A view from the Coventry Telegraph stand

[Loderingo]

As mentioned on another thread, went tonight with my mate who's a Coventry fan and it was my turn to sit in the home end this time. Was in the Coventry Telegraph stand which is up the other end from where the City fans were sitting. Was sitting between my mate and a women who sounded just like Mrs Overall from Acorn Antiques.

First thing to mention is the faboulous City support. I was up the far end but could easily hear every word the City fans were singing and it comfortably drowned out the minimal noise from Cov. Cov only had two songs. One was Sky Blue Army which sounds a lot like Cider army speeded up and the other was something about beating Chelsea, Tottenham etc The Cov fans couldn't even remember all the words. Shows it's been a while...

I really enjoyed the game. I was really impressed with the quality of our attacking play in the first half (when City were up my end). I'm not normally the sort to go in for superlatives but the quality of our passing, shimmies, dummies, runs, flick ons and crosses was really exceptional. I'm not sure if I've ever seen such a level of technical skill in a City team before. The forward unit is really starting to gel now and the only thing we're missing is a clinical finisher as we still tend to miss too many chances. After watching the first ten minutes I was confident we would go on and win the game.

The start of the second half saw a bit life from the Cov fans and it looked like we might have a harder battle on our hands, but Showumni's (or Eric Shermelar as the tannoy guy seemed to say) goal burst their brief bubble. Then Cov gradually started getting worse and worse and became a complete shambles. Our defence (my end 2nd half) looked comfortable and just seemed so much more up for every 50/50 ball. Cov never really looked like scoring and City started just passing it around to waste time. Cov's only real chance came due to City complacency more than anything else and even then they couldn't put it away. The Cov fans finally made a bit of a noise by chanting "we're sick of all this s**t" and "Adams out". Mrs Overall left after 80 mins and she wasn't the first.

Overall, I felt that City were excellent and more than deserved the win. I think the two games have shown that (with a few quality additions) we have the nucleus of a squad that is good enough to survive in the Champ. Cov were rubbish but there are worse teams than them and I expect they will pick up with a new manager. It shows we can certainly play the pretty passing game but it may be back to the ugly stuff for league 1. I thought the ref was reasonable, let the game flow and don't remember any cards. I thought we might have had a penalty shout in the first half. Johnson was chasing a ball forwards in the box and the defender seemed to use his arm to control it but I don't think the ref could have seen it as the players' bodies were in the way (and the Cov fans weren't going to say anything).

BTB - My mate who is an super-part timer (never been to the Ricoh before) has decided that once is enough and he's never going again, although he said he might come down AG again if we play the next season.

[Rocky]

Good post.

[A Horse With No Name]

As mentioned on another thread, went tonight with my mate who's a Coventry fan and it was my turn to sit in the home end this time. Was in the Coventry Telegraph stand which is up the other end from where the City fans were sitting. Was sitting between my mate and a women who sounded just like Mrs Overall from Acorn Antiques.

First thing to mention is the faboulous City support. I was up the far end but could easily hear every word the City fans were singing and it comfortably drowned out the minimal noise from Cov. Cov only had two songs. One was Sky Blue Army which sounds a lot like Cider army speeded up and the other was something about beating Chelsea, Tottenham etc The Cov fans couldn't even remember all the words. Shows it's been a while...

I really enjoyed the game. I was really impressed with the quality of our attacking play in the first half (when City were up my end). I'm not normally the sort to go in for superlatives but the quality of our passing, shimmies, dummies, runs, flick ons and crosses was really exceptional. I'm not sure if I've ever seen such a level of technical skill in a City team before. The forward unit is really starting to gel now and the only thing we're missing is a clinical finisher as we still tend to miss too many chances. After watching the first ten minutes I was confident we would go on and win the game.

The start of the second half saw a bit life from the Cov fans and it looked like we might have a harder battle on our hands, but Showumni's (or Eric Shermelar as the tannoy guy seemed to say) goal burst their brief bubble. Then Cov gradually started getting worse and worse and became a complete shambles. Our defence (my end 2nd half) looked comfortable and just seemed so much more up for every 50/50 ball. Cov never really looked like scoring and City started just passing it around to waste time. Cov's only real chance came due to City complacency more than anything else and even then they couldn't put it away. The Cov fans finally made a bit of a noise by chanting "we're sick of all this s**t" and "Adams out". Mrs Overall left after 80 mins and she wasn't the first.

Overall, I felt that City were excellent and more than deserved the win. I think the two games have shown that (with a few quality additions) we have the nucleus of a squad that is good enough to survive in the Champ. Cov were rubbish but there are worse teams than them and I expect they will pick up with a new manager. It shows we can certainly play the pretty passing game but it may be back to the ugly stuff for league 1. I thought the ref was reasonable, let the game flow and don't remember any cards. I thought we might have had a penalty shout in the first half. Johnson was chasing a ball forwards in the box and the defender seemed to use his arm to control it but I don't think the ref could have seen it as the players' bodies were in the way (and the Cov fans weren't going to say anything).

BTB - My mate who is an super-part timer (never been to the Ricoh before) has decided that once is enough and he's never going again, although he said he might come down AG again if we play the next season.

Excellent post from life "in the other end". However , Louis Carey did get booked for a two footed lunge which, if he had caught the guy would have been curtains for Carey.

[Somerset Red]

I saw your post saying you would be in the away end, we were looking out for you when we scored.......were you sat on your hands?

[Loderingo]

I saw your post saying you would be in the away end, we were looking out for you when we scored.......were you sat on your hands?

Pretty much as I was completely surrounded by Cov fans. Had to keep quiet really which is a shame. It's a really weird experience going in the other end as what you see with your eyes, no longer matches up with what you hear from your ears.

[Jimmy]

First thing to mention is the faboulous City support. I was up the far end but could easily hear every word the City fans were singing and it comfortably drowned out the minimal noise from Cov.

After our first goal I said to one of my mates, 'They didn'nt announce the goal scorer on the PA system did they?';

apparently they did!

After our second goal I made a concious effort to listen for Showumni's name being announced, no joy i'm afraid!

[bartolona]

After our first goal I said to one of my mates, 'They didn'nt announce the goal scorer on the PA system did they?';

apparently they did!

After our second goal I made a concious effort to listen for Showumni's name being announced, no joy i'm afraid!

I thought, when they announced the line up they said we had Adrian Basso in goal?