As John Lennon sang “another year’s over a new one’s just begun.” When football historians look back on the history of Coventry City, 2013 will earn plenty of column inches as it has been a truly remarkable year, as we have witnessed a Play Off push, just missing out on Wembley, three managers, twenty points deduction, a young home build team battling against the odds, a take over in the looses sense of the word and oh yes, slightly moving to a totally different place to play football.
In 2013 we have used (39) players, 12 of those came from our youth set up, 7 of them are from Coventry, this is more remarkable since in our entire league history we have only used 52 Coventry born players so this year we have seen 13.5% of the Coventry born players that have ever played for us.
This year we have earned, not included the 20 we have had taken from us 67 points which the equal with 2006 the best since relegation from the Premier and the joint fourteenth highest points in a year in our history.
We have scored 73 League Goals, which is the greatest number in a calendar year since 1966 and the joint ninetieth best of all time. In all competitions City fans have seen 171 goals scored and conceded this is the eight highest in our history.
January (Don’t go, don’t go)
City started the year as League One’s top scorers sitting just two points off the play off places and only nine behind automatic promotion this was largely down the transformation we had under manager Mark Robins after a poor start to the season.
As normal there were plenty of transfer rumours and most of our best players were linked with moves away but it was the fate of on loan David McGoldrick that concerned most.
First game of the year was at home on New Years Day against Shrewsbury, could City gain revenge for the humiliating 4-1 defeat earlier in the season?
Good news on the transfer front was prolific goal scorer Leon Clarke had just signed. A 15,000+ crowd saw the first team of the year and it was in goal Joe Murphy with Cyrus Christie, William Edjenguele, Richard Wood and Blair Adams at the back with Gary McSheffrey, Steve Jennings, Franck Moussa, John Fleck and Carl Baker in midfield with David McGoldrick up front but City’s poor home form continued and for the first time under Robins we failed to score in a 1-0 defeat, James Bailey, Adam Barton came off the bench and so did Leon Clarke for his debut and for a while formed what could be a deadly partnership with McGoldrick.
Next game was in the F.A. Cup a glamour tie away to Spurs and City took 5,000+ fans down to “The Smoke” for the game. City played in the 87 kit as Jordan Clarke played for the first time that year and was given the task to stop the player that would soon become the most expensive in the World, Gareth Bale. City were three down by half time but played better in the second as Connor Thomas played for the first time that year coming off the bench. Near the end of the game City fans taunted the Spurs fans by singing, “You must be s**t, you must be s**t, Arsenal scored six, you must be s**t”. It wasn’t all good humour, as some so-called City fans in the lower stand smashed up one of the toilets before leaving the ground.
Apart from losing players another fear was loosing the manager and this was heightened when some bookmakers made Robins the favourite for the Doncaster job.
David McGoldrick had finished his loan period with City had moved back to Forest but after claiming he liked City because it wasn’t too far to travel he agreed a move to Ipswich after they had promised to buy him off Forest.
After 65 games and a single goal, if you count the Johnson’s Paint Trophy, left back Chris Hussey left the club for A.F.C. Wimbledon and he helped them avoid relegation to non-league football.
Next up was another cup game as we played in the last eight of the J.P.T. but on a Thursday night thanks to Sky’s “You play whenever we tell you” policy. We entertained Preston in front of 12,000 fans paying a fiver to get in. In charge of Preston was the arch villain in the shape of Graham Westley who already had his run-ins with Robins, who described his brand of football as “horrible”. City took the lead but North End fought back to lead 2-1 the 2nd goal saw Westley and his staff celebrating in front of the home dug out. Steven Elliott came on for the first his first game of the year to try to save City’s Wembley dream. Into injury time and it looked like an exit for City until suddenly Baker found room and blasted past the Preston keeper to level it up and force penalties, or so we thought and a minute later in the 5th minute of injury time their injured keeper, they had already used all their subs, couldn’t hold a Baker cross and Leon Clarke was first there for his first goal and to spark wild celebrations around the Ricoh, City had snatched an amazing victory from defeat and City fans could relive it all again as a Preston fans recorded injury time thinking Preston were one step away from Wembley and this was posted on U-Tube for everyone to watch.
