From Potential P45 To 18th In The Table!

By CovSid67
December 14 2005

Back-to-back wins have raised Coventry City to the dizzy heights of 18th in the Championship table - not bad for a team missing so many first team players. The question now is: where do we go from here? Up or down?

Home matches against teams such as Plymouth and Millwall are the games Coventry City need to be winning if they hope to stay in the Championship (Let alone entertain ideas of finishing anywhere near the top half of the table) - and they did! Quite easily too.

Neither match was particularly pretty to watch, though there were glimpses of quality in the Plymouth match, with veteran Don Hutchinson suggesting he might just have a little something to offer a Coventry side usually lacking in said commodity.

Having managed only two draws in the first two of their four consecutive home matches, things looked bleak with half an hour of the Coventry-Plymouth game kicking off, with Micky Adams P45 surely being prepared. A stroke of supposed bad luck appears to have saved his job for now....

The home side, one-nil down and struggling to string two passes together, with slow hand clapping heard for the first time in years (From a usually fairly patient Coventry crowd), saw their luck change due to a triple injury blow early on.

The replacing of Heath - clearly not fit to play on - took far to long, and it was while Coventry were down to 10-men that Plymouth took the lead. Hall's weak header, along with Morrell not bothering to track back, gifted Plymouth the opening goal.

An enforced triple substitution after nearly half-an-hour, which saw Hall, Heath and Scowcroft (Who it was rumoured had cricked neck - insert own gag here!) leave the pitch, to be replaced by Impey, Shaw and Hutchinson, helped Coventry City to a much needed 3-1 victory though.

The introduction of Andy Impey saw Andrew Whing - brought in for the suspended Richard Duffy - switch to left-back, where he put in a decent display.

A virtually incident free first 35 minutes, devoid of almost anything worthy of note (Apart from yet another soft goal being conceded), saw a rare moment of qenuinely exciting play result in an equaliser. Jorgensen's fancy footwork took him past a number of Plymouth defenders, before sending in a cross for Morrell to score. He appeared to shin the ball in, hitting a defender on the way, but how the ball reached the back of the net mattered little.

Five minutes later Don Hutchinson was booked for an innocuous challenge on Larrieu, with the referee seeming to have a problem with Hutchinson getting anywhere near the ball throughout the match.

Adebola should have made it 2-1 minutes before half-time, hitting the bar when it looked easier to score - but Coventry City did take the lead two minutes into stoppage time.

More fine footwork, this time from Impey, followed by a decent cross, set up Hutchinson to score a fine goal. His first touch, which looked as if he was about to blast an effort at goal, completely fooled the Plymouth defence, before he did put his shot past Larrieu. A touch of class.

Minutes into the second half, and it was virtually game over, as a poor piece of defending from Plymouth (Worthy of our own defence!) landed at the feet of McSheffrey, who drilled the ball home - before he headed towards the corner flag to watch his effort again on the big screen!

Doyle was booked after 53 minutes, and soon after tried to get himself sent off by mouthing off at the referee. Silly boy.

Those supporters who had been calling for Adams' to go recently (Via internet message boards and letters to local papers), began chanting "Micky, Give Us A Wave" - for some reason he didn't bother! Short memories some people....

McSheffrey "stole" the ball from Plymouth's right-back and almost set up Adebola, and minutes later Adebola set off on one of his runs before being cynically hauled down. From the resulting free-kick Hutchinson hit the outside of the post. Another Hutchinson set piece almost set up Adebola minutes later.

The referee then had a "pick on McSheffrey five minutes", giving free kicks against the youngster for such crimes as: holding up the ball and not allowing Plymouth near it; and running towards the Plymouth goal with the ball at his feet; and also booked him.

A fine save from Fulop, from a rare Plymouth attack, helped calm the nerves for the remaining few minutes, while McSheffrey could have made the game slightly safer, but blazed the ball over the bar after a fine move from Hutchinson and Impey had set him up.

With one or two Plymouth fans choosing to leave before the final whistle, they were greeted with chants of "Cheerio!" from the home supporters - despite the fact there were far more people leaving early from the home sections!

Onto Saturday the 10th, and a match memorable for two reasons: a first visit to the "posh side" of the ground, and for our second win on the trot!

A liquid breakfast followed by free beer (And food) in hospitality helped ready me for any potentially embarrassing defeat against bottom club Millwall, but Coventry decided against following their normal script, and should have drastically improved the +/- figure in the goals scored and conceded columns.

The match saw Isaac Osbourne brought in to play in midfield, rather than the expected start for Kevin Thornton (Who was amongst the five substitutes, as was Craig Reid - finally!). After a slowish start, Osbourne more than justified the decision with a Man Of The Match performance.

It took just over half-an-hour for Coventry to take the lead, with Gary McSheffrey setting up Claus Jorgensen, who once again had his dancing shoes on as he fired past Doyle in the Millwall goal.

Morrell saw one effort blocked by Doyle in the Millwall goal before half-time, and after the break disappointingly put an effort on top of the net rather than in it after being put through.

While Coventry were in control for most of the match, note-worthy incidents were at a premium, with Lawrence's sending off (For elbowing Doyle) in the 65th minute being one of very few others (The main reason I've merged this match report with the Plymouth report!). The replacing of the referee some minutes later was another!

An attempted skirmish between Coventry and Millwall fans threatened to liven up proceedings, with the stewards and police forced to step in.

Thronton was given a 15 minute runout (Replacing Jorgensen), where, after giving away possession a few times, he regained his composure and once again showed real quality. There was a repeat of his impressive run versus Norwich, taking on and beating a number of defenders, before seeing the keeper tip his effort round the post for a corner.

Before that, McSheffrey - scorer of seven goals in 11 games (Still not enough for some people) - saw Liverpool loanee Whitbread clear his shot off the line. He was criticised by many for not scoring at least a hat-trick, though my criticism would be reserved for somebody who takes a player on such a decent run of scoring and moves him to a position where he is far less effective....