on tickets and time taken going to away games from Coventry 248 hours and 40 minutes.
Days after the season ended Sisu were back in court and they lost their case against the Council. Near the end of the month more transfer rumours emerged as Christie was attracting the interest of the M.L.S whilst Huddersfield were eying up Murphy.
The Closed season (The Judicial Review, The World Cup, a new team and the march)
City seemed to be slow in deciding the venue for the pre season tour as Italy emerged as the favourite but the club refused to confirm this. Pressure started to mount as City turned down an initial bid from Bournemouth for Wilson and then the next day turned down a bid from Forest for the forward.
Finally The Judicial Review started in the courts and the judge began by blaming Sisu for A.C.L’s financial problems.
Meanwhile City turned down bids three and four for Wilson from two other clubs he was a man in demand.
The greatest football show on earth opened as the World Cup kicked off in Brazil with a lucky win for the hosts against Croatia. Back in England City turned down bid number five for Wilson and a second attempt from Bournemouth, Sisu seemed to be wanting to hold on to the player or at least get a good price. In the World Cup the games kicked off in England’s group with a shock win for Costa Rica against Uruguay before England lost narrowly to Italy. Playing that day were two former City players, Daniel Sturridge who never played for the first team and Jodan Henderson who had a stint on loan, he became only the 10th player to leave City and go on to play in a World Cup the others were John Aloisi, Gary Breen, Kevin Gallacher, Gary Gillespie, Mark Hatley, Cobi Jones, who also played in the World Cup before becoming a City player, Robbie Keane, Stuart Peace and Roy Wegerle.
There were twenty other players that played in the World Cup before joining City and only five players that played in the World Cup as a City player. Away from the World Cup and City drew recently relegated Cardiff City at “home” in the League Cup.
A few days later it was confirmed that City will kick off the season in Bradford. On the Ricoh front the Keep Coventry in Coventry pressure group promised to pay the rent at the ground for the year if City returned and also were looking to buy Sisu out. Back to reality, in the World Cup England faced a crunch game against Uruguay and after a Rooney equaliser looked set for at least a point until Liverpool’s Suarez scored to win it. The next day Costa Rica were at it again as the beat Italy and England were eliminated. England ended statically their worst ever World Cup with a scoreless draw with Costa Rica. Meanwhile world wide headlines were made in the other group game as Suarez was sent off for, not for the first time, biting a player.
As City seemed to be hanging on to Wilson some of our own targets were revealed, the midfield hard-man Toumani Diagouraga was one target but he decided to fight for his place at Brentford where he has only played 15 times but has been a regular in recent weeks.
The Second Round of the World Cup started as a poor Brazil with their vastly overrated star Neymar sneaked past Chile on penalties and Columbia did everyone a favour by eliminating Uruguay with James, pronounced Jamez, Rodriguez the star scoring two, one of them the goal of the tournament. Next up saw a good game as the Dutch beat Mexico and Costa Rica continued the fairytale getting past negative Greece on penalties.
Back in the courts and Sisu lost the case ending their plan to sue themselves into the ownership of the ground or so we thought. Maybe if they realised Coventry was the fastest growing City in Britain outside of London they would have paid a decent price for the ground years ago but that would be good business a phrase they never heard of.
More fun in the World Cup as France despatched Nigeria but Algeria came very close to knocking out Germany before the Europeans won in extra time. Another pre tournament favourite then just about made it through as Argentina beat Switzerland after extra time before the entertaining Americans also fell out of the tournament in extra time to skilful Belgium. The America team were watched by vast crowds back in the States filling public squares just like everywhere else in the World.
Last season’s team started to break up as Blair Adams, after 64 game in all competitions, was allowed to move on to Notts County where he became a regular, Mark Marshall, a very popular player was also allowed to move on maybe because he didn’t get on with the manager, Marshall ended up at Port Vale where his pace and skill made him popular with the fans. A chance to play in the Championship was too strong for Franck Moussa who moved to Charlton. At The Valley Moussa had been used mainly as an impact player appearing 16 times, 10 from the bench with one goal at time of writing.
The replacements soon were coming in first up was Peterborough’s Danny Swanson a wide or midfield player who played well against City the previous season.
