Coventry City Football Club - Sky Blues

Coventry City History

2006-07 Season

17th in the Championship
League Cup: 1st round: Hereford United a. 1-3
FA Cup: 3rd round replay: Bristol City h. 0-2

Highlight:
2-1 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers, 13/3/07

Low Spot:
0-5 defeat at West Bromwich Albion, 16/12/06

Good:
Michael Mifsud
Arrived in the January transfer window from Norway and provided some welcome flair to the City line up. Sharp and clever, if he can hone his finishing this Malteser might be one of the stars of the Championship next season.
Elliott Ward
Powerful, generally reliable centre half who maintained a decent standard of performance during a very disappointing season for the club.

Bad:
Khalilou Fadiga
Iain Dowie's first signing apparently boasts Inter Milan as a former club but he showed very little quality during his handful of appearances for the Sky Blues.
Andrew Whing
This defender doesn't lack effort but does lack real ability.

In Brief:
The club made a decent start to the 2006-07 campaign but one point from seven games around the turn of the year and a dismal home defeat to League One Bristol City in the FA Cup shattered any remaining optimism.
Mickey Adams made way for Iain Dowie who sparked a mini revival but a dreadful run in left fans hoping for rather than expecting an improvement next season.
Goals proved hard to come by which can be put down to a lack of creativity in midfield as well as impotence up front.
A gruelling season in general for everyone involved with the club.

Coventry City History

Coventry City Football Club was formed in 1883 by workers at the Singers bicycle factory and was originally known as Singers FC, changing their name to Coventry City in 1898.

Coventry's first significant achievement was to reach the FA Cup quarter finals in 1910. They defeated Portsmouth and Nottingham Forest before losing 2-0 at home to Everton.

The club had to wait until 1919 before being elected into the second division of the Football League. After six seasons of struggling they were relegated into Division Three North in 1925, switched to the Southern section the following season and stayed there until 1936 when they gained promotion as champions.

Coventry then stayed put in the second division until 1952 when they were relegated back into Division Three South.

When the north and south sections merged in 1958 the Sky Blues landed in Division Four. The 1960's saw the club rise and rise, however.

Coventry won promotion from the fourth division at the first attempt as runners up behind Port Vale in 1959, they claimed the Division Three championship in 1964 and took the Division Two title in 1967.

After surviving their first two seasons in the top flight by the skin of their teeth Coventry stabilized and went on to stay 34 seasons in the top division, a fantastic achievement.

The highest position the club managed during that stay was 6th in 1970 and their residence in the top flight ended in 2001. Since that time the club has been stuck in mid table in the second tier.

Despite having spent such a generous period in the top flight Coventry have an extremely modest cup record.

They have reached the League Cup semi finals on two occasions, in 1981 and 1990.

1981 was especially disappointing for the Sky Blues. They had seen off the challenges of Manchester United, Brighton, Cambridge and Watford before drawing second division West Ham in the semi finals.

They recovered from 2-0 down to win the first leg at Highfield Road 3-2 only to lose 2-0 at Upton Park in the second.

That side had been expected to develop into one capable of challenging for honours containing the likes of Danny Thomas, Gary Gillespie, Andy Blair, Steve Hunt, Tommy English, Mark Hateley and Garry Thompson. The club could not keep the squad together, however.

In 1990 Coventry defeated Grimsby Town, Queens Park Rangers, Manchester City and Sunderland before losing narrowly to Nottingham Forest in the semi finals.

The Sky Blues competed in European competition on just one occasion when they qualified for the Fairs Cup in 1970-71. They defeated Trakia Plovdiv of Bulgaria with some ease in the first round before crashing out to Bayern Munich in the second, suffering a 6-1 defeat in Germany before winning the return 2-1.

The clubs' greatest achievement came in winning the FA Cup in 1987. Coventry beat Bolton Wanderers, Manchester United, Stoke City, Sheffield Wednesday and Leeds United before meeting Tottenham Hotspur at Wembley.

The game turned out to be one of the greatest finals ever and Coventry fought back to win 3-2 despite conceding a goal in the very first minute. Keith Houchen's goal from a diving header provided the famous old competition with one of its iconic images.

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