Coventry In A Hull Lot Of Trouble

By CovSid67
September 25 2005

"Smash and grab" is the best way to describe Hull's win at the Arena, as Coventry City's unbeaten record was surrendered far to easily. Chelsea or Aresnal in the cup (Obviously! The Premiership is so far away) we could take, but Hull?

Coventry enjoyed far more by way of possession, but showed powder-puff finishing and a severe lack of shooting options when other chances should have arisen, resulting in the home side being beaten in one of their "must win games" if they have any thoughts of staying up - let alone ridiculous notions of a Top Six finish.

Slightly irrelevantly, but for once there was probably more Burberry in the away end than the home sections (With a few of those opting for such items of clothing being taken away by the police before they had even made it inside the ground), as those that travelled down from the place rated as the worst place to live in the UK, came to Coventry for a League match for the first time since 1966 - the season we were promoted to the top flight.

The attendance given was 21,161 (Highly disappointing, with season ticket holders being offered the chance to buy a second ticket for a friend for a mere £10), though this will more than likely have gone up by Monday .... and very down by Wednesday (When Coventry City play the trickier of their two home games in five days, against high-flying Watford).

Coventry City started well enough, though Adebola was harshly pulled up for a couple of fouls early on, then seemed to spend the rest of the half either not bothering to jump (As he knew the referee's whistle would bring a halt to proceedings), or jumping to early and landing again before the ball was anywhere near him.

When it wasn't the referee stopping Coventry in their tracks, the linesman in the Hull defensive half of the pitch was flag happy, choosing to stop any chance of a Coventry City attack whether a player was borderline, or fifteen yards onside.

Sadly, the linesman at the other end of the pitch missed what looked blatant offsides, and from one of these Hull took the lead. Bywater saved an effort from the initial move, but seconds later it was 1-0 to the opposition, as John Welsh, on loan from Liverpool, opened the scoring (His first goal in seven games for the club).

Hull's supporters then became the first morons to utter the words "Sh*t Ground No Fans", with the first three sets of opposition supporters to visit the Arena this season at least having the brains to acknowledge the fact that the Arena is a fine place to play football.

Having enjoyed plenty more of the possession without looking like scoring, Coventry City should have gone 2-0 down just around the half hour mark (The sooner the ground gets a clock the better!), but Hull missed an absolute sitter from little more than a yard out.

Minutes later Hull wasted another chance to go 2-up, as an attempted bicycle kick flew narrowly over Bywater's cross-bar.

A soft free kick from Hughes proved nothing more than a routine backpass for Hull's keeper, and minutes later a Hull attack saw a blatant handball by one of their strikers while in a dangerous position result in a free kick to Coventry City - though said incident was totally missed by the linesman (Despite it being on his side of the pitch), with the referee doing the duties.

A great run to the byline, followed by an excellent pull-back from Adebola saw a quality chance to equalise squandered (And a small penalty appeal ignored, as one Coventry City player went over in the six yard box), with Adebola's set up play being wasted half-a-dozen times throughout the match. So often with his back to goal and usually two or three defenders around him, he looked to lay the ball off to others, with nobody ever near enough to help. Simply not good enough.

Excellent play between Adebola and Scowcroft set McSheffrey up, but his shot was saved well by Myhill in the Hull goal. Without the benefit of a replay, I'm unsure whether it was a "stick on goal", but he seemed to have a lot of goal to aim for....

Seconds later a terrible pass in midfield by a Coventry player let Hull in for yet another chance, with the recipient of such good fortune putting the ball wide of Bywater's post when it looked far easier to score.

Just before half-time an Ormsby-esque mistake in the Hull defence let McSheffrey in, but again his effort was saved by Myhill.

As I changed ends of the ground at the start of the second half - in the hope of seeing Coventry City attacks! - it dawned on me that I don't even know who Hull's manager is. I asked my brother, and he too was stumped for an answer. Both of us regard ourselves as knowledgeable about most things football, yet couldn't name the man trying to help end our unbeaten run at the Arena....

An early second half corner was headed just wide by Jorgensen, with Adebola possibly in a better position a mere yard behind him. This was the first of at least half-a-dozen such occurences, when a simple shout of "my ball" from players in a better position might have reaped rewards.

Another of Coventry City's failings was to continually ignore Andy Impey, who seemed to have the entire right-hand side of the pitch to himself, but was rarely given the ball. The question has to be asked: why not? Players looked towards him, but seemed to prefer passing to players that were being well marshalled. When he did get the chance to cross, he caused some panic in the Hull defence.

A fair few of those wearing Sky Blue appeared to be playing as individuals rather than as part of a team (Which I guess is lightly better than those that remained virtually anonymous), which is possibly why there seemed little by way of conversation - except when Michael Doyle blasted a team mate after his poor pass gave said player no chance anyway.

Two penalty appeals in a minute were turned down by the referee, the second of which saw a Hull defender use his hand to stop McSheffrey reaching the ball. From the resulting corner, an Adebola effort was cleared off the line.

Minutes later McSheffrey was put through, but blazed his effort over the bar without troubling Myhill.

Flood and Morrell replaced Jorgensen and Doyle, with the former being responsible for a fair few good moves in the second half (With his first contribution setting up Adebola, who hit the post), while the latter missed a sitter, then gave away the ball for the second of Hull's goals. Two games, two clangers for Morrell, two defeats....

Another hand-ball appeal was ignored, before Adebola had another effort saved off the line. Seconds later Adebola set up Morrell who missed what looked a "stick on" goal, with Scowcroft - possibly surprised the ball even made it to him - blazing over the bar.

Lynch was then sent off for Hull for what looked like a straight red card offence, but, rather than helping Coventry's cause, playing against 10 men seemed to hinder us - again. Having watched some youngsters hammer the opposition because of a one man advantage this morning, I am left wondering just why Coventry City are incapable of doing the same.

A Watson free-kick was well saved by Myhill, before Morrell's clanger saw Hull double their lead - Welsh again the scorer, bringing an end to a run of three successive defeats for the away side. This was enough for a fair few Coventry supporters, who began making their way to the exits....

Morrell did have the chance to pull a goal back near the end, but headed wide with at least hitting the target seeming a far easier option.

The sad truth is, if the most we can manage away to Brighton, and at home to Hull, is a mere one point, League One beckons....