By CovSid67
September 8 2006

If things don't change, September could be a bleak month for Coventry City - our record against Norwich, Ipswich, Leeds, and Crystal Palace have been awful over recent seasons.... Coventry City haven't managed to beat Norwich in their last six fixtures between the sides, drawing four times, and losing twice (Including going 2-0 up within the opening ten minutes of last seasons home fixture, only to draw 2-2). Having struggled against the pace of Hereford's Stuart Fleetwood, quite how Coventry's fairly slow defence will cope with Earnshaw and Huckerby I'm not sure! (Though if Earnshaw is as poor for Norwich as he was for Wales against Brazil, he will be barely noticeable). Lee Croft, a summer target for CCFC, and another fairly tricky player, could also cause problems. Two pairs of pants time, me thinks.... CCFC's overall league record against Norwich: Played 90, won 40, lost 23, and drawn 27 times.

Our recent record against Ipswich is probably as bad as any record against any opponents (Except Rochdale!) - Coventry City haven't managed victory against the Tractor Boys for over a dozen matches. Our last victory against them came in the 1994/5 season, with goals from Paul Cook and former Ipswich legend John Wark helping us to a 2-0 win.Sam Parkin, Darren Currie, or Matt Richards could have been playing for Coventry City against Ipswich had of those rumoured deals gone through, while Adebola might have been wearing the dark blue of Ipswich had that deal gone through too.... CCFC's overall league record against Ipswich: Played 66, won 17, lost 29, and drawn 20.

As with Ipswich, Coventry City haven't managed victory against Leeds United for over a dozen games (Six draws, six defeats). Our last victory against the Yorkshire side came at Elland Road on Boxing Day in 1996, with three goals in ten minutes (From Huckerby, Dublin, and MacAllister) helping to over-turn a 1-0 defecit. Leeds were also rumoured to be interested in signing Dele Adebola, and, with David Healy seemingly suggesting his days at Elland Road might be numbered, following his heroics against Spain midweek, Coventry City could do worse than consider a swap deal once the transfer window re-opens! Our overall record against Leeds is also urine poor, having played against them 74 times in the league, winning 14 times, losing 40 times, and drawing 20 times.

While Selhurst Park used to be one of our favourite grounds, last season saw us beaten there twice, with Crystal Palace also inflicting a 4-1 defeat on us at Fortress Ricoh. The chances of them winning on penalties has been slightly reduced due to the sale of Andy Johnson, with £500,000 of the reported £8.5 million fee received for him being spent on James Scowcroft. While some people thought that a slightly OTT fee for somebody who failed to properly shine in Sky Blue last season (Including me), if the highlights of his Palace career so far are anything to go by, it seems we might just have wasted his abilities by playing him out wide for most of last season. Bugger. Overall record: Played 86, won 34, lost 23, drawn 29.

The month ends with a home match against Plymouth - thankfully minus Vincent Pericard, who played fourteen times (Plus one substitute appearance) for them, scoring a mere four times .... with three of them coming in one game versus Coventry City. Lilian Nalis is now plying his trade at Home Park, having scored twice in five appearances (Plus one as a substitute) while playing for Coventry City. Overall record: Played 36, won 15, lost 13, drawn 8.