Sky Blues meet up with familiar faces

Coventry City meet up with two of their former managers in pre-season as games against Inverness Caledonian Thistle and Port Vale bring them face to face with Terry Butcher and Micky Adams while another of their opponents, Accrington Stanley, are now managed by ex-Sky Blues midfielder Paul Cook.

Butcher's time at Highfield Road began, a scarcely believable, 22 years ago when he was lured south from Glasgow Rangers to become the Sky Blues new player-manager after the sacking of John Sillett.

A key part of the England squad that had reached the semi-finals of the World Cup just months before, Butcher was a big name in the game when he arrived at the club and his appointment was designed to take City to the next level after the fizz of the FA Cup triumph had gone rather flat in the league(in relative terms to today of course with City regular finishers in the top-half at that time).

Thrown in at the deep end with a first game against Liverpool, Butcher steadily got to grips with his squad and steered them away from relegation waters with some canny signings such as Stewart Robson and Kenny Sansom.

Into 1991/92 and what was set to be Butcher's first full season in charge started solidly enough with his decision to throw a talented Zimbabwean teenager called Peter Ndlovu into the fray being rewarded with a stunning winning goal against Aston Villa.

That was probably the high point of Butcher's short reign as it became clear he could not carry on as a player and the club tried to renegotiate his contract. A poor run of form around the turn of the year led to his departure and the appointment of assistant manager Don Howe, whose side achieved safety thanks mainly to a series of mind-numbing goalless draws.

Adams' time at the club is much fresher in the memory and he too can claim that a hasty boardroom decision brought an end to his reign too soon given that in his only full season with City they finished 8th in the Championship, their best finish since relegation.

Cook meanwhile is looking to make his managerial name back home after a successful spell in Ireland with Sligo Rovers.

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