The next day Mark Robins won Manager of the Month whilst the departed David McGoldrick won Player of the Month two days before his Ipswich debut he went on to notch four goals for Ipswich in front of the quietest home fans in the league.
With the game on Thursday our next game was pushed back to Sunday meaning a long trek in winter to Carlisle. City conceded early and played poorly going down to a single goal defeat one of the only highlights was a cameo performance from a late sub on the wing who played for the first time in two years his name Callum Wilson. The small number of City fans made their way home through the snow disappointed.
The next day City fans learnt that all that stood between them and Wembley was a two-legged affair against Crewe. Then significant news as the Coventry Council bailed out A.C.L. who were struggling not helped by Sisu still refusing to pay the rent but many saw it as strange, that the Council has members on the A.C.L. board.
On that day with the thermometer hitting minus three, City entertained League Leaders Tranmere at home. The crowd was just over ten thousand with a very small contingent from Birkenhead. The big surprise in team news was that almost forgotten player David Bell was on the bench but wasn’t used as Leon Clarke scored his first league goal for the club condemning Rovers to only their third away league defeat of the season as City pushed within three points behind a Play-Off place.
The following Saturday City had a chance to get even closer to a Play-Off place as we played struggling Oldham at home. Good news before the game as Blair Adams had signed a contract to stay at the club. The bad weather kept the crowd down to just over ten thousand as snow had to be cleared away form the ground to keep the proud boast of never having a game called off there. City were heading to victory in the game with two minutes left Oldham levelled only for Bailey to pop up with a very late winner as City moved to 7th only goal difference away from the top six.
Underused forward Cody McDonald was sent on loan to Gillingham after finding it hard to break into City’s first team, only using one forward, McDonald played well down there scoring four goals in seven league games.
Next on the road was Preston, could City finally win a league game there and enter the top six? Waiting for the team was that pleasant Mr Westley and a truly awful pitch, which seemed to have tractor tyre marks in the centre circle.
City lead but came back with a 2-2 draw. Last day of the month and another forward departs as Roy O’Donovan was transferred to Northampton the forward played twenty four times for City with one measly goal one of the worse strike rates in our history but at Sixfields hid did a lot better scoring five goals in fifteen games helping The Cobblers into the play offs.
February (Month of purification, City are purified of a manager)
At the start of the month City stood in 7th place only two points away from the top six, twelve away from automatic promotion and we had scored more league goals away from home then anyone else.
First game of the month was away to Sheffield United on a Friday night and City came away with a win thanks to two Leon Clarke goals one coming late on, this kept City in touch with the top six.
Trophy Fever hit the City as 32,000 fans packed out the Rioch to see City’s first leg in the Area Final against Crewe it was the biggest crowd ever to watch a game in this competition apart from the Grand Finals. Halftime no goals but then a blow as Murphy was injured and Chris Dunn appeared for the first time this year but things didn’t go well as Crewe scored against the run of play and their keeper, Phillips was in outstanding form at this point Robins threw on Callum Ball for his first game of the year but Crewe scored immediately after and late into the game as they caught City on the counter-attack and made it three! City fans left the ground in shock, how much damage would this result do?
A few days later City signed Danny Philliskirk on an under–21 contract to see if he could make the grade, he never did. Only a third of that crowd turned up next Saturday to see if City could keep the play-off dreams alive when we played hosted to a higher placed Yeovil team but City lost to a single goal the poor state of the Ricoh pitch didn’t help matters but now City were drifting dangerously away from the top six.
