Coventry City away match thread

[Silvio Dante]

I said pre game that 4 from 4 would have been an acceptable return (predicated on us playing well) and with 1 from 1, we’re on track. So I’m not unhappy overall.

But…

- I think Cov were below par and a bit there for the taking 

- The reason we didn’t was the wide men. Anis was abysmal, and I didn’t see any real threat until we went 2 up top. The real positive for me there was that it was LM trying to impact a game - the prior subs were scheduled and passive 

- Yes, absolutely Max should save the second. I think had we played more front foot earlier it wouldn’t be a factor but it was

Overall, fine. But I think being braver we could have had more.

[Slack Bladder]

City are working hard to get another player in by the end of the window, but it's hard to find somebody who is injured to sign

[Northern Red]

12 minutes ago, Red Exile said:

On the face of it a decent performance. Enjoyed what I saw of it. Two great finishes for our goals...

...but seriously, if you are Steve Lansdown you've got to be asking how Coventry - a financial and logistical basket case in very recent memory  - look a more accomplished side than the one he's put together.

Hey ho. 13th beckons again!

To be fair to him, they've got the manager who he would happily appoint tomorrow if the possibility were to arise.

[petehinton]

Just now, Northern Red said:

To be fair to him, they've got the manager who he would happily appoint tomorrow if the possibility were to arise.

For the 4th time of asking

[MarcusX]

The nature of the equaliser is frustrating but it wasn’t a bad game, or performance. It’s better than the games with no shots on target but still lacking quality in the final third as we all know.

A bit of concentration loss for both goals, perhaps that’s just a consequence of so many games lately?

Im expecting nothing against Leeds so that’s a free hit for me tbh.

[Mr Popodopolous]

7 minutes ago, cidercity1987 said:

No but they've been able to take advantage of the rest of the league being hamstrung. Purely timing on their part of when they got into this league / Covid coming along / decent recruitment.

But ultimately without Covid they wouldn't be in the position they have been for the past two seasons as they would have had to spend much more last season to be competitive. Same applies to Luton probably

Definitely a strong element of right place right time  combined with a tight business model.

Luton went up bang in time from their perspective IMO. Already lost Naismith in summer, then Jones to Southampton. Then Cornick in January to us, Bree to Southampton.

Further sronger performers maybe would've been picked off if not for promotion last year..

Edited January 30 by Mr Popodopolous

[W-S-M Seagull]

2 minutes ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

Coventry never ran aground with FFP unlike us but that's for another day..thought we were overall very decent tonight but see what you're saying more widely.

They got quite lucky with the timing of their promotion in that they received a huge financial boost from getting promoted at a time where other clubs like us were struggling financially like us. 

They came up with a decent squad and were then despite what their fans say, were able to improve that squad by spending. Their fans like to peddle the line that they got to the play off final with the second lowest budget in the league which I think is complete bs. We'll find out when their accounts are released. 

They struck gold with Gyokeres but by my own calculations they have spent that and the Hamer money, especially with the wage commitments taken on. 

I think right now they are fine ffp wise but further down the line they may encounter problems. They don't appear to produce much from their academy and their strategy seems to be much like ours was which eventually messed us up. Down the line they have to rely upon selling players to not only comply with ffp but to pay the wage commitment they have taken on. Its risky. They are gambling on being able to get to the premier league within the next few years. 

They are also restricted in that they only lease the stadium for a matchday. I don't know the makeup of the deal but I'd be surprised if Mike Ashley isn't taken a big cut from food and drinks etc. 

[bexhill reds]

9 minutes ago, W-S-M Seagull said:

It's just such an amateur production. Constant mistakes every game by those on there. 

I've watched plenty of streams in the past with the oppositions in house commentators and by and large they are no where near as restricted in what they can say like we are here. 

I don't know why they can't just use the radio Bristol comms? 

Licence fee costs perhaps or the difficulty of synching the audio. I personally don’t think this is something worth moaning about, it gives me an opportunity to see City that I didn't have 10 years ago, other than the odd live game and 30 seconds of Sky TV highlights. Sure other clubs might spend more on it, but I suspect the revenue stream from subscriptions alone not going to be high enough to warrant huge amounts of production costs.

There are other sticks to beat the club with.

[Ivorguy]

I am now feeling sorry for Manning in the same way I felt sorry for Nige.  Neither has been given a strong enough squad for this league, to achieve what the owners still maintain they want.  This dates back, in recent times, to Cotts not being backed in our first season back in The Championship.

It is all so predictable.  Manning like Nige is left trying to make silk purses out of sows’s ears.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Shuffle]

26 minutes ago, Graham76 said:

Our league form in the last 5 games is concerning. Is it now 3 points out of a potential 15? 

Or 12 from 24 but agree we need a win desperately.  Let’s face it there’s not one of us who wouldn’t have taken a point before game. So disappointing to drop 2 points from a GK mistake. 

