Eagles S*** All Over Abysmal Coventry

By CovSid67
October 16 2005

Recently TV showed a programme where divers discovered new species of sea life by diving lower than before. Coventry City are doing something similar, by plumbing new depths of ineptness.

The ease with which yet another side was able to walk straight through our defence at will really was quite embarrassing, and it's difficult to believe that we actually do have four defenders on the pitch (Worth noting that defender Adie Williams, who couldn't get a look-in at Coventry City, scored for Millwall yesterday, as they continue the climb away from the bottom of the table - a climb that has coincided with his loan spell starting).

It cost a far more realistic price of £15 for home supporters to watch this fixture, but, to steal somebody elses line: the reduced admision price should not mean a reduction in effort. It was pitiful. Palace fans apparently paid more, though I'm sure they're not that bothered, as they at least had the pleasure of seeing their own side turn up. No wonder they seemed to cheerful as they wandered through the turnstiles before kick-off....

There was an increase in attendance because of the drop in price, but whether it was because those making their first visit to the Arena didn't know the words to such tunes as: "Coventry! Coventry! Coventry!" I'm unsure, but there seemed little by way of crowd noise throughout the home areas (Which had been made to look fuller with the further moving of the net to keep home and away supporters apart).

Interesting to note also that the singing of "Stand Up If You Love City" was ignored by the majority of the ground - thanks to abysmal displays against Hull, Sheffield Wednesday, and now Crystal Palace, it's hardly surprising.

Whether or not the sudden burst of "We Will Rock You" over the speakers during play in the first half was to wake people up, or merely an accident, I'm as yet unsure. That, and where the pigeons in the Evening Telegraph Stand (Block 27) were going to crap, helped keep peoples interest though. Just.

Only Nalis's first half display, and Sofiane's second half display were anywhere near good enough, and the need to try and find nine more players willing to play for nothing before Tuesday is becoming a necessity. Nalis's ability to pick out the man in space rather than the man with four players around him was a breath of fresh air (Though his miss in front of goal from a Hughes cross was poor).

There were moments when players looked interested, with Hughes sloppily giving the ball away, but chasing 25 yards to win it back, and later McSheffrey did the same - but that was about it.

Maybe if an early speculative effort had gone in rather than being caught just under the crossbar by Kiraly, things might have been different - but it didn't, and it wasn't.

Richard Shaw earned praise from a fair few people, yet was clearly to slow, and was responsible for not stopping the first two goals (Though again, the ease with which Palace were allowed to pick out there players inside the penalty area was a disgrace), and also gave Palace the chance to score another by dallying on the ball when Row Z seemed a better option.

There was a fairly decent shout for handball in the Palace penalty area a few minutes before half-time, but nothing was given.

Matt Heath scored his second goal of the season (Two goals in nine games!), and momentarily gave the home side hope - it literally was momentarily too, as Palace re-gained the lead a matter of seconds later. The award of the free kick might have been wrong, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't have tried defending it....

The second half saw Sofiane replace Hughes, with a fair few stories going around that our supposed star player wasn't happy about the decision. His replacement could have endeared himself to the home fans within minutes, seeing a decent shot blocked by the Palace defence.

He looked far more direct than we're used to seeing, with a bit of pace, and tha ability to actually take on and beat players, and pass accurately. Give it a month and it will have been drilled out of him....

A McSheffrey effort was tipped over soon after, though he was criticised again for trying to do everything himself, and going to ground far to easily. To be fair, there didn't usually seem many options for him to pass to.

Claus Jorgensen came on for the ineffective Scowcroft, firing one decent header wide - before being sent off! Quite what it was for nobody seems sure (Not helped by yet more useless highlights from The Championship this morning), but it appears to be dissent. If dissent was the reason, it was more than likely aimed at Sofiane for not passing rather than at anybody else!

Minutes before the sending off, Palace brought on Andy Johnson for Morrison, with Morrell replacing Adebola for Coventry City. This typified the difference between Coventry and Palace for manager Micky Adams - though the truth is it was the fact that Palace just seemed more bothered that resulted in the rout.

With many supporters having already streamed out of the ground, Palace completed a thoroughly miserable day for the home side, scoring their fourth goal. The only consolation most could find was that it was far less difficult to escape the Arena, thanks to so many people having left early.

Somebody later produced statistics that suggested Coventry City had more of the ball than Palace - I would like to know what the percentages were for passing the ball forwards? And apparently we had far more shots too (Really?), the "shooting yourself in the foot" statistic would have been far higher....

Rumour has it a fair amount of the first team don't like the manager, and while it's fair enough the players might not want to play for him, the least they could do is put a bit of effort in for the supporters. There were a fair few new ones there yesterday because of the lower ticket price - they won't be coming back.