FA Cup 4th Round, 30/1/89
Coventry City 0(0)
Watford 1(0)
Scorers: Senior
 
Tricky Trev's finest hour
Report by Chris Lawton

I was inspired to write this having read Baz Barry's comments on Trevor Senior. The Bassett reign was over and Steve Harrison was in charge of a sinking ship. We had scrapped through in the Third Round against Hull City in a second replay having come from behind in the first match (Bassett's last in charge) to draw 1-1 and 2-2 in the replay at Hull.

The Fourth Round paired the previous year's semi finalists (us) against the Cup Holders in Coventry. On paper it looked one sided. We were playing some poor football and had a habit of losing matches 1-0. Coventry, under John Sillet, were playing some good football and were, for once, not relegation candidates.

Taking our seats in the stand we were treated to a reasonable view of proceedings and for the first forty-five minutes the game was pretty end to endish, with Coventry perhaps creating the better chances. At half time we were still in it and had it all to play for.

Coventry came out for the second half and piled on the pressure. After about ten minutes, Watford broke for their only meaningful attack of the entire half. Someone ran down the right flank and ultimately knocked in an awful low cross that bounced all over the place. Meanwhile Trevor Senior galloped up from the half way line. On reaching the edge of the area, he suddenly suffered from his physical effort as the lactic build-up caused him to stumble in his stride.

The deadly combination of an awful, low, bouncing cross and the sight of Trevor Senior collapsing as he reached the six yard line momentarily distracted the keeper who flailed at the ball, missed it and then watched in horror as it bounced off Senior's head and into the open goal. Cue stupified celebration, largely because Trev had scored.

Just for once in this awful excuse for a season, we hung on to win despite the efforts and ranting of David Speedie. On leaving the ground, we were pelted with stones from the Coventry fans whilst the police, as always, turned a blind eye. You could understand their frustration - I mean, Trevor Senior scoring the wining goal....

Our cup adventure, and Big Trev's, continued with him scoring the second goal in our Fifth Round replay win against Port Vale. By the time of the Sixth Round at Wimbledon, Trevor had gone and were staring relegation in the face, like a rabbit caught in the dazzle of the car headlights faces death. That win at Coventry was almost certainly one of the worst performances to make it into "Famous Victories" but deserves it as a highlight in a barren season and for Trevor Senior scoring, just for once, the match winner.