On the 4th the inevitable happened as Wilson was sold to Bournemouth for a reported £2.25 where he went on to be on of the stars of the Championship and earned a called up to the England U21 team. Coming the other way were The Cherries reserve keeper who conceded 24 goals in 11 starts before being dropped and Mohamed Coulibaly a skilful pacey winger who only played seven times the previous season both on half season loans, City fans were not that impressed.
Coming in permanently and with glowing tributes from the Barnsley fans was Jim O’Brien.
Back in Brazil the quarter finals got under way as Germany narrowly beat France and Brazil squeezed past Columbia but their talisman Neymar was stretchered off with a back injury.
More signings came in and City landed an international, admittedly it was Benin, as French born Reda Johnson signed. In the World Cup Argentina beat Belgium and the Costa Rican dream ended as they were edged out on penalties by the Netherlands.
Football never ceases to surprise and there never was such an International as the first semi final as the hosts looked as poor as a Brazilian team as ever been and were ripped apart time and time again by Germany who ended up breaking all sorts of record with a 7-1 victory, “just like watching Brazil” a song sung when a team was playing well would now become an insult. The 2nd semi was nowhere as dramatic as Argentina and Dutch drew 0-0 but the South Americans made it through on penalties.
Another young talent was let go from City as Cyrus Christie, after just under 120 games left for Derby an automatic promotion battle and amazingly a call up from the Republic of Ireland.
With Sisu selling any player with talent they announced they would be willing to talk to A.C.L whilst the appeal over the court case was still on. Most fans believed Sisu overture to A.C.L was just to try placate the fans or dampen down the event was to take place the next day. Saturday July 12th on a glorious hot day 7,000 City fans assembled where the future King Henry IV almost fought a duel but this was a peaceful gathering.
The event opened with the words “the sun always shines on the righteous” before the Coventry band “Yes Sunshine” played. Finally the assembled masses on Gosford Green set off on the march to Broadgate. Cars stopped, beeped their horns, the 7,000 marched down The Sky Blue Way and there were a fair sprinkling of other fans there as well showing solidarity with the Sky Blues fans.
In Broadgate a place that was originally the approach to Coventry’s own castle. The “Keep” that day was represented by the double-decker bus that paraded the team through the City with the F.A. Cup back in 87. Speeches were conducted from the top deck in front of a mass of sky blue to an audiences around three times the size of the home gates at Northampton. Most fans went home thinking that despite the public show of unity nothing will change.
The next day Germany deservedly won the World Cup beating Argentina in the final after extra time.
Signings were still coming into the City and for once a player people had hear of, as Danny Pugh, a fullback came in from Leeds and joining him was another forward in the shape of Shaun Miller from Sheffield United he had a strike rate of a goal every four and a half games.
Yet another forward joined the next day and this one was put down as the marquee signing of the summer Nottingham Forest’s Marcus Tudgay on a one year contract, he had scored 83 league goals in his career just over one in every four games.
Despite the raft of new forwards City fans were worried about the lack of height in the front line.
Finally the pre-season tour fixtures were confirmed normally these fixtures would have been arranged a month or so ago giving fans time to plan a holiday around them if they wish but it was like if the club didn’t want any fans to travel.
City kicked off pre-season in what is becoming an annual event as City played Nuneaton but the weather was far from what you would image summer would be as a torrential downpour forced the referee to abandon the game early in the 2nd half.
Days later City jetted off to Italy with only a few City fans to watch. The idea of going abroad was to foster team unity and to catch some sun but the best laid plans of mice and men as it rained throughout the tour. City kicked off with a 2-0 win against A.S. Roma B before going down to Chievo 3-0 in a game that Pressley had wrongly said was never going to take place, possibly in a bid to stop supporters travelling, before the final game in which four players were sent off, two from each side, the game ended scoreless draw with Kalloni.
One player notably absent was Carl Baker who seemed to be no longer in the plans of Steve Pressley as Leyton Orient were showing an interest along with Adam Barton whose place on the tour had been taken by Pressley's son.
Back in Britain and dry weather City lost 1-0 away to Newport County. The next day City travelled to Boreham Wood's ground and came back with an impressive 1-0 win against Championship side Watford with Tugay scoring who was looking impressive.