Coventry City 1 – 0 Birmingham City

Well, well, well.  As the chap who sits behind us (whose name I still don’t know) with his two lads said to me as we walked out of the ground, someone might have to say the ‘P’ word soon.

That’s the second top-two side who’ve come to the (rapidly becoming fortress) Ricoh Arena and have been sent packing with their tails between their legs by a combination of passion, belief, taking your chances, awesome defending, a brilliant atmosphere and most importantly a crucial tactical shift for which only Cookie can take credit.  For those who weren’t there or haven’t read a report, we kicked off, diagonal ball back to Wrighty who pumped it long looking for Best who beat that leg-breaking thug Taylor in the air and nodded down to Clint who had his shot brilliantly saved by Maik Taylor.  From the resulting corner Scotty Dann cracked in a volley from 10 yards and that’s how it stayed.  60 seconds, 1-0 up.  90 minutes, still 1-0 up.

We should have won 3-1 really, and if it wasn’t for a bit of bad luck and Taylor’s feet Besty would have bagged a brace.  As I said, the key things in the win were first, and obviously, a fantastic passion and commitment, epitomised by the ever-brilliant Arun Gunnarsson who, if he could pass consistently would be a top-four Premiership midfielder.  He threw his boots into the kids in the crowd at full time, and the fans certainly showed him what he means to us as a club.  I see him as a symbol of what Cookie is doing – technically excellent, full of passion, youthful and hungry.  If we keep him, he’ll be the best midfield signing since George Boateng.

Along, then, with the amazing atmosphere (Oh Birmingham is full of, sh*t…), taking our chances (some of them) and some awesome defending, I think a lot of credit has to go to Coleman’s tactical awareness against an undeniably decent Birmingham side, on paper.  Don’t get me wrong, they were toss, but they still needed beating.  Tactically, it was Coleman 2-0 McLeish in my opinion, and this is why:

• Going forward.  Birmingham had been pressed (admittedly by injuries) into playing an odd 3-5-2 system with a makeshift right back (Larsson) dropping in to form a lop-sided back four at times.  Cookie spotted this.  When we saw that the Duke (Leon McKenzie) was starting ahead of Jordan Henderson there had to be a reason, and the fact was that a genuine left footed player with drive and pace was going to lead Larsson a merry dance, to borrow a phrase from Five Live, was it.  This gave us a release every time we went forward.  We weren’t one dimensional like they were (I wonder what they’ll do now… oh, I know, pass to Scott Sinclair who’ll get nailed by Wrighty) but when we did need something to fall back on McKenzie was it.  Best did a great job on that thug Taylor and in the second half Bell realised that their other full back wasn’t much cop either if you cut in.  The aging midfield of that cheating little c*nt Bowyer and Lee “20 minutes” Carsley couldn’t cope with the energy of Doyler and Arun and that set the tone.
• Defending.  Their only option up front was to try to use the tricky but often unproductive Sinclair as both Marcus Bent and Cameron “as sh*te in real life as he is on tele” Jerome were wrapped up by Dann and Turner, who were immense.  I’m unsure why McLeish didn’t start with Costly, who looked decent when he wasn’t handballing it.  Cookie had clearly told Wrighty to do a job, but he had definitely told the wide players to double up on their wingers, and Wright, Fox, Bell, McKenzie (and Henderson) snuffed out anything they had on the flanks.  Kieron only had one vundersave to make, and other than that his main job was to pick overhit crosses out of the sky.

So that’s my two penneth on that one.  Bring on Blackburn, if you ask me, although sadly they looked fairly decent against Man Utd on MOTD last night and should have had a penalty at the end.  Still, if we defend like that we’ve got every chance.

Play Up Sky Blues.  A great win, and a great time to be a City fan…

MILO

Bright times at Coventry City!

Four point from the last six, a fantastic draw and a replay against a Premier League side for the chance to play Chelsea in the FA Cup and key players coming back from injury.  If we’re not careful, us Sky Blue fans are going to start enjoying this…

The difference against Wolves was tactical, but it would appear that the difference overall of late has been a renewed confidence and, while we are clinging on to the new nucleus that Cookie is building, I think that confidence will continue to grow.  Especially if we beat Blackburn, for which I’m delighted to say I have my ticket.

