How Much More Of This Do We Have To Put Up With?

By CovSid67
November 27 2005

Two-nil up with a mere 10 minutes on the clock, and Norwich looked as if they were in for a battering. Sadly, such is the lack of confidence in the current Coventry City XI, or the tactics, that had we been five-nil up I wouldn't be convinced we would do anything other than draw 5-5, or lose 6-5.

Watching Coventry City is a chore, not a pleasure - and it shouldn't be.

Captain Stephen Hughes was unavailable (Something that pleased a fair few people), with his expected replacement, the recently signed Don Hutchinson starting on the bench, with Andy Morrell preferred - by Adams at least.

Gary McSheffrey scored a superb solo goal with only minutes on the clock, and became the first player to have his goal replayed on the (Fairly) big screen - the sort of goal that we were once often treated to by Darren Huckerby, with McSheffrey having gone on a long, mazy run through the Norwich defence, before seemingly having drifted to far wide.

A couple more McSheffrey runs came to nothing much, before Adebola made it 2-0. This was the sort of chance Adebola would have missed last season, but his cool finish under the advancing (If) Robert Green (Can Play For England So Can I) has surely added another couple of pence to his eventual transfer fee in January?

A Davenport slip let in Adebola, who in turn set up Jorgensen. Sadly, his effort was only a danger to the Norwich fans sitting in the back row of the stands. This was looking all to easy, with Norwich seemingly unable to even keep an attempted pass on the playing area (Something which continued even after they were allowed back in the game).

Norwich then missed a couple of "should have done better" chances, before for the second week in succession a superb run from McSheffrey saw him pulled up by the referee, apparently for using excessive force on a defender (Who probably weighs about five stone more than he does), when in a one-on-one position with the opposition keeper - from my vantage point, this looked like an overly harsh call.

As a result of this decision, which could have put the game beyond doubt before half-time (Ignoring paragraph two!), it all started to go pear-shaped.....

A hefty challenge from Duffy on Huckerby say yet another "handbags" incident involving Norwich (Is it complsory in their matches?), with Doyle (Who gave possibly his worst display of the season) then booked for a pointless foul on Huckerby too (Though to be fair, between the two challenges, he was forced to leave the pitch!). From the resulting free kick, Norwich won a corner, and the away side were gifted a goal.

Defensive frailties were again in evidence as old boy Callum Davenport was allowed a free header to bring the scores back to 2-1 - a goal so stupidly simple that it took a few seconds for Norwich supporters to realise they had scored.

Scowcroft was then booked for getting in the way of a Green goal-kick - another pointless booking to add to this seasons collection.

One again the PA was inaudible at half-time, and so loud that conversation with the person next to you was virtually impossible. Is there no volume button?? The 1950's music played probably didn't appeal to too many supporters either....

Minutes into the second half, Robert Page missed the chance to make the score 3-1, with a header from a corner almost exactly on the spot where Davenport had scored from.

Five minutes into the second half Norwich made their third and final substitution (With Huckerby having been replaced by Brennan before the break, and Wright replaced at half-time - sadly for Coventry City, by the player who scored Norwich's equaliser), with Hughes replaced by McVeigh. A badly timed challenge from Hall almost saw Norwich reduced to 10 men, though the magic sponge saw what looked like a nasty injury erased within moments....

Moments before, a cracking cross from McSheffrey was just missed in front of an invitingly empty goal by Scowcroft, and it seemed that with certain members of the squad saying it was time for players to take a look at their displays, and Adams admitting he faced the sack, everybody was pulling together in a bid to help us climb the table. It wasn't great, but it was an improvement - until a few tactical master strokes from Adams spoilt things.

An error by Duffy almost allowed Norwich an equaliser (One of quite a few Duffy errors during the match), and minutes later Norwich did think they had equalised. Their fans were busy celebrating, as were some of their players, but Fulop had stopped the ball on the goal-line, and launched it down-field. A race between Davenport and McSheffrey was won by Davenport's hand, something spotted by the linesman but ignored by Premiership standard referee Rob Styles - yet another potentially match altering decision, as this would surely have resulted in a red card?

Hutchinson replaced the awful Andy Morrell (Two touches all afternoon), with his first contribution being to take the urine out of the a Norwich defender (a la Tommy Hutchinson!) before delivering a pin-point accurate cross onto Adebola's head a few yards out, which he headed inches wide.

The introduction of Hutchinson saw a tactical master strokes from Micky Adams, which virtually handed Norwich a minimum of one point - and almost all three. With Gary McSheffrey enjoying his best game for a while playing as an out-and-out striker, our manager, in his infinite wisdom, switched him to left midfield. Genius.

McSheffrey's only real contribution to the game after the switch, having given Norwich's defence the runaround for most of the afternoon while played in his favourite position, was to send a dangerous free-kick into the Norwich penalty area, which eluded everybody expect Scowcroft who was waiting at the far post. Sadly he headed his effort straight into the arms of Green.

Having given Norwich the upper hand by deciding to camp the entire Coventry side in and around their own penalty area, there then followed a free kick where every player with the exception of Duffy, who was taking the free kick, was in or around the Norwich penalty area. The pass was taken to Thornton as he ran onto the pitch, and his ball into the penalty area was won by Norwich, who simply tore up the field and should have equalised.

On this occasion they didn't, and on the few other occasions where they simply walked past our statuesque defence they didn't either, but it didn't take long before the inevitable happened anyway. One time Coventry target Fleming helped make the afte match pint taste bitter....

With seconds left on the clock, Thornton went on a mazy run through the Norwich defence (Showing some of the older pro's exactly what THEY should be doing), threatening to score a "Goal Of The Season" contender, but was denied at the last, and soon after the final whistle went - once again the team were booed off the pitch.

One paper described the Norwich fightback as "gutsy", but it would seem more correct to call Coventry City's tactics "cowardly". We do have strengths, but seem far more pre-occupied with worrying about the opposition than playing our own game - the first 10 minutes+ of this match showed just what we can be capable of.

While I have no wish to see anybody unemployed, something really does have to change at Coventry City - and soon. Whether or not the garbage we are being dished up is Adams' fault, or simply down to players not carrying out his instructions I'm unsure, but it is far easier to get rid of one person rather than most of the squad - though getting rid of just about everybody currently associated with Coventry City and starting again would be my preference....

Two more home matches without a win will surely see Adams become yet another addition to the list of "tried and failed" at Coventry City?