Head to Head - Coventry City vs Brighton and Hove Albion

Head to Head

Matches - 70

Wins for Coventry City - 19

Wins Brighton & Hove Albion - 28

Draws - 23

Total goals: 190

Average goals per match: 2.71

Goals for 82, Goals against 108

City v Brighton is a fairly rare occurrence, they have only faced each other 10 times in the last 43 years .

The last time they met was back in Feb 2018 in the FA Cup 5th round when Brighton came out 3-1 winners. City were 3 down by 61 minutes and Clarke-Harris grabbed a late consolation. City didn't have to wait long for something better, though. Three months later the Sky Blues were at Wembley beating Exeter City to win the League Two play-off final.

That was revenge for City knocking them out in Jan 2006 when a Gary McSheffrey goal on 50 minutes put City into the 4th round in front of a crowd of less than 7000.

Both teams were together in the Championship in 2011/12 and each time the home side won. First was an away defeat in November 2001 when a 7th minute own goal by Richard Keogh was cancelled out 2 minutes later by Gary Gardner. Future City player Romain Vincelot scored the winner on 37 minutes.

In the return fixture on New Years Eve 2001, 2 goals from Gary McSheffrey and Lukas Jutkiewicz secured the 3 points for City.

The teams spent 3 seasons in the Championship together from 2002 to 2005 with 2 wins for City and 4 draws. Both games in 02/03 finished goalless including the away game from Jan 2003.

City had a decent team then, we should have done better in the league than 20th although Thompson moved on shortly after this game.

Morten Hyldgaard, Mo Konjić, Calum Davenport, Richard Shaw, Youssef Safri, Dean Gordon, John Eustace, Gary McAllister, David Thompson, Jay Bothroyd, Julian Joachim

The home game featured Big Mo in a facemask after breaking a cheekbone.

August 2004 saw another draw, this time 1-1 with future City player Adam Virgo's last minute equaliser cancelling out Stephen Hughes second half strike.

The return fixture finally saw a result with City winning 2-1 in April 05. Adam Virgo again scored, cancelling out McSheffrey's penalty before Steve Staunton scored the winner with a great finish.

September 05 saw somewhat of a crazy 2-2 scoreline, crazy for a goal at each end inside a minute. A Paul McShane og put City 1 up at half time. Then in the 50th minute Leon Knight equalised before City went straight up the other end and Claus Jorgensen made it 2-1. That lead lasted 6 minutes before Colin Kâzim-Richards made it 2-2.

Feb 2006 saw a 2-0 win for City, thanks to a Dennis Wise brace!

If want to delve back further we are going back to the days of Brighton's Steve Foster in his headband!

Brighton were promoted to the First Division in 1979. City won the first of those meetings, beating Brighton 2-1 at Highfield Road in October 1979, Bobby McDonald and Tom English scoring as City came from behind to win. This weeks Head to Head programme image comes from that game.

A year later came one of the most entertaining games between the clubs, a 3-3 draw at Highfield Road in October 1980. Dyson, Thompson and Hutchison had put City 3 up only for Gordon Smith to score a hat-trick to make it all square. City had also travelled to the Goldstone Ground a few weeks earlier and knocked Brighton out of the League Cup with a 2-1 victory. Tommy English equalised and Tommy Hutchison scored with 2 minutes to go as City progressed and would reach the semi-finals that year.

The last time City played Brighton in the top flight was April 1983, finishing 1-0 to Brighton. The first fixture that season finished 2-0 to City, Garry Thompson and Steve Whitton scoring.

Thanks to all the YouTube uploaders.