The game against the Brumscum will be very tricky, and although they do have the likes of McFadden out injured, they do have plenty more firepower and Scotty Dann and Turner/McPake will have their work cut out.  I’m also genuinely worried that the lads will have one eye on Tuesday night.  I’m very excited to see the impressive Jordan Henderson looks like he’s going to stay longer with view to a permanent deal, one assumes.  He’s a very quick and exciting winger, and just what we need.  My prediction for Saturday?  1-1.  Call me a traitor, but I’m trying to be realistic.  Brum are a good side but our momentum is strong at present.

If you’re at the game on Saturday then have fun, and Play Up Sky Blues.

MILO

Coventry linked with £2m Summer move for Driver

Although it’s come from the amazing journalistic resource that is the Daily Mirror, this is the second time I’ve heard about this:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/gossip_and_transfers/7878186.stm

Champo reckons he’s quick and has a fantastic left peg.  Long term replacement for Jordan Henderson if we can’t get him?

Watch this space.

MILO

Play up Sky Blues!!! -or- Have it you Yam Yams…

There’s no other title for this post.  Play Up Sky Blues, the more we sing together…

Sorry all for the radio silence.  I’ve been really busy with work etc and I didn’t get to go to the Cardiff game and was a little downheartened with the Derby game.  Today, however, was different.

Today’s 2-1 result against Wolves was one of the best I have seen for many a month, and ‘the best’ for a number of reasons.  First, the match as a spectacle.  It was an end-to-end, chance filled game with two teams really going at it but for different reasons.  Wolves have not had a good run of late but were keen to extend their lead at the top.  We’d come off the back of a pair of awful results, although in the second half against Derby, when Cookie had worked out how to get Leon and Belly in the same team, things looked up.  On the form book though, this was a slightly embarrassing 3-0 stuffing.

Second, the nature of the performance.  My Dad and I both agreed that the game could have been 4-2 to either side – if they were less hesitant and one dimensional in attack they would have definitely put a few past us, but it wasn’t that simple.  We had fight, and commitment and passion, but we’ve had that for most of the games this season.  What we had today was a different level of tactical ‘movement’ in what we did.  The combination of natural width in the form of the encouraging David Bell and the extremely impressive Jordan Henderson gave us a tactical edge that I haven’t seen all year.  When we went forward we were a 4-2-2-2, with Clinton battling and the rejuvenated Leon McKenzie winning everything in the air but far more importantly when we defended we were a compact 4-4-2, and a real one at that.  Not a collection of bodies in the middle with Misfire running around in a circle.

And then there was James McPake.  Suddenly the ‘Ward Factor’ wasn’t there, and massive respect to Chris Coleman for having the balls to outright drop a man who has symbolised the slightly pretentious and overly confident, long-ball orientated, upwards heading liability that has been our back four.  I’m sure I wouldn’t be saying this if Ebanks-Blake hadn’t blasted the penalty straight at Kieron, but he did, and our back four was awesome today.  Wrighty sometimes looked a little outpaced against Jarvis, but he was strong and experienced, Ben Turner was a rock, McPake was everything you could hope for from a debut and Danny Fox did everything required of him.  What a difference a back four makes…

A year ago, we’d have folded at 1-1.  By far the most astonishing thing about today’s game was the response after their equaliser.  I am 24 years old and have been following the city since I was a young lad, and I have never seen us respond to a goal like that.  From the second Doyler slipped a pass to Belly after the kick off instead of laying it back to the full back we were set up to hit them hard and fair play to Leon for missing a chance and then sticking a tougher one away.

And then there’s Kieron Westwood.  Anything I say will be a cliche, so I won’t go on about it, but seriously the guy’s a legend.  Thank God the Newcastle rumours were only that, and that we have the best goalkeeper outside the Premiership in our ranks, and from the way he kissed the ball after he plunged to his right to save the penalty it meant a lot to him.  Him, Scotty Dann, Foxy, Arun, McPake, Bell… we have something special here, City fans, we just have to stick by it.

