On Saturday at Swindon,
Reice Charles-Cook broke Steve Ogrizovic's post-war Coventry City
record for the most consecutive minutes without conceding a goal. He
passed Oggy's record in the 78th minute and at that stage
it looked like a good day all round for the Sky Blues as they led 2-0
and looked on course for another away victory. Then, as so often
happens at the County Ground, the home side roused themselves &
with five minutes to go, netted once before scoring an added-time
equaliser from the penalty spot.
Reice's record of 580
minutes left him 28 minutes short of the all-time club record, set,
as I wrote last week, in 1934 by Horace Pearson.
During the debate over
clean sheets, several people have asked me which City goalkeeper
holds the record for the most clean sheets in a season. The most by
the team in a league season is 18, achieved in 1938-39 and 1958-59.
In the latter season, the Division 4 promotion campaign, City used
four goalkeepers and three of them, Arthur Lightening (9), Alf Wood
(5) and Alf Bentley (4), shared the clean sheets. In 1938-39 Bill
Morgan set the record by keeping 17 in 41 games, the other being Alf
Wood in his sole game between the sticks. Bill Glazier came close to
equalling Morgan's record with 15 in 1968-69 and 16 in 1970-71.
Oggy's best season was 1987-88 when he kept 15 clean sheets in 40
games.
Swindon's County Ground
has rarely been a happy hunting ground for the Sky Blues and although
they have two FA Cup victories there (1966 & 2001), they have
failed to win a league game there in nine attempts since the last in
December 1960. The Robins also love playing in Coventry – they have
won all three encounters at the Ricoh and City last beat them in the
league in 1964. Even in Swindon's one season in the Premier League,
in 1993-94, in which they won only five games all season, they
managed to thump City 3-1 at home and take a point home from
Highfield Road with a last minute equaliser.
In the last four
seasons City have thrown away a lead at Swindon and squandered nine
points in the process. Definitely one of City's hoodoo grounds.
.
2012-13 leading 2-0
with 13 minutes left – final score 2-2
2013-14 leading 1-0
with 14 minutes left – final score 1-2
2014-15 leading 1-0
with 18 minutes left – final score 1-1
2015-16 leading 2-0
with 5 minutes left – final score 2-2
The FA Cup draw paired
City with old rivals Northampton Town for what will be the two club's
first competitive meeting since the Third Round FA Cup tie in January
1990. That game resulted in an embarrassing 1-0 defeat for City who
were 11th in the old First Division at the time and on the
verge of a League Cup semi-final place. The Cobblers were 11th
in Division Three & shocked John Sillett's team with the only
goal coming from Steve Berry. The game took place on the Cobblers'
old ground, the County Ground which they shared with Northamptonshire
cricket team and which had only three sides.
The teams have met in
the FA Cup on two other occasions, in 1930 and 1954. City triumphed
at the County Ground in both games. In 1931 goals from Frank Bowden &
Billy Lake gave City a 2-1 success, whilst in 1954 the game was won
by a freak 80-yard shot by Roy Kirk that caught former City
goalkeeper Alf Wood, off his line, and bounced into the net.
On the subject of freak
goals at Northampton, regular reader Arthur Warner wrote to me this
week concerning such a goal at the County Ground. Arthur wrote:
My memory took me
back to when I was about 11 or 12 years of age and I witnessed a very
bizarre and embarrassing own goal by Charlie Ashcroft who was in goal
for City. It was in the mid fifties when my Dad took me to
Northampton on the train to see the City play the Cobblers at the
County ground,that they shared with the County cricket team. We were
in the covered end, behind the goal, when Charlie Ashcroft took a
goal kick, and Roy Kirk was standing in the centre half position with
his back to the goal. Charlie's goal kick hit Roy on the back of head
and went into our net for an own goal. I know that the City lost 4-0,
so could you please research the details to see if I am dreaming or
not.
You
aren't dreaming Arthur. The game in question was in August 1957 and
City got a 4-0 thumping from the Cobblers. They conceded two
penalties in first twenty minutes, both scored by Maurice Robinson,
then late in the first half, 'keeper Ashcroft's woeful kick hit
full-back Kirk and, as you thought, rebounded into the net to make it
3-0. Poor Kirk, the hero with his 80-yard goal three years earlier,
was now the unluckiest man on the pitch but no blame could be put at
his door.
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