A Slightly Friendlier Friendly!

By CovSid67
August 6 2007

You sometimes have to wonder if the people of Coventry deserve any take-over of their football club. A fairly respectable price of £25 for a ticket versus Espanyol and versus Udinese represented decent value-for-money as far as I'm concerned, yet a ridiculously low amount of people took up the offer (7,500 for the first game, and 6,200 for the weekend match).

Just who would the opposition have to be for us to fill the Arena? Would we even manage to fill it if we gave tickets away? Apathy has always ruled in Coventry, and it seems it always will .... or maybe our supporters think/know nothing will change? That's certainly how it seemed, as, despite signing so many new players over the summer, a worrying amount of those that did nothing to justify still being here this season, took part in the match.

The new pre-match track, 'Let's Stick Together' (Bryan Ferry And Roxy Music), is better than some we've had over recent seasons, though if it's supposed to be some kind of message, it would be better played to those that don't come along, rather than to the few that do (Though I guess it's easier playing it to those that do). There is also still no clock in the ground, and, to make match reporting even trickier, they've even taken the timer off the scoreboard! Somebody really should suggest getting one to the club....

Coventry started brightly enough, with an early free-kick being nodded just wide by Kyle, and a quality cross on 20 minutes headed wide by Kyle again.

I wasn't the only person to notice that the player brought in to provide the spark in midfield, Michael Hughes, seemed to play closer to the defence than Michael Doyle, and, as a consequence, resulted in to few attacks for Coventry. And, (M) Hughes, if the two friendlies at home are anything to go by, also looks likely to spend a fair part of the season suspended, picking up another yellow card. I can see us ending a fair few matches with nine players on the pitch if certain players don't calm down....

Another worry is that we are still opting to play people out of position, with it being Isaac Osbourne's turn this time, being played at right-back. To be fair, he did well (And was a lot of peoples 'Man Of The Match'), but any team that does their homework (Something Udinese weren't likely to do for a friendly) will exploit this as our main weakness.

It was (M) Hughes foul that led to the opening goal for Udinese, with D'Agostino scoring after 17 minutes, and it could have been 0-2 soon after - but for an accidental save by Marshall! With two attackers and two defenders piling towards him at speed, he seemed to just get anything on the ball before getting out of the way to avoid being pole-axed.

Marshall made a fine save after a poor mistake from Hall, and another decent stop on the half-hour, while Best had a chance to equalise for the home side soon after. Sadly, after showing great strength to win the ball ahead of two Udinese defenders, he skewed his shot horrendously wide.

Birchill was badly out-paced throughout this match (And will be throughout the season), which was possibly the reason he seemed to be ignored on occasions when he was in space, though he did deliver two decent deliveries just before the end of the first-half. The first was from a free-kick, was, after a tangle involving a number of players, was cleared for a corner, with the resulting corner somehow not resulting in a goal when it looked far easier to score.

The last chance of the half fell to Udinese, after a fairly blatant foul by one of their players was ignored, and they broke up the field at pace. Another fine Marshall save kept the score-line to 0-1.

The first of a ridiculous amount of substitutions was made at half-time, and surely it would be a better idea to have designated times where multiple substitutions were made rather than one at a time? (Which happened throughout the second half). Udinese made three changes, while Mifsud was introduced for the home side, and injected some much needed pace (Which had seemed lacking, despite the signings of Best and Gray). He might be far from the finished article, but is still a better option than most for any Coventry starting XI.

Excellent skill from Gray took him past two defenders with ease, but his cross was to deep to bring any reward. Soon after, a Page cross was headed just wide by Best. Fine battling from Best took him into the Udinese area, and, following a goal-mouth scramble, Birchill blazed a great opportunity over the bar.

An accurate Stephen Hughes pass found Adebola in space, inside the area, with a great opportunity to equalise. But, he bottled his shot, opting to pass to Mifsud instead. His effort was blocked, and minutes later, after a disastrous piece of keeping by Marshall, it was 0-2. With around 12 minutes left, a fair few people took this as their cue to leave. I doubt this was because they wanted to avoid the queues in the car park....

A couple of crosses from Osbourne was as good as it got in the last 10 minutes, before the final whistle was blown.

It's far to early to be pessimistic, but there is very little evidence so far to suggest we will be among the front-runners for promotion. We still look a little toothless in attack, with not enough chances being created - though maybe we will do much better against lesser opposition?

As for the club itself, all I would say to anybody unsure of whether or not to go along on matchdays this season, the money you pay going through the turnstiles is just about the only money going into the club - you are needed more than ever before.

Support Coventry City now, because you'll them when they're gone.... 

Team: Marshall, Osbourne, Borrowdale, M. Hughes (S. Hughes 67), Page (Ward 67), Hall (Hawkins 72), Birchall (Tabb 59), Doyle, Kyle (Mifsud 46), Best (Adebola 63), Gray (McKenzie 75). SNU: Konstantopoulos, Simpson.