Derby-Coventry / Brighton-Coventry

By CovSid67
September 18 2005

If you want to be in with a chance of promotion, they say, you have to win your home games, and draw your away games - we're not doing to bad on the latter (And it might be even better had we joined in at Burnley, and not been robbed at Sheffied United).

Derby-Coventry


With Stern John set to join Derby in the very near future, he was unavailable for selection by either side, while the "poorly" Robert Page was replaced in Coventry's defence by Matt Heath. With Derby severely struggling for players, they were forced to include Dean Holdsworth on the bench.

Richard Shaw enjoyed a lively start to the game, being credited with the own goal that gave Derby the lead after 14 minutes, before being knocked out cold and taken to hospital fifteen minutes later (There were concerns that he might be badly hurt, though fears were eased when later on he started pulling on doctors coats when he thought nobody was looking....).

Whing replaced Shaw in defence, while the compulsory Morrell for Flood substitution was made at half-time.

One time Coventry target Paul Thirwell was booked for a foul on Michael Doyle early in the second half, and soon after Coventry equalised - man-of-the-moment Dele Adebola scoring his fourth goal of the season. Derby players appealed for offside, but the referee thankfully ignored their plea's.

Coventry's central defence problems were dealt a further blow, with Heath having to leave the pitch, with Hall switching to the centre, and Neil Wood coming in at left-back. Bizarrely, he enjoyed one of his better appearances, in a position fairly foreign to him!

Bywater was forced into action a few times in the final 20 minutes, as Coventry held on for another draw .... which was followed on Saturday by another draw, this time against Brighton!


Brighton-Coventry


The match was described as an "exciting game" by ITV's Teletext, and as "two crap teams with two crap defences" by those that actually watched it!

The early signs in Brighton's temporary home was that Coventry's defence might not be able to cope with the pace of the home attack, though such negative thoughts proved unfounded, with Coventry City taking the lead after 38 minutes - with a little help from McShane's deflection.

A minute before, a McSheffrey effort took a deflection off Hart and had hit a post before going out of play, with Coventry being awarded a corner. The corner was cleared as far as Hughes, whose cross was missed by Adebola and Butters, and, with McShane unable to get out of the way, the Brighton player moved one goal ahead of Stern John in the Coventry City Top Scorer chart....

A goal-line clearance from Andy Whing helped keep Coventry's lead as the teams went in for half-time, with the same player heading wide a goal chance for Coventry just after half-time. Brighton drew level four minutes into the second half, with Bywater's error allowing Knight to score (Is it compulsory for our keepers to drop the odd ricket at Brighton?!).

Within seconds Jorgensen doubled his goal tally for the season to two(!), but four minutes later Coventry again surrendered their lead - Brighton's Coca-Cola prize Kazim-Richards doing the damage.

Two minutes later Hughes was booked, and for the second time this season he tried to talk his way off the pitch. Obviously Wayne Rooney and his "potty mouth" isn't just affecting the youngsters then....

The unpaid Paul Watson made his Coventry debut just after an hour, and did enough to suggest there should be a whip-round in the dressing room for his contribution!

Scowcroft was guilty of missing a few chances to help Coventry to take all three points, but, without an away win against Brighton in 77 years, a draw was no great surprise....

As another example of just how far we've fallen, Brighton fans seem to be under the impression they should be "beating sides such as Coventry" - the reality is, Brighton are punching above their weight, and should probably be in League One.

What chance a draw versus Palace in the Cup?! And how long before the sides stop playing, and toss a coin to decide the winner....?