Back Down To Earth With A Bang!

By CovSid67
February 13 2006

Unrealistic hopes of F.A. Cup and play-off glory were destroyed in the space of four days. Neither were ever going to happen, but it would have been nice if Coventry City could have humoured me for a little while longer....

Middlesboro were fortunate to make it into the next round on Wednesday, but Coventry simply selected tactics that played into the hands of free-scoring Watford on Saturday, and gave a performance that suggested they might as well have not bothered making the journey.

For the Cup match, Micky Adams had stated that we needed to hold out for the first 15 minutes in a bid to get Boro fans to hopefully turn against their team - he should have suggested 20 minutes.

A poorly played offside trap saw Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink given the freedom of the Coventry City half of the pitch, and he rounded Fulop to score with ease - nice of him to stay on his feet this time, as the last time he was in such a position against Coventry, his disgraceful dive resulted in a red card for Chris Kirkland.

Marcus Hall might have equalised for Coventry, but it wasn't to be, and Cup glory is off the agenda for another season.

The £5 ticket price for the match against Watford saw this match virtually sold out, and added to the mere £10 cost of a seat on the "Fun Bus", this actually made it cheaper to travel away to watch Coventry City than to watch them at home! Had those that made the journey known what was to follow, they might just have saved their money....

Scowcroft (Injured) and John (Suspended) were out of the side, with both Hutchison and Wise starting. If this match didn't teach us anything else, it should have at least taught us never to play them in the same midfield from the start again.

Having played so well recently (In the second 45 minutes of matches anyway!), Adams changed to five at the back, and with that went any real chance of winning - with Watford scoring four for the third time in three games.

Wise and McSheffrey saw efforts saved by Foster early on, but it was Young that gave Watford the lead after half-an-hour. And a decent save from Fulop stopped the scoreline from being 2-0 at the break. Fulop's display was one of the few positives to come out of this match for the away side....

Coventry were the first to show in the second half, and Whing's run and cross was cleared for a corner. The youngster gestured to the away fans to get behind the team before the kick was taken - the fans might have made some noise, but it didn't work.

Hutchison was replaced on the hour by Morrell, having done nothing worthy of note throughout. Within minutes of the change Watford made it 2-0, with Marlon King getting on the score sheet.

Thornton and Jorgensen then replaced Wise and Richard Shaw, and the tactics changed to 4-4-2. Soon after Thornton was given a great chance to open his first team account, but he squandered the opportunity , and soon after Watford scored again.

A Coventry City free kick was cleared up the pitch, and within seconds Henderson made it 3-0. It was all to easy, with the performance more Coventry City September to November, rather than any of our recent improved displays....

Watford scored a fourth through Demerit, and, as the Coventry fans streamed out of the ground, Williams stopped the scoreline reading an even more embarrassing 5-0 with a goal-line clearance.

There are three winnable matches coming up for Coventry City, but more displays like this, and they will once again be looking nervously at the wrong end of the table by the time March comes around....