If a home defeat and almost being knocked out of the J.P.T wasn’t bad enough worst was to follow as Mark Robins suddenly quit the club as rumours circulated about administration. City fans were shocked and angry that he had jumped ship but Robins went through administration at Rotherham and he didn’t want to experience that again, he left blaming the Council for the mess. Robins was in charge for 25 league games, George Raynor and Eric Black are the only full time managers that have been in charge for fewer games. Robins earned 1.76 points per league game putting second behind Harry Storer in the all time list, his leaving was a massive blow. He joined Huddersfield saved them from relegation and turned them into a mid-table side.
A day later A.C.L were threatened with a winding-up order and Sisu announced they might build a new ground. As normal there were plenty of names in the running for the manager’s post and Neil Adkins was favourite followed by Eric Black whose name always pops up, others in the running were apparently: Phil Brown, Richard Money, Steve Pressley, Simon Grayson and Paul Ince.
City travelled to relegation threatened Bury for the next league game with City’s fans chins on the floor, as John Pemberton became the new favourite for the job. Lee Carsley was in charge the thirteenth time we had a “caretaker” manager that didn’t go on to get the job full time. It was a big away following with some in fancy dress. Carsley made a change or two, playing Nathan Cameron for the first time this year and giving a debut to a player Mark Robins signed just before he left, Carl Dickinson. City had a perfect start as Dickinson set up Leon Clarke in the opening minutes for a goal and City went on to win 2-0. The local radio station claimed “it was the attack of the giants and Coventry bullied them out off the points”. Certainly City seemed to take a more direct route in the game but it was our first away league clean sheet for eight games. Later that night Sky Sports reported that John Pemberton was 1-4 on to become the new manager!
Midweek and another massive away following headed to Crewe to see if City could do the impossible and over turn a three-goal deficit. The away sections were full unlike the home sections. City were level until injury time then two quick goals put City back in the tie but many questioned Carsley as he waved back Murphy when he wanted to go up for a free kick in the last seconds of injury time. Some fans left early and missed the goals included a guy named Dan who rang up and spouted off at BBC Coventry & Warwickshire about not winning before he was informed of the score with “Dan, Dan, Dan” the call went viral.
Crewe beat Southend in the final 2-0 at Wembley in front off just over 43,000 fans. The last team any City fan wanted to see was Crewe, but many had no choice, as they were next up at the Ricoh. Carsley was still in charge as a chase for the new manager was taking ages. Despite another goal by Leon Clark that put him as top scorer in League One ahead of a certain David McGoldrick, City lost 2-1 and almost ended hopes of a play-off place.
The following day a new name emerged as the new favourite as Keith Curle seemed to be on the verge of the post. Still with no manager Carsley strengthened the defence by loaning Aaron Martin from Southampton and boosted the forwards by re-calling Cody McDonald from a successful stint at Gillingham. Next up was a very tough away trip to promotion chasing Bournemouth. Martin made an impressive debut as Clarke scored yet another goal just before half time but halfway through the second half Lee Carsley sent on David Bell for his first game of the season to the shock of the travelling fans. “We thought you were dead”, they sang to him as he started to spray the ball around to great effect, City went on to win 2-0 with a Baker penalty and Carsley became the first caretaker manager to win his first three away games.
March (The month of the god of war as the league guns City and the new manager down)
We started the month in 8th place five points behind 6th and eight behind automatic promotion but the month didn’t start well as yet again Sisu failed to hand in their accounts. City entered another transfer embargo robbing the next manager of reinforcements. It got worse as reports circulated that City were in such financial straights that the club could go bust. With this background, we hosted Swindon and it was Legends’ Day as many former players were paraded at half time and for the first time ever City lost on Legends’ Day despite leading from an early goal. Many fans did not like the style we were playing under Carsley as we slumped to our 65th league defeat at the Ricoh amazingly the same number of league victories there.