Here’s to the future, eh?  Today was a massive result, and the transfer window has been a huge success for us, so my greatest thanks and respect go to Cookie and RR for taking the club we/I love and making it into something that’s worth being excited about.  After years of showering under scalding hot water we may have finally got the stench of Peter Reid off the Sky Blue of Coventry.

MILO

It’s all kicking off, Jerry!

It’s all going transfer crazy in the world of Coventry City, and the good thing is it’s all about new lads coming in and not us losing our good players.  Like it usually is.

Fair play to the Beeb website, they’ve picked up the two big stories before anyone else.  I keep an eye on the BBC Sport website, TeamTalk, the Sky Sports website and the hit-and-miss Sports Mercury, but it was the former on that list that spotted these two:

Coventry Sign Livingston’s McPake:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/c/coventry_city/7861707.stm

Now we all knew about this to an extent, but RR had gone on record as saying that they wanted an exorbitant fee (I’d heard a million or so) for the lad when we’d already agreed his contract for next year.  After the Cardiff debacle it would appear that Cookie and RR have decided to blow the dust off the chequebook and go for the ‘sod it’ approach.  Fair play, I think, they’re not messing around and they are reacting to what’s happening on the pitch. For anyone who doesn’t know about him, he’s a centreback who can slot in on the right and for a young lad is very highly regarded.  A classic Cookie signing, really.  I mean obviously he’s only been playing park football with his mates and their Dads up in Scotland, but he’s got some quality so we’ll see how it goes with him.  Any signing that puts pressure on Ward is fine by me…

Coventry Table £1m Bid for Driver:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/h/heart_of_midlothian/7861534.stm

Now this one I didn’t see coming.  Andrew Driver is a top drawer winger, left sided, and with Bell on the other flank we’d have something resembling a midfield.  From the tone of the Beeb article it doesn’t look like we’ll get him, and there are Scousers and Ukrainians after him too, but if we did get him it’d be an awesome scalp.  One thing on our side though again is that he’s a Coleman-style signing – young, well regarded and technically decent.

So yes, all very exciting.  I’ll post some reaction to the Derby game later and I’m not even going to attempt a prediction – if we turn up we’ll batter them but we do also have a habit of leaving players on the bus at the moment…

MILO

Coventry City sign David Bell from Norwich

Just thought I’d let you all know about the fact that we have signed winger David Bell from Norwich for an undisclosed fee:

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11710_4873267,00.html

Fantastic news and just the right signing if you ask me.  More bloggage to come later.

MILO

The end of a run…

Hmmm.  Not good.

I was full of enthusiasm when we’d managed to avoid a banana skin against Torquay and had finally been able to make a move in the loan market, but it would appear that said enthusiasm was badly misguided.  I didn’t get to go to the game last night, I was in London at an Awards evening thing, but my Mum and Dad went and the reports both from the press and them have not been good.  I’d welcome a comment or two from anyone who was there with some more, shall we say ‘precise’, reporting than, “Well that’s it, I’ve had it with Coleman!”  You know who you are.

I think what Cookie has said here is about right.  We’d ‘got away with it’ against Blackpool and Torquay, and that luck ran out against a polished Cardiff side that wasn’t decimated with injury.  I wasn’t on the south coast for the FA cup game, but I did see us beat Blackpool, which we essentially did in 5 minutes at the beginning of the second half.  Other than that burst, which was down in no small part to Boozie’s passing range, we were ordinary.  I think the thing to remember is that we have a small, developing squad with little depth and injury’s gone through us like the Black Death.  We’re not as good as Cardiff, yet.  We’re not as good as them at present with the injuries and lack of depth we have.  Still, on paper we shouldn’t be that far off.

Last night smacks to me of a side that knew they’d got away with it in previous games and was hoping that a slice of luck and some determination would carry them through, but it didn’t.  The new loan lad was apparently ineffectual, but let’s give him a chance.  I assume Boozie was injured… if he was dropped then I would aim a very puzzled look at Coleman myself.

