Coventry 0 Leicester 0

By CovSid67
August 19 2006

A poor crowd, a poor game, and a poor advert for Championship football in front of the Sky TV cameras. Not quite the 'Great Entertainers'....

A severe downpour might have stopped a few people from attending, while I suppose a few others might have protested at the sale of Gary McSheffrey by staying away, but the big surprise was the dismal turn-out in the Leicester end. Maybe people just knew this was going to be a match lacking in quality.

Whing replaced the injured McNamee at right-back, Hutchison replaced Adebola, and Cameron replaced the recently departed Gary McSheffrey (A move that possibly might have happened without you noticing!). As a mark of respect, the left midfield spot was left vacant....

It seems Gary McSheffrey might just have taken the tactics book with him, as the system played tonight appeared to be four players all playing central midfield (With Doyle playing widest left - square pegs in round holes again?), Don Hutchison probably playing between midfield and attack, with any threat from Stern John nullified as a result. Whatever the tactics were supposed to be, they failed dismally.

And for the third game in a row, we failed to score. Anybody got Sam Parkin's phone number?

Leicester were poor, and certainly there for the taking, but it wasn't until the three Coventry City substitutions were made in the second half that the home side looked like properly bothering the Leicester keeper.

Hutchison had a few decent moments throughout the match, just failing to latch onto a hopeful punt upfield, picking the keeper out with a decently struck free kick, and hitting the post with another effort.

He also opted to pass when a decent ball put him through when a shot looked on, having gotten the right side of the last Leicester defender - John 'fell over' (Without the benefit of a replay, I'm unsure whether this should have been a penalty) and the chance was lost. Those moments aside, he seemed to spend the rest of the match moaning to the referee about the treatment he received from Leicester's defenders.

As for Leicester, they screwed a couple of efforts horrendously wide in the first half, and had a couple of efforts that only threatened the rivets in the roof in the second. Any other potential danger to the home side was stopped by the safe hands of Marshall, and the solid defending of Heath and Ward - with the latter once again looking a great signing.

Fellow defender Andrew Whing enjoyed his best moments in the attacking half of the pitch, with one first-half surge forward, including some decent footwork, resulting in his shot bringing a fine save from Leicester keeper Henderson (Which brought about a corner). Another cross from Whing saw penalty appeals turned down, and late on in the second half, his fine pass to Cameron should have resulted in a goal, but both Adebola and Thornton wasted the opportunity.

Cameron also created a decent opportunity in the first half, chasing a lost cause and blocking Henderson's attempted clearance. The ball landed at the feet of Burchill, and his effort was blocked.

The second half saw a slight improvement, and a fine ball early on from Cameron to Hall saw his decent cross blocked by the Leicester defence, and cleared for a corner. The delivery was good, with Heath rising above everybody, but sadly his effort was wasted, sailing high over the bar.

Birchall was replaced by El Idrissi 10 minutes into the second half, and his appearance seemed to spark the home side into life.

Adams (As well as myself!) has called for somebody to step forward and take over the role of hero (Following the departure of you-know-who), and in El Idrissi he might just have found said person. His inclusion in the 16 was probably only down to the half-dozen plus injuries in the side, but he certainly proved his worth.

His first touch saw him try and beat the keeper from the half-way line! Had his effort come off, it would have been some introduction! Sadly it didn't .... Minutes later he had a better effort that just went wide of the Leicester goal. And soon after, superb footwork from the substitute saw him beat a few Leicester defenders, and send in a cross that caused panic in the away sides defence.

McCarthy was booked for a particularly nasty challenge on the debutant too.

Adebola replaced the inneffective Hutchsion with 25 minutes left, and the final substitution, Thornton for Doyle was made minutes after that - anytime from the first few minutes onwards would have been preferable. He was woeful.

Thornton enjoyed some decent moments, but, as with the Sunderland match, he once again looked guilty of trying to hard to impress. He made the hard things look easy, but messed up on the baic stuff, giving the ball away too often.

The final whistle was greeted with boos, and a win away at Hull is a necessity if gates aren't to drop substantially - as is the signing of a goalscorer.

Doyle and Whing were both booked for Coventry City.