1995–96 Coventry City F.C. season

Coventry City

1995–96 season
Chairman	Bryan Richardson
Manager	Ron Atkinson
Stadium	Highfield Road
Premiership	16th
FA Cup	Fourth round
League Cup	Fourth round
Top goalscorer	League: Dublin (14) All: Dublin (16)
Highest home attendance	23,400 vs Manchester United (22 Nov 1995, Premier League)
Lowest home attendance	8,915 vs Hull City (20 Sep 1995, League Cup)
Average home league attendance	18,507
Home colours Away colours
← 1994–95 1996–97 →

During the 1995–96 English football season, Coventry City competed in the FA Premier League.

Season summary

Once again, Coventry City defied the odds after a season of struggle. This time they had the determination of manager Ron Atkinson and the regular supply of goals from Dion Dublin to thank for their survival. They hit the headlines in December with a spectacular 5–0 win over defending champions Blackburn, but the defence leaked too many goals for the Sky Blues to progress beyond 16th place in the final table, surviving only on goal difference to secure a 30th successive season of top flight football. Tragedy struck the club as promising defender David Busst suffered a harrowing broken-leg injury during a clash with Denis Irwin and Brian McClair from a corner in the 1-0 defeat at Manchester United, often considered as one of the worst football injuries in history, which ultimately ended his career. He was diagnosed with MRSA later on from his injury in hospital, forcing him to premature retirement later that year.

New to the side for the season were defender Paul Williams from Derby County and Brazilian midfielder Marques Isaias, followed soon after by 21-year-old Leeds United striker Noel Whelan.

Atkinson splashed out more than £15 million on new players during the close season, as he looked to build a Coventry side which was capable of matching the high placing of his old club Aston Villa, one of Coventry's deadliest rivals.

Final league table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Manchester United (C)	38	25	7	6	73	35	+38	82	1996–97 UEFA Champions League Group stage
2	Newcastle United	38	24	6	8	66	37	+29	78	1996–97 UEFA Cup First round
3	Liverpool	38	20	11	7	70	34	+36	71	1996–97 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup First round ^1
4	Aston Villa	38	18	9	11	52	35	+17	63	1996–97 UEFA Cup First round
5	Arsenal	38	17	12	9	49	32	+17	63
6	Everton	38	17	10	11	64	44	+20	61
7	Blackburn Rovers	38	18	7	13	61	47	+14	61
8	Tottenham Hotspur	38	16	13	9	50	38	+12	61
9	Nottingham Forest	38	15	13	10	50	54	−4	58
10	West Ham United	38	14	9	15	43	52	−9	51
11	Chelsea	38	12	14	12	46	44	+2	50
12	Middlesbrough	38	11	10	17	35	50	−15	43
13	Leeds United	38	12	7	19	40	57	−17	43
14	Wimbledon	38	10	11	17	55	70	−15	41
15	Sheffield Wednesday	38	10	10	18	48	61	−13	40
16	Coventry City	38	8	14	16	42	60	−18	38
17	Southampton	38	9	11	18	34	52	−18	38
18	Manchester City (R)	38	9	11	18	33	58	−25	38	Relegation to 1996–97 Football League First Division
19	Queens Park Rangers (R)	38	9	6	23	38	57	−19	33
20	Bolton Wanderers (R)	38	8	5	25	39	71	−32	29

Updated to games played on 5 May 1996.
Source: Premier League
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored
¹ Liverpool qualified for the Cup Winners' Cup as FA Cup runners-up, as winners Manchester United already qualified for the Champions League.
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (E) = Eliminated; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round.
Only applicable when the season is not finished:
(Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament indicated; (TQ) = Qualified to tournament, but not yet to the particular phase indicated; (RQ) = Qualified to the relegation tournament indicated; (DQ) = Disqualified from tournament.

