Coventry 2 Sunderland 1

By CovSid67
August 8 2006

A cracking Stern John effort, and a McSheffrey goal that added another few pounds to his value, were enough to see off Sunderland. A great start to 'Operation Premiership'!

Despite all the signings, only four new players started - and one of those (The keeper!) was compulsory. It might have been more, but suspensions and injury ruled a few others out.

Sky TV turned up for this opening day fixture, as did 22,366 supporters. They were treated to a game not lacking in goal-mouth action, and, while not the greatest advert for football, still an enjoyable game.

Had Stern John been more alert, he could have started the season with a hat-trick, while McSheffrey was also unlucky on a couple of occasions too. Stephen Hughes set-piece deliveries were of a very high quality, and should also have resulted in few more tests for Alnwick in the Sunderland goal.

John just missed the target on 14 minutes, was narrowly beaten to a Hall cross soon after, just missed a McSheffrey cross on 17 minutes, and saw his neat turn and shot well saved by Alnwick just before half-time. In the second half, mis-control deprived him of a couple more chances in the six yard box....

McSheffrey, Burchill, and Hall all put decent crosses into the Sunderland area in the first half, and the battering ram style striker we failed to sign over the summer (Horsfield, Kuqi, etc) might just have buried a fair few of those chances.

In reply, Sunderland threatened Marshall's goal on very few occasions - this was partly down to solid defending from McNamee, and Ward winning just about everything that came his way. Unsurprisingly, Ward won 'Man Of The Match'.

Sunderland took the lead just over five minutes into the second half, with a fairly avoidable looking goal smashed home by Daryll Murphy. Once upon a time we might have crumbled against supposedly quality opposition....

The first 'handbags' incident of the new season occurred soon after, with a melee involving nearly every player resulting in a yellow card for Stephen Hughes. This seemed to properly spark the home side into life.

A superb McAnamee challenge - which saw a ridiculous shout for a penalty from Sunderland supporters! (Though none of their players appealed for it) - stopped Sunderland taking an undeserved 2-0 lead,

Hutchison replaced Adebola (Who failed to link up with John thoughout his time on the pitch) on 67 minutes, and within minutes the home side were level. John received the ball on the edge of the area, and there seemed little danger to Alnwick before the T&T international hit a superb effort to bring the scores level.

The very newly signed Burchill was replaced by Thornton on 73 minutes.

A quick free-kick by the home side was stopped by the referee, and ordered to be re-taken. It was clearly a training ground routine, yet Sunderland failed to heed the warning. Hall passed to McSheffrey in space, and he was given a free run into the area, before waltzing past one defender, then unleashing a shot that took a slight deflection being going in.

Another training ground set-piece should have seen Coventry City increase their lead minutes later. Hughes delivery found Heath in space, but his quality header into the danger area wasn't seized upon - another effort a Horsfield, Kuqi, etc, battering ram style player would have thrived upon.

Thornton looked as if he was guilty of trying to hard a couple of times, giving the ball away cheaply - possibly wary of the fact there are a fair few players competing for the midfield places. He still produced a few decent moments, setting up both McSheffrey and John, who both should have done better with their chances.

Whing replaced McSheffrey on 85 minutes.

Four minutes of injury time were added, though quite where the referee got this from I don' t know - unless we've finally found a match official that adds on the recommended half-a-minute per substitution. It mattered not as the home side held on for a very deserved victory.

Niall Quinn claimed his side were worthy of at least a draw, maybe the win, in the after-match interview, though he was obviously watching a different game to me....