[Red Exile]

3 minutes ago, Northern Red said:

To be fair to him, they've got the manager who he would happily appoint tomorrow if the possibility were to arise.

Maybe. But Steve's been in charge for 20 years or more, I find it difficult to believe he couldn't have appointed him - when he was, say, at Scunthorpe. Instead he backed a serial loser.

[Ivorguy]

1 minute ago, Red Exile said:

Maybe. But Steve's been in charge for 20 years or more, I find it difficult to believe he couldn't have appointed him - when he was, say, at Scunthorpe. Instead he backed a serial loser.

Exactly right.  Every failure over two decades rests back with SL

[W-S-M Seagull]

11 minutes ago, cidercity1987 said:

No but they've been able to take advantage of the rest of the league being hamstrung. Purely timing on their part of when they got into this league / Covid coming along / decent recruitment.

But ultimately without Covid they wouldn't be in the position they have been for the past two seasons as they would have had to spend much more last season to be competitive. Same applies to Luton probably

I know quite a lot of Coventry fans and they simply refuse to accept that the timing of their promotion enabled them to take advantage of other teams cutting back. They were able to spend and improve their decent squad at a time where others couldn't. Their fans will not accept anything other than that they had the 2nd lowest budget in the league. They like to frame themselves as some sort of fairytale. 

[frenchred]

25 minutes ago, Curr Avon said:

Just been on RB to push the positivity. We'll get there folks. Have faith.

I appreciate your positivity also comes across on the pod, however it does appear that since the sacking of Nige your opinions have gone all pro club and no criticism is warranted, it's a very strange move 

[firstdivision]

34 minutes ago, 1960maaan said:

Good point at a form team , but....

Sloppy passing costs us so much possession.
Wasted so many crossing opportunities , if we got points for hitting the first man we'd be top.
I've defended Max before now , but that was shocking. First day at keeper school stuff, push the ball away ffs.
Mehmeti is the most frustrating player I've watched for years.
Sam Bell, never more than ok and never imposes himself on the game.
Could easily have won that, just not tidy enough in possession or clinical enough in the last 3rd.

A word for Leigh Doughty, thought he was great for Cov tonight . Broke up lots of our attacks , and helped them onto the front foot by making them take a free kick every time they fell over. 
Ellis wasn't off side though, so can't blame him for that.

I’m sure Anis is a lovey chap and all, but I honestly think he might cause me to have a stroke before the end of the season. 

[flying fokker]

The consensus my side is that you are a good team.  We were certainly off the pace.  But BCFC made us look flat a lot of the time.  
 

we missed Sheaf.  But you’d already made your mark with a couple of early chances.  

[mozo]

28 minutes ago, petehinton said:

Agreed. Looked good after going back to “what we’re good at”. Was similar story of looking tidy with the ball but offering next to nothing in the final third. 

I thought we looked really good in the first 25 minutes prior to the goal which changed the tone. 

Second half, imo, both teams looked leggy and ragged. It made it entertaining, but I don't think either coach would have enjoyed that period.

[petehinton]

Just now, mozo said:

I thought we looked really good in the first 25 minutes prior to the goal which changed the tone. 

Second half, imo, both teams looked leggy and ragged. It made it entertaining, but I don't think either coach would have enjoyed that period.

Looked really good, managed the ball well and good patterns, but pretty powderpuff in the final third. Is becoming an unwanted trend really. 

[Rudolf Hucker]

KP45 looks just as ineffective for Cov as he ever was for us. I was disappointed when he was subbed.

He’s a lovely bloke but not a great Championship footballer imo. 

[flying fokker]

9 minutes ago, W-S-M Seagull said:

I know quite a lot of Coventry fans and they simply refuse to accept that the timing of their promotion enabled them to take advantage of other teams cutting back. They were able to spend and improve their decent squad at a time where others couldn't. Their fans will not accept anything other than that they had the 2nd lowest budget in the league. They like to frame themselves as some sort of fairytale. 

We did. It’s a fact.  Out there on the internet somewhere.    This close  season we lost 14 players and 2 key players. Rebuild WIP.  35 million for 2 players helps.    But we were way behind you on player wages.  My guess is that it put your club under financial pressure.  
 

An extra 6k season ticket holders has helped. We now have 19.5k ST holders.  25k average gates at the moment.  Getting rid of our previous owners did aswell.  
 

[ExiledAjax]

Just got home. Am quite surprised at the level of anger and vitriol being shown by some.

We played alright, we matched a slightly off the boil Coventry and really could have won or lost it but for a number of individual moments - good and bad.

Max fails to hold their second, bit Wells does brilliantly well for ours, and then Collins pulls out a top draw save at the very end to deny us a third.

Mehmeti frustrated, James was a bit off the pace, but Dickie and Vyner looked solid as a pair and Tanner defended well. When Pring or Williams decided to push forward they found gaps. 