More changes at boardroom level as John Clarke quit. Finally after what seemed a huge amount of time City announced a new manager, recommended by Alex Ferguson City appointed Steve Pressley a former player who made twenty two appearances for City scoring one goal and was by many who saw him play was one of the worst ever defenders to play for us in the top flight. His appointment hardly had City fans out in the street celebrating as his management record was hardly anything spectacular he was in charge of Scottish 1st Division Falkirk and left them in mid table but did have a reputation for playing good football and bring on youth players.
Pressley’s first game in charge was at Scunthorpe but it nearly didn’t happen as the referee took two inspections to declare the pitch playable but he did criticise the home side for a lack of effort for making the pitch playable and admitted a downpour and the game would have been called off.
Two rumours circulated concerning Leon Clarke, one he had broken his leg in training the other that he was about to move to Sheffield United on loan neither where true. Pressley was in the dug out and was a record 5th manager for City in a season. City came from a goal down to win with Leon Clarke scoring his 5th away goal in a row only one behind David McGoldrick’s record and this made it our best ever away campaign.
On the day of the home game against Colchester Sports Minister Hugh Robertson criticised Sisu over the running of the club at Westminster. It was already noticeable at the football under Pressley was an improvement over the style we saw under Carsley. City went two goals down and were looking to be heading for defeat until young sub Callum Wilson cut in from the wing at speed to score his first goal for the club and then in the last minute Baker levelled it with a well taken free kick it was the first time City had come from two down at home to get a result in four years. Any celebration over the come back was cut short when it was announced that Leon Clarke had picked up an injury and would be out for the remaining games of the season virtually killing off any hope of a play off place.
If that didn’t, it seemed that Administration had taken a step closer despite the boards assurance to Pressley it wouldn’t. Another rumour was if City did go into administration they would be taken over. With Carl Dickinson’s loan ending, Pressley for the first time went into the loan market and secured former Millwall left back Jordan Stewart and gave him his debut in the home game against Hartlepool and McDonald scored the only goal in a dull game to keep City in the hunt for a play off place but most knew in the ground the season could be ended within days.
The name of the millionaire that was alleged to be poised to take over was the American Preston Haskell IV, was the American cavalry ready to ride in and rescue City?
Thursday 21st March 2013 the day Sisu placed part of the club in administration and reported to be looking at another West Midlands ground to play home fixtures maybe even this season. The court case ruling on the administration was adjourned and rearranged for the following Friday, meanwhile a large lorry arrived at the Rioch and the club shop was cleared of goods.
With all this going on City travelled for an away game against a team that their fans could sympathise as City played Portsmouth. City were struggling with injuries as four out of the top six goal scorers were not available and it showed as McSheffrey failed to score from an early penalty City slumped to a 2-0 defeat with the players and the fans seemingly drained from the bad news.
The following day it was rumoured that Mr Haskell IV had already bought the ground but this proved to be wide of the mark.
On Thursday 28th the League finally decided on the penalty and it was only ten points many feared worse. This was the 41st time a team had been docked points and not given them back on appeal and only the 19th it has been 10 points or more but what every the result the season was over and City’s future didn’t look at all rosy.
A day later on Good Friday City played at home against league leaders Doncaster and the Ricoh was a depressing place to be with some turnstiles not working and some toilets locked but the mood was lifted a little as City played some good football and emerged with a single goal victory thanks to a Christie goal.
April (The month of the fool was Pressley the clown?)
First game of the month was on April Fools’ Day as a large contingent followed City up the M6 to a ground hotly tipped to be “home” the next season unfortunately City were awful and crashed to a 4-0 defeat with Jordan Stewart being sent off many blamed Pressley for the defeat with poor tactics and substitutions.
