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After years of circling the drain, Coventry City didn’t so much drop out of the Premier League 25 years ago as face-plant through its floorboards in slapstick style. In the intervening period, they endured their first experience of the fourth tier and were forced to live as tenants in their own city, before suffering the indignity of having to go cap-in-hand to neighbouring villages, looking for sofas on which to crash. Even the more recent good times were frustrating for the Sky Blues, as they lost a Championship playoff decider on penalties and were cruelly denied a place in the 2024 FA Cup final within the space of 11 months. It was all a far cry from that joyous afternoon in 1987 when Brian “Killer” Kilcline limped up the Wembley steps to hoist the FA Cup aloft.
Re: the Memory Lane item on the Wales v Scotland World Cup qualifier in 1977 (yesterday’s Football Daily, full email edition) ignited my own memory of attending that game with my Welsh mate Alwyn. Although it was supposedly a Wales home game, my impression was that there were at least three Scots for every ultimately disappointed (and furious) Welsh fan inside Anfield. That game also gives rise to a quiz question, albeit one that only those of a certain vintage would get. Who scored a goal playing for the away team on his home ground and it wasn’t an own goal? The answer, of course, is Kenny Dalglish” – John Myles.
While everyone else was either watching Coventry v Newcastle or doing something normal like having a life on Monday night, some of us were engrossed in La Liga’s Levante v Sevilla game. It was perfectly fine, if unspectacular, up until the 92nd minute … when Sevilla’s Isaac Romero got a yellow card, yet still had time to score and put Sevilla 3-2 up, get a second yellow, get sent off and watch from the sidelines as Levante grabbed an equaliser. This modern era of lots of added time doesn’t half create some wild ends to games that almost never used to happen” – Noble Francis.
I’m a bit late to this (glass houses and stones, etc) but Thursday’s Football Daily (full email edition) invited us to remember Ramon Vega. I specifically recalled the time Ron Noades, then manager as well as owner of Brentford, talked up his third-tier side’s prospects in a cup tie against Spurs with: ‘You’ve always got a chance when Vega’s in the team.’ Noades was no stranger to controversy during his time at Crystal Palace, not least when he revealed to guests at a function his favourite cheese was Primula. If that isn’t part of the fit and proper owners’ test then maybe it should be” – Ed Taylor.