Conway toiled admirably as he was asked to help cover Sakamoto, who was a real test of our left hand side.

One mistake by one player doesn't define that team performance tonight.

Decent point on the road in the end.

[petehinton]

5 minutes ago, Rudolf Hucker said:

KP45 looks just as ineffective for Cov as he ever was for us. I was disappointed when he was subbed.

He’s a lovely bloke but not a great Championship footballer imo. 

Thought he was their best player first half tbf

[Mr Popodopolous]

42 minutes ago, cidercity1987 said:

No but they've been able to take advantage of the rest of the league being hamstrung. Purely timing on their part of when they got into this league / Covid coming along / decent recruitment.

But ultimately without Covid they wouldn't be in the position they have been for the past two seasons as they would have had to spend much more last season to be competitive. Same applies to Luton probably

Although there is an argument just to return to this that FFP would've come to bite us and Stoke especially, plus Derby more quickly irrespective or amortisation and Reading and so forth so maybe Coventry and Luton benefit anyway.

The transfer arguments by clubs were spurious IMO.

[W-S-M Seagull]

2 minutes ago, flying fokker said:

We did. It’s a fact.  Out there on the internet somewhere.    This close  season we lost 14 players and 2 key players. Rebuild WIP.  35 million for 2 players helps.    But we were way behind you on player wages.  My guess is that it put your club under financial pressure.  
 

An extra 6k season ticket holders has helped. We now have 19.5k ST holders.  25k average gates at the moment.  Getting rid of our previous owners did aswell.  
 

Point proven. Its really not a fact. Even last years accounts don't put you as the second lowest wage bill. 

In 2021 your wage bill was 11.8 million. In 2022 it increased to 14 million. We will soon find out what last seasons was but I expect it to be significantly higher and I expect this season it has once again got even bigger. 

The point I was making was that you significantly increased your wage budget at a time that other clubs were cutting costs. 

You may have brought in 35 million but you've also spent around that plus the wages on top. 

Mike Ashley is not letting you play at his stadium for free, we all know what a mercenary he is. Your next accounts may show how much of your income you lose to Mike Ashley. 

You will need to sell in the future to comply with ffp in my opinion. If you suddenly start to perform badly on the pitch then your fanbase has shown many times it doesn't show up so you can't rely upon having 25k attendances in the future. 

 

[mozo]

22 minutes ago, petehinton said:

Looked really good, managed the ball well and good patterns, but pretty powderpuff in the final third. Is becoming an unwanted trend really. 

Agree, except I don't think it's a trend. It's a long term problem.

[Davefevs]

1 hour ago, frenchred said:

I appreciate your positivity also comes across on the pod, however it does appear that since the sacking of Nige your opinions have gone all pro club and no criticism is warranted, it's a very strange move 

Don’t worry, I’m on tomorrow morning’s show, so you’ll get another perspective!

1 hour ago, mozo said:

I thought we looked really good in the first 25 minutes prior to the goal which changed the tone. 

Second half, imo, both teams looked leggy and ragged. It made it entertaining, but I don't think either coach would have enjoyed that period.

Agree we were good early on.

But…

Coventry made a tweak on about 23 minutes.  Latibaudiere, who’d come on for Sheaf after 11 minutes, into the centre of midfield, started dropping in between Collins and Kitching in the first phase of build-up, and they got Bidwell and Van “Ewok” further forward, pushing us back.  When we had the ball he stayed in midfield.  I’m not saying that was a directly responsible for the goal, but it got Cov a bit of territory.  Because we’d swarmed them up to then.  They got their goal a few minutes later, had a good spell, but in fairness we wrestled back control heading towards half-time, and deservedly equalised.  But it’s another case of the level of quality of opposition managers in the Champ to make tweaks and impact the game.

[Malago]

Looking at the highlights, Simms could well have been offside for their second.  Would like to see a freeze frame if anyone has one.

[TV Tom]

27 minutes ago, Malago said:

Looking at the highlights, Simms could well have been offside for their second.  Would like to see a freeze frame if anyone has one.

Definitely onside and well on side, fantastic anticipation from him as if he knew that Max would spill it (mark of a good striker) 

[W-S-M Seagull]

3 minutes ago, TV Tom said:

Definitely onside and well on side, fantastic anticipation from him as if he knew that Max would spill it (mark of a good striker) 

Yep definitely onside. It not even really a close call. He's obviously onside. 

Max has spilled a few before so Simms was likely told about this and instructed to anticipate any spills. 

As soon as the shot was taken you can see he is looking for the rebound. 

[trickydickiecardigan]

5 hours ago, GrahamC said:

Yep, he was one of many expecting a comfortable 3-0 win beforehand.

Go back to the start of this thread, absolutely full of people delighted Bell started & expecting us to piss the game.

Coventry unbeaten in 12 but what does that mean?

Doesn't that mean there unbeaten in 12? DOH!