Results Summary

Overall								Home						Away
Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
38	8	14	16	42	60	−18	38	6	7	6	21	23	−2	2	7	10	21	37	−16

Source: Statto

Results by round

Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34	35	36	37	38
Ground	A	H	H	A	H	A	A	H	A	H	A	H	A	H	H	A	H	A	H	A	H	H	A	A	A	H	H	H	A	H	A	A	H	A	H	A	A	H
Result	L	W	D	D	D	L	L	L	D	L	L	L	D	L	D	L	W	L	W	W	D	L	D	L	D	W	D	D	D	L	L	L	W	L	W	D	W	D
Position	20	11	11	10	11	14	16	16	16	17	18	19	19	20	19	20	19	19	19	17	17	17	17	18	18	17	17	16	15	16	18	19	18	19	18	17	16	16

Source: Statto.com
Ground: A = Away; H = Home. Result: D = Draw; L = Loss; W = Win; P = Postponed.

Results

Coventry City's score comes first^[1]

Legend

Win

Draw

Loss

FA Premier League

Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Scorers
19 August 1995	Newcastle United	A	0-3	36,485
23 August 1995	Manchester City	H	2-1	15,957	Telfer, Dublin
26 August 1995	Arsenal	H	0-0	20,065
30 August 1995	Chelsea	A	2-2	24,398	Isaías, Ndlovu
9 September 1995	Nottingham Forest	H	1-1	17,219	Dublin
16 September 1995	Middlesbrough	A	1-2	27,882	Isaías
23 September 1995	Blackburn Rovers	A	1-5	24,382	Ndlovu
30 September 1995	Aston Villa	H	0-3	20,987
14 October 1995	Liverpool	A	0-0	39,079
21 October 1995	Sheffield Wednesday	H	0-1	13,998
28 October 1995	Leeds United	A	1-3	30,161	Dublin
4 November 1995	Tottenham Hotspur	H	2-3	17,545	Dublin, Williams
19 November 1995	Queens Park Rangers	A	1-1	11,189	Dublin
22 November 1995	Manchester United	H	0-4	23,400
25 November 1995	Wimbledon	H	3-3	12,523	Heald (own goal), Dublin, Rennie
4 December 1995	Sheffield Wednesday	A	3-4	16,229	Dublin (3)
9 December 1995	Blackburn Rovers	H	5-0	13,376	Busst, Dublin, Rennie, Ndlovu, Salako
16 December 1995	Aston Villa	A	1-4	28,486	Dublin
23 December 1995	Everton	H	2-1	16,639	Busst, Whelan
30 December 1995	Bolton Wanderers	A	2-1	16,678	Whelan, Salako (pen)
1 January 1996	Southampton	H	1-1	16,818	Whelan
14 January 1996	Newcastle United	H	0-1	20,547
20 January 1996	Manchester City	A	1-1	25,710	Dublin
31 January 1996	West Ham United	A	2-3	18,884	Whelan, Dublin
3 February 1996	Arsenal	A	1-1	35,623	Whelan
10 February 1996	Chelsea	H	1-0	20,639	Whelan
24 February 1996	Middlesbrough	H	0-0	18,810
2 March 1996	West Ham United	H	2-2	17,459	Salako, Whelan
9 March 1996	Everton	A	2-2	34,517	Daish, Williams
16 March 1996	Bolton Wanderers	H	0-2	17,226
25 March 1996	Southampton	A	0-1	14,461
30 March 1996	Tottenham Hotspur	A	1-3	26,808	Dublin
6 April 1996	Liverpool	H	1-0	23,137	Whelan
8 April 1996	Manchester United	A	0-1	50,332
13 April 1996	Queens Park Rangers	H	1-0	22,910	Jess
17 April 1996	Nottingham Forest	A	0-0	24,629
27 April 1996	Wimbledon	A	2-0	15,540	Ndlovu (2)
5 May 1996	Leeds United	H	0-0	22,769