Next home game was against Brentoford and on that day Preston Haskell IV was in town and he was still serious about the take over as it was announced that Mr Elliott and Hoffman were the people that contacted the administrator about a take over with backing from the Texan. Meanwhile The Ricoh was also honoured to be hosting a Davis Cup tennis match as Great Britain took on Russia and despite missing Andy Murray Britain pulled off a famous victory the next day. Back to the game and the manager gave Ryan Haynes his debut at left back and City stretched the unbeaten run at home to four with a 1-1 draw. Early the next week many City fans were saddened not by the death of the football hating former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher who tried to bring in the I.D. Card system but by the fact they had to log on to other team’s websites to book tickets for away games with City no longer having a ticket office.
City then withdrew their appeal against the ten-point deduction not because they didn’t have a case but they did want to go back and negotiate about the rent. A new ground for City as we faced our 107th different league team we had played away in our history, Crawley Town. Billy Daniels played for the first time that year as City went down 2-0 in the pouring rain on a pitch that was barely playable again Pressley received heavy criticism for his passing game on a poor pitch and his use of the substitutes.
Leyton Orient were the visitors for the last home game of the season as many pessimists predicted it could be the last home game at the Ricoh for a while jut over 11,000 turned up not knowing they were seeing the last rights of the ground.
Danny Philliskirk made his debut as the lone front man in this game but there would be no cheerful goodbye as City lost by a single goal.
Any chance of Sisu and A.C.L. reaching an agreement over the ground seemed to have been wrecked when Sisu wanted to take the Coventry Council to court over an illegal payment to A.C.L.
Final game of the season finally arrived as City fans made the short trip to Nottingham to see City take on Notts County. City came back from being behind twice to earn a good draw this result left City with the fourth best away record in League One but the highest number of goals, for once well worth the value as away fans that travel by car would have spent on average over a thousand pounds watching the team.
Two days after the end of the season, it was announced that five players would not have their contracts renewed they were Nathan Cameron who played 50 games for City before leaving for Nuneaton Town and then back into league football with Bury. Richard Wood, well over a hundred games moved to Charlton, Steven Elliott, a surprise omission with four goals in twenty games and since has yet to find another club, Danny Philliskirk one game and moved to Oldham and Jordan Stewart who move to San Jose Earthquakes in the U.S.
The Closed season (The fans are revolting)
The build up for next season had already started when Austria was proposed as the pre-season destination but was later rejected as too expensive.
More take over news as Preston Haskell IV offered to buy the club at the same time Sisu appointed administrator Paul Appleton finally handed in his report and he still didn’t know were the Golden Share was, many fans not in the business world thought it was strange that a company could pick its own administrator and many fans questioned how it had taken him so long to come up with no evidence.
It was reported the next day that they were three bidders for the club, waiting on further reports from Mr Appleton.
Rumours started to circulate about the proposed site for a possible new ground being at Brandon with many fans pointing out the total lack of infrastructure there, opposition from residents and what will happen to the Speedway team?
First transfer target emerged for City and he was Burton Albion’s Jacques Maghoma who had just scored fifteen league goals in League Two from midfield but with City still in a transfer embargo and interest from a higher division Maghoma eventually ended up at Sheffield Wednesday but failed to become a regular.
The bids for City had now risen to eight, four days before the deadline for a take over one of the more favourable bids was from a South East Asian consortium lead by local lad Michael Byng who is an expert in rail infrastructure and could see great potential around the site of the Ricoh.
With the deadline extended for bids so the companies in the running can give more details it was announced that the Netherlands would be used for pre-season a favourite destination for pre-season used before by Pressley.
Early June excitement as the preferred bidder was to be announced in the next ten days, one of the bidders was A.C.L. who say the club can play at the Rioch for nothing if they won the bid. Then the Sisu appointed Paul Appleton confirmed the preferred bidders would be Otium Entertainment an off shoot of Sisu, they put in the best bid but since they are the same company it was hardly a fair exercise and most fans couldn’t believe such a practice could be carried out, the only hope now was The Football League.
One piece of good news concerning ground sharing was that Walsall’s manager Dean Smith didn’t want another team sharing his ground and ruining his pitch this meant there were no longer any realistic team we could ground share with in the League’s thirty mile radius.