We’ve picked up another kid on loan – this time an out and out right winger from Sunderland, which I think is probably something to do with this article from Sky Sports about Misfire (Mifsud) going to Barnsley.  They’re welcome to him, they really are.  How the man scored 14 goals in all competitions last year I don’t know.  I know he’s playing out of position, but he can’t pass, shoot or tackle and I think he’s lost a yard of pace.  Not good enough, if you ask me.  My Dad told me he spent most of last night falling over the ball, and I can believe that.  £300k, especially given he’s out of contract in the summer, would be good business for him.  He’s toss.

Well, not a good result, obviously, but let’s see how things go from here with Cookie talking about a few new faces and some of the key guys coming back from injury.  Don’t panic, Mr. Mainwaring – let’s reserve judgement for when we have something resembling a squad back.

MILO

Coventry sign Chelsea youngster on loan

I’ve just read that we’ve signed a young lad called Lee Sawyer from Chelsea.  It’s only for 28 days at the moment, but it’ll certainly help with depth, and Champo tells me not only that he’ll be England standard in a few years but also that he is happy on the right if necessary.  Good news, and a nice move from Cookie.  Maybe he buckled under all this blog-based pressure!

http://www.teamtalk.com/football/story/0,16368,1790_4852359,00.html

If you’re interested.  Which you should be.

MILO

Like a cowboy with one arm… we’ve not got a good draw.

Hmmm.  Sunderland or Blackburn away.  Although our away form has arguably been better than our home form, that is not a good draw.  I’d much rather a) have been at home and b) if we were going to be away, got either end of the scale.  Any of the perceived ‘big four’ would have been nice just for the chance of doing to them what we so nearly did to the Geordies.  Still, one positive is that neither Blackburn nor Sunderland are renowned for their consistency and both will have one eye on staying in the Premier League and they might get caught off guard.  Still, on our day we can have anyone… within reason.

I’ve now seen the obviously well edited highlights of the Torquay game and it would appear that the game should have been over inside twenty minutes.  That’s something I’ve spotted at home this year, and it is a slightly worrying trend.  We have this habit of playing like a well-oiled machine for twenty minutes and if we don’t score we become susceptible to Mr Cockup, especially if Elliot Ward’s got anything to do with it.  Yesterday smacked of that to me, but hey, like I said yesterday, at least we’re through.  It wasn’t a good performance, but nice to see yet another Danny Fox set piece coming to fruition.  When he gets it right, as Cookie noted, Foxy’s delivery is top draw, but he needs to be more consistent.  Still, a great talent that we must keep.

Which brings me quite beautifully to answering the various questions I set myself in an earlier post.  Lots been going on recently at the Ricoh, but little of it hugely concrete.  Except for one thing, of course, Tabby’s departure.  Now one thing all three of you who will ever read this will come to know is that I am about as avid a Football Manager (formerly Champo) player as you will get, and I genuinely consider it a fantastic source of footballing info.  Now fellow Champo-ites will recognise the situation with Tabb.  You click ‘Offer New Contract’ and get the dreaded “Tabb is not currently interested in renewing his contract.”  At this point you have two options.  First, you can desperately beg.  This tends to end up either with a player with a disproportionate contract or a desperate battle that ends with him going somewhere for nothing.  The other option?  Exactly what RR and Cookie have done – cash in.  From my limited knowledge of financial operations, I am aware that some money is generally better than no money, so I’m well behind Tabb’s sale.  If he wanted to go, he wanted to go… and for anyone who has seen him at the Ricoh this year let’s face it, he’s been largely awful.

Indian Trialist.  We’re taken a lad called Sunhil Chhetri on trial for a week.  I know little about him, and he’s not on Champo, which is my usual source of information.  I do know he’s highly regarded, and quick, and has a token pushy Asian parent who’s still got one eye on his Pharmacy qualifications.  However, I’m not holding my breath.  Anyone remember Israel Zuniga…?  I hope I’m wrong.

“What’s Coleman pissin’ about at, he’s not signed anyone?!”  Bless my Dad, he had a way with words, and a point, to an extent.  But I’ve got to say I’m well with Cookie and RR on this.  Better a small squad and a picky transfer policy than a squad of Ellery Cairos, Chris Burchills, Patrick Suffos or other such tripe from recent years of scattergun buying.  RR knows that our beloved club very nearly wasn’t, and that pissing money up the wall isn’t the way forward.  Nevertheless, I will be disappointed if we don’t add in at least one of the three key areas – depth at the back, a bit more up front and the big one – width.  I’ll talk about the perils of having no wingers at great length another time, but Christ do we need a winger.  You stick Gary Mac and someone like Ivan Sproule alongside Arun and Boozie and you’ve got, dare I say it, a top 3 midfield.

