Coventry 1 Southampton 1

By CovSid67
September 4 2005

Sky TV turned up for the second of Coventry City's matches at their new home, and witnessed a real game of two halfs (Thanks to "Cliches-Are-Us" for the loan of that one). What a difference an Adebola seems to make....

The reduced capacity of 23,000 wasn't even reached, and it's to be hoped a fair few of the five million people that were said to have left the UK for the bank holiday weekend were Coventry City supporters (The capacity has been increased to 26,000 for the Reading fixture - if we can't fill that, is there any point in pushing for the full limit of 33,000+?).

Shaw came in for the suspended Heath (What? No Adie Williams?!), and Jorgensen replaced Osbourne in midfield too, with the youngster earning some criticism from fans because he hasn't made as big an impact as Pele had managed by the same age.

Southampton, who have coped well with the loss of Paul Telfer to Celtic, came into this match on the back of four straight wins, while Coventry City were defending a 100% record at their new home (One game, one win!).

Six minutes in and Coventry were ahead, thanks in part to a cracking cross from Marcus Hall. The scorer was again Scowcroft, who once again proved striker rather than right midfield is his correct position. Early days, but the decision to bring him in is looking like a decent piece of business....

For those hoping for a repeat of the QPR score, the expected rout didn't happen, as Saints were gifted an equaliser.

Three suicidal backpasses could have resulted in goals for the away side, with only Page being unlucky enough to be caught out (Duffy got away with the other two - sadly, neither managed to repeat this against England on Saturday!), with Fuller equalising for Southampton after 10 minutes (His first league goal for almost a year, according to a Saints website).

Coventry looked a decent attacking force throughout the first half, but hopes of another win at the Arena disappeared from the pitch with just over five minutes of the first period left, with Adebola replaced by John.

With Adebola on the pitch, Coventry looked like they had a clue, with Scowcroft winning every header in and around the penalty area, and Jorgensen getting into the opposition penalty area regularly too (And looking worthy of keeping Hughes out of the side when he recovers from injury). With John on for Adebola, Scowcroft dropped back a good few yards, and Claus didn't cross the halfway line again - and most of the threat was gone (Except for a few "should have done better" efforts from Scowcroft).

The P.A. had been blown earlier in the evening - when the testing of said system at around 6pm was so loud it probably resulted in it being heard as far away as Nuneaton! - so the Sky Blue Crew, with no music to dance to, joined Sky Blue Sam in goal for the penalty shoot-out (According to reports, the only place the P.A. could be heard was inside the dressing room, with Micky Adams unable to give a proper team talk. That might go some way to explaining the second half display....).

With the first half having probably kept a watching public entertained, the second half was a dull affair, with only a few poor challenges, and a poor miss from Ormerod worthy of note (He managed to hit the bar with a header when it seemed easier to score, and Robert Page made amends for his earlier mistake by clearing the danger).

Coventry's best hopes of getting near the Southampton goal was from set pieces, but McSheffrey's set pieces were poor - or tactics to stick a player at the back post were ignored.

With complaints that referees had been too harsh in recent matches, this one was guilty of being far too lenient! There were some slightly poor looking challenges going largely unpunished - though Duffy did of course manage to get his name taken!

With the home sides performance having gone off the boil, a change was needed, though the substitutes bench showed a real lack of options for Coventry, hardly likely to strike fear and trembling into any opposing side tiring after 70 minutes.

Graham Barrett would have seemed like a decent choice, but this week signed for Livingstone on loan. Like Stern John, he proves at international level he has something about him, but Coventry City just don't appear to know how to use this to their advantage....

With Owen in talks with Newcastle (With Coventry's £16 million bid seemingly igonored by Real Madrid), it was left to Andy Morrell to replace Flood (Again), though he did little to suggest he might change the game in Coventry's favour (Again). Osbourne also replaced Jorgensen, as the game drifted to a fairly obvious drawn result.

An upturn in displays from Adebola recently, and a severe downturn from John saw Sheffield United switch targets after this match, with Coventry City unbelievably saying "no" to the chance to take money for a player they might have released in the summer.

With Dele Adebola having been linked with a move to Sheffield United, with far more wages said to have been offered, the closure of the transfer window now means we are probably left with a sulking player for at least four months.

It will be interesting to see if his displays are quite so good over the next few matches....

"A draw with Coventry might have been a fair return for an honest performance but [Southampton] are still a long way from getting their act together. Once the remaining nuts and bolts have been hammered into place, Southampton may be able to contemplate a possible swift return to the top flight, their 27-year stay having ended last season. Until then, they will have to scrap it out with the likes of Coventry" - Times Online.

"I thought it was a fair result and Coventry are a good side. They work very hard, they get after you, close you down and generally make life very difficult. I haven't seen a side work as hard as that for a long time" - Harry Redknapp.

[Apologies for the delay, again!]