With yesterday's 2-0 win over Reading, City have now won six straight games at home on April 23. This run began back on April 23, 1962, when the Bluebirds beat West Ham 3-0 in their last-ever home match in the top flight. (It was City's last win over the Hammers, too, for over four decades, until that sparkling 4-1 romp at home back on November 2 of this season.)
It was another 21 years before City got to play at home on the
magical date but when they did, in 1983, they drubbed Southend United 4-1, a Division Three win that helped their successful late-season promotion push. The very next year, back in Division Two, they got another home game on April 23 and dispatched Derby 1-0. The relegation-bound Bluebirds of 1985 made it three April 23 home wins in three years when they smacked midtable Barnsley silly 3-0. A few years after that, down in Division Four in 1988, Scarborough were the victims of promotion-bound City at Ninian Park, by a 2-0 score.
Overall, City have a record of eight wins and three draws in 11 home games played on April 23. Their overall mark isn't so shabby either.Add in a 2-3-1 mark in away games and a 1-0-0 record at neutral sites (try Wembley in the FA Cup final) and you've got an estimable figureof 11 wins, six draws, and only one loss on April 23. That one losscame in 1973, when City lost to Sunderland 2-1 at Roker Park. A couple of weeks after that game Division-Two Sunderland would go on to win the FA Cup final beating Leeds 1-0 on May 5. It takes the likes of a soon-to-be FA Cup champion, then, to beat City on this day of days.
It's not right, then, that City got to play on the 23rd of April yesterday for the first time since 1994 (when they drew 2-2 at Stockport County). Clearly, this glitch in schedule making needs attention. It's just a great day to be a Bluebird.
John Heyda