Quick one – why is my blog called “While the Sky is Blue”?  Two simple reasons.  One, I like the song.  Alright, get it out of your system.  Two, there’s a point behind the song which is very important for any City fan.  While the Sky is Blue, we have to stick by it and stay positive.  Being a Cov fan is never going to be easy so get over it and stop ringing BBC WM after games and spouting bollocks about how we should be winning ever game.  End of.

But what’s the best thing that’s happened in this transfer window?  We’ve still got the core of what Cookie and RR are building, and kudos to them for it.  We haven’t lost Kieron, or Foxy, or Scotty Dann, or Arun.  While we have them, we have the start of something genuinely exciting.  And I don’t mean, “I’d like to announce a new dawn for Coventry City… ladies, gentleman, members of the press… Kevin Kyle.”

Ahem.  Play up Sky Blues.

MILO

Enough is enough

Well, won’t you look at that.  If every prediction I make in a post is as accurate as that one I’ll be a happy man.  Sneaking past Torquay 1-0 at Plainmoor is fine by me – although injuries to Arun Gunnarsson and Boozie (two of our best players in recent weeks) is not good news, but we can only see if they are serious or not.  Mind you, it’d take a swift kick in the neck from a racehorse to stop Arun at the best of times, so I’m a little worried about that.  I didn’t manage to listen to today’s game, so I’m having to comment based on second hand information from the Beeb and my Dad’s lovable but sometimes trying “we’re getting hammered” match updates over the phone.

After the Blackpool game Geoff Foster asked Cookie about the Torquay game and what his attitude would be to it.  He quite rightly replied that the same advice he’d given the lads before the Kidderminster game still applied, and as it happens it appears we were as unconvincing today as we were against Kiddie.  Coleman simply told them, “Don’t be the headlines.”  And we won’t be.  No doubt we’ll have to cope with reams of Daily Mail bullshit about how brave Torquay were and how ineffectual we were and how there was a suspiciously black looking fellow up front for us etc etc etc but as per the title of this blog, enough is enough.  We did enough and we’re in the hat tomorrow.  That’s what matters, and that’s been my general attitude to cup games this season.  The league is a different matter, and we need to be seeing progress there, which I think we are.  However, when it comes to the cup, I just want to be there.  We’ll get an article the size of a gnat’s arse in the Times tomorrow, but it’s better than being front page news…

Who would we like in the next round?  It’s a toss up for me between the Villa scum, assuming they can battle past the might of Doncaster, and someone fairly ‘beatable’ like Swansea or Watford.  Getting to the fifth round is a good effort given the current decimation of our squad through injury and illness.  Although, it was good to see some of the first team defenders making a comeback on the bench, especially Scotty Dann.  I’m a big fan of Dann, as I am of Danny Fox, who sounds like he had a blinder today.  Elliot Ward, on the other hand, winds my Dad and I up something chronic.

I used to be a big fan of Wardy – he made lots of last ditch challenges, cost a few bob and was a good young prospect, but he’s a bit of a wolf in sheep’s clothing when it comes to reliability.  Since he’s been injured we’ve seen the defence tighten, and that is undoubtedly down to the fact that his appalling distribution and penchant for heading upwards constantly puts us in trouble.  Ben Turner’s occasionally looked like Bambi on ice this year but he’s grown into that centreback role and my back four would definitely be Wrighty (first name on the sheet), Scotty Dann (but not as captain, Clint should keep that), Ben Turner/Quido Landzaat (if/when we get him) and Foxy.

I’ll post a bit later to muse about the other things I mentioned earlier, but for now I thought I’d celebrate being in the next round, rather than lamenting the furious scribblings of journos everywhere.  Play up Sky Blues, and here’s to the equally difficult task of Cardiff at the Ricoh on Wednesday, which I can’t bloody go to…

Speak soon

MILO