FA Cup

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
R3	6 January 1996	Plymouth Argyle	A	3-1	17,721	Pickering, Telfer, Salako
R4	7 February 1996	Manchester City	H	2-2	18,709	Whelan, Dublin
R4R	14 February 1996	Manchester City	A	1-2	22,419	Dublin

League Cup

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
R2 1st Leg	20 September 1995	Hull City	H	2-0	8,915	Richardson, Lamptey
R2 2nd Leg	4 October 1995	Hull City	A	1-0 (won 3-0 on agg)	6,929	Lamptey
R3	25 October 1995	Tottenham Hotspur	H	3-2	18,227	Busst, Ndlovu (pen), Salako
R4	29 November 1995	Wolverhampton Wanderers	A	1-2	24,628	Williams

Squad

^[2] Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Steve Ogrizovic 2 DF Brian Borrows 3 DF David Burrows 4 DF Paul Williams 5 DF David Rennie 6 MF Kevin Richardson 7 MF Paul Telfer 8 FW Isaías 9 FW Peter Ndlovu 10 FW Dion Dublin 11 MF John Salako 12 DF Dave Busst 13 GK John Filan 14 FW Noel Whelan 16 MF Eoin Jess 17 DF Ally Pickering 18 DF Marcus Hall

No. Position Player 19 FW Iyseden Christie 20 DF Steve Morgan 21 MF Calita 22 MF Willie Boland 23 GK Jonathan Gould 24 DF Richard Shaw 25 DF Gary Gillespie 26 MF Gordon Strachan (player-manager) 27 MF Nii Lamptey 28 FW Darren Huckerby 29 GK Colin Hunwick 30 DF Liam Daish 31 DF Lorcan Costello 32 FW Andy Ducros 33 MF Sam Shilton 35 DF Adam Willis

Left club during season

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 14 MF Leigh Jenkinson (to St Johnstone) 15 MF Paul Cook (to Tranmere Rovers) 16 MF Julian Darby (to West Bromwich Albion)

No. Position Player 28 FW Jamie Barnwell-Edinboro (to Cambridge United) 30 GK Peter Shilton (to West Ham United) 34 DF Chris Whyte (on loan from Birmingham City)

Reserve squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player GK Neil Cutler (on loan from West Bromwich Albion) DF Colin Hawkins

No. Position Player DF Barry Prenderville MF Gavin Strachan

Transfers

In

Date	Pos	Name	From	Fee
7 June 1995	MF	Calita	Farense	£250,000
5 July 1995	FW	Isaías	Benfica	£500,000
11 July 1995	MF	Paul Telfer	Luton Town	£1,150,000
3 August 1995	MF	John Salako	Crystal Palace	£1,500,000
6 August 1995	DF	Paul Williams	Derby County	£750,000
23 February 1996	MF	Eoin Jess	Aberdeen	£2,000,000

Out

Date	Pos	Name	To	Fee
26 June 1995	MF	Mike Marsh	Galatasaray	£500,000
25 July 1995	DF	Steven Pressley	Dundee United	£750,000
28 July 1995	MF	Sandy Robertson	Dundee United	£250,000
2 August 1995	GK	Martin Davies	Cambridge United	Free transfer
10 August 1995	DF	Paul Williams	Plymouth Argyle	£50,000
11 August 1995	MF	Sean Flynn	Derby County	£225,000
15 September 1995	FW	John Williams	Wycombe Wanderers	£150,000
24 November 1995	MF	Julian Darby	West Bromwich Albion	£250,000
8 December 1995	MF	Leigh Jenkinson	St Johnstone	Signed
11 January 1996	GK	Peter Shilton	West Ham United	Free transfer
29 February 1996	MF	Paul Cook	Tranmere Rovers	£250,000

Transfers in: £6,150,000

Transfers out: £2,425,000

Total spending: £3,725,000

References

1. http://www.statto.com/football/teams/coventry-city/1995-1996/results
2. http://www.footballsquads.co.uk/eng/1995-1996/faprem/coventry.htm