Coventry City In Clean Sheet And Win Shocker!

By CovSid67
October 30 2005

Having suffered a fair few duff Coventry City matches this season, I was really hoping the highlight of the day wouldn't be the runaway rubbish bin that caused myself and T&S's Matty Evans a few moments of laughter before kick-off (I guess you had to be here....). Thankfully, it wasn't.

Around 4,000 Luton fans helped swell the attendance to a respectable 22,000+ (A figure disputed by those that were actually there!), with those I spoke to in the home sections merely hoping that the rout suffered at the hands of the team third from top wouldn't be too embarrassing.

It's to be hoped non of those 4,000 away fans had come along JUST to see our super-duper new TV and scoreboard, as once again, something connected with the Arena failed to arrive on time (Hence not many time checks in this report!).

There was at least one reason to be positive when the team news was read out, with the return of Robert Page, while some would cruelly state that Ince being dropped in favour of Hungarian international keeper Fulop was also a boost! There was also a return to the side for Jorgensen, at the expense of Nalis. One time Coventry-conqueror Rowan Vine was on the bench for Luton.

McSheffrey, according to some, missed a simple chance to open the scoring within minutes of the start (I missed it due to Luton's traffic problems!), while Luton also missed a sitter early on. Their's looked bad enough from the opposite end of the stadium, but, having seen it again on TV this morning, it's fair to say Howard's miss from almost on the goal-line was a howler!

A sublime pass from Doyle should have set McSheffrey free soon after, but his first touch was poor, and minutes later this almost proved costly as a Luton effort was cleared off the Coventry goal-line. It wasn't, and Adebola missed the chance to set up McSheffrey with a poorly weighted pass.

Doyle and Hughes both ended up in the referees notebook between the 20th and 30th minutes, with the latters being the result of not putting in enough effort to stop a Luton attack some 20 seconds earlier (Doyle's booking being his fifth of the season, according to those that bother with such statistics).

Page denied Luton a shot on goal after 28 minutes with a quality challenge, while a Jorgensen effort from a free-kick flew just wide of Beresford's post minutes later.

A Hughes error allowed Luton a run at goal before half-time, while another poor Adebola pass turned a potential scoring opportunity into a Luton clearance!

Those Coventry supporters that waited downstairs to finish their half-time pint must have regretted the decision, with the home side taking the lead less than two minutes into the second half.

Scowcroft might not be blessed with pace, but he did out-muscle the Luton full-back before putting over a top quality cross that Adebola just could not miss (That said, it was from the same distance out as Howard managed to miss!) - goal six for the season!

With Scowcroft having taken a bit of stick from supporters recently, it was noticeable that more players ran to celebrate with him than the goalscorer! (Though to be fair to Adebola, he too looked for JS rather than celebrating with those that had run to him).

Typically of Coventry City, they did try to concede a minute later, but were denied by a decent save from Fulop. Fulop then sort of blotted his copybook (To steal a cliche) when he opted to parry an overhead kick, rather than try ing to catch it. If we had a striker with pace or the ability to head the ball, his kicking really could be a Route One style asset to our game (It might not be pretty, but who cares if you score from it?).

An incident that seemed to be missed by most people I spoke to during the after-match beer was what looked like a fall-out between Doyle and Duffy, with a few team-mates stepping in to make sure matters didn't get out of hand (A la Flanagan and Hales!).

An Adebola pass put Doyle through for a one-on-one with Luton's keeper, but his disappointing effort was put out for a corner by Beresford. This was one of Doyle's better displays of the season, yet he was awarded only 4 out of 10 by the NOTW journalist who was supposedly there! Harsh. And wrong....

A couple of quality defensive headers from Jorgensen denied Luton an equaliser, with the Faroe Island international justifying Adams' decision to bring him in in place of Nalis (Who should have replaced Hughes, who seemed to run around as if he was carrying a bag of bricks on his back, at half-time!).

Adebola almost scored his second late on in the match, but was unable to lob the ball over the Luton keeper, while McSheffrey did put the ball in the net but was adjudged offside. Soon after McSheffrey was replaced by Nalis.

A Nalis cross was cleared by the Luton defence to the feet of Hughes, who sent a fierce shot just wide of the post.

Morrell replaced Jorgensen late on, as Coventry held out for only their third Championship win of the season.