Near the end of the month Steven Pressley announced the players he no longer wanted at the club and there were a few surprises Steve Jennings the midfielder who played the majority of games the previous season and played well sitting in a defensive midfield birth was rejected he went on to play for Tranmere but to date has only made three appearances. Reserve keeper Chris Dunn who despite only playing five times for City moved up a division to be second choice at Yeovil. William Edjenguele who played over forty games for City in his one season and was becoming a real cult figure was surprisingly released and dropped down a division to play regularly for Bury Town. Cody McDonald who arrived at City with a great goal scoring reputation but only managed eight league goals in nearly fifty games was transferred to Gillingham and has nearly already scored as many for his new club, Kevin Malaga the defender who only managed two games for City being one of only forty players to only play twice for us in the league and is currently without a club, David Bell highly skilful and injury prone midfielder who managed just under fifty games in five years at the club he was transferred to Notts County and immediately got injured but has since played seven times, which is a better average than he managed at City, Gary McSheffrey, it was no surprise when Sheff was released after a long career with City when he was once our youngest every player and our last playing link to the Premier League his 72 goals in all competitions places him 10th in our all time goal scoring list he moved on to Chesterfield were to date he has played nine times and scored once but the most surprising member of the “Bomb Squad” was right back Jordan Clarke, City now had a smaller squad and a transfer embargo and were very short on defenders.
It may have been American Independence Day but it wasn’t City’s Independence day as Sisu announced the ground share would be with Northampton outside the 30 mile radius a team could move according to the League’s rules,
Northampton’s chairman David Cardoza welcomed the news and the extra money coming into his club that could be considered to be a rival meanwhile Tim Fisher predicted at least three sell-outs at the ground and an average crowd of 3,000 to 7,000, the fans were not at all impressed.
Away from football and success as the British Lions won the series Down Under but this was surpassed the next day when Andy Murray became the first male British tennis player for 77 years to win Wimbledon. The day after the Murray win, City fans were shocked when the League bent most of their rules and regretted to allow City permission to move to Northampton.
Meanwhile City’s first tour game in the Netherlands was called off for what was thought then a probable clash of Dutch hooligans. Things started to get heated as A.C.L. threatened to sue Northampton for lose of business but this was later withdrawn.
As Coventry sweltered in a heat wave the Sky Blues played their first pre-season friendly with a win away against Northampton Town by 4-1. A couple of days late the pre-season tour started but we were not to play Go Ahead Eagles who ironically called off the game expecting 200 City fans to make it to the game carrying their anti-Sisu protest with them.
City managed to rearrange a game but this one was just over the German boarder, which meant a long trip. The town we were playing in is called Wachtendonk, which means, “guard on the raised ground just above a swamp”. Twenty-five City fans had made it to the ground to a warm reception from the Germans and the City players and staff City won 6-0.
The next game against Willhelm II was behind closed doors but when 15 City fans turned up we were allowed into the ground to watch City go down by a single goal.
Meanwhile back in Coventry thousands took to the street in a protest march against Sisu the Council didn’t escape the protest either.
The last game of the tour saw City draw 1-1 with Dutch Premier League side Hercules. More British success, which tended to be overlooked as Chris Froome, became the 2nd Brit to win the Tour de France.
City were soon back in pre-season action as they beat Cheltenham 2-0. Then the next day there seemed to be hope as it was reported that Sisu and A.C.L. were back in talks over playing at the Rioch and it was reported Sisu were offered a very small rent for playing there.
On the same day Steven Pressley was not a happy man as City lost 2-0 at Fleetwood. The third friendly in three days saw City beat Mansfield 3-2 one player that had played in most the games was Jordan Clarke who had won his place back and taken off the transfer list. Game four in four days was up and City lost 1-0 at Oxford United. More news off the pitch as A.C.L. refused to sign the agreement to leave administration they will only sign if Sisu sign a ten-year lease at the ground they refused.