Coventry City’s 11th-placed finish in 1993-94 was their best finish in the Premier League era, matched in 1997-98 (they had ended up seventh and tenth in the old first division in the 1980s).
The Ribero home kit of 1992-93 remained the same (albeit with white socks favoured over sky blue), but the red and white change kit was supplanted by a nice amber and navy outfit. See here for Umbro-ified versions from a recent Fantasy Kit Friday.
They had finished 1992-93 with a 3-3 draw against Leeds United and a Manchester United-like pairing of numbers 4 and 6 at centre-back. However, that game is slightly misleading in that David Rennie, the number 6, had played in midfield prior to that and it was the only time all season that Lloyd McGrath wore 5.
The veteran of the 1987 FA Cup final win fell out of favour with manager Bobby Gould, however, with the allocation of number 32 for 1993-94 one of the earliest examples of a player’s drop in status being indicated in such a way.
Phil Babb had occupied the number 3 shirt for the second half of 1992-93 and, while he was given 20, he remained a clear first-choice, moving to central defence during the campaign and earning a spot in the Republic of Ireland’s World Cup squad. New signing Steve Morgan was given 3 and he established himself at left-back.
1992-93 final game
1992-93 final game, 1993-94 squad numbers
1993-94 opening game
With first-choice goalkeeper Steve Ogrizovic and right-back Brian Borrows absent for the first game of 1993-94 – an amazing 3-0 win at Arsenal – Coventry were the team with the ‘highest lowest’ number on the weekend.
Jonathan Gould, son of the manager, was the backup goalkeeper but wore 23 – Martin Davies was given the number 13 shirt but never played a competitive match for Coventry. They were also early adopters of 31 for a goalkeeper, which was given to Tim Dalton.
Midfielder Lee Hurst retained the number 8 while his near-namesake, defender Lee Hirst, was given 5 after signing from Scarborough but he never played for Coventry.
Quite why John Williams, who wore 6, 8, 10 and 11 during 1992-93, was given 7 is something of a mystery. Mickey Quinn, who scored a famous hat-trick on the opening day, had worn both 9 and 10 the previous season.
During the summer of 1993, Coventry signed Mick Harford from Sunderland and he was given the number 9. He marked his debut for the club with the winner against Newcastle United in their second game, having come on as a late sub.
Unfortunately for him and them, back problems meant it was his one and only appearance for the Sky Blues – however, it leaves him with the best goals-to-minutes ratio of any number 9 in the squad numbers era, exceeding even Erling Haaland.
This was the Coventry squad in full:
Hi Denis,
when you click on one image (that opens the carousel so you can see them larger) it doesnt seem to rotate between the images like it used to do?