LFL: COV

Just as we needed to up our game as we close in on a promotion place, we produced our worst performance and suffered our worst defeat of the season. We were comprehensively outplayed by Coventry who were well up for the game while we were tired and lethargic. I think we need this international break to get ourselves sorted out. Let’s hope we don’t have to face Coventry in the play-offs.

BEFORE

There’s been an edge to this fixture for decades now and that will add spice to what’s already a challenging game. I always liked Ellis Simms and his deceptively casual style and no doubt he’d love to score against us this afternoon. Coventry are on a very good run, having won five out of their last six league games, though they did lose against Derby on Tuesday. For us, surely Mundle has to start instead of Watson and maybe Jobe will have a break with Browne replacing him. I won't be at the game so it'll have to be SAFSEE for me. I think it’s going to be a right tussle and I can never see us keeping a clean sheet these days so my match prediction is a 3-2 win for us.

I got the team-news about an hour before kick-off and there were two changes in our starting line-up with Mundle and Rigg replacing Watson and Isidor, both of whom were on the bench. Simms was on the bench for them and that suited me. Leeds dropped a couple of points in their early kick-off at Loftus Road, just round the corner from me, but they’re pretty much out of our orbit anyway. I got SAFSEE online and awaited developments.

THE MATCH

I was glad to hear that we were playing in red and white. Just before kick-off commentator Benno said we had to try and snuff out Grimes’s contribution as he was the one who pulled the strings for them. There was an offside decision against each side in the opening stages and then Jobe conceded a free-kick twenty-five yards out. It ended in a Sakamoto header going over but it sounded like our defence wasn’t exactly looking solid. Next thing Cirkin was judged to have fouled too and we faced another free-kick in a dangerous position. That resulted in a Thomas header going over and we breathed again. We conceded the first corner of the game in the ninth minute and it ended in an offside decision but we needed to try and relieve the pressure as we’d hardly been in their half so far. We survived the first fifteen minutes and I hoped for better things. We did create our first decent attack when Mundle and Mayenda combined but it only resulted in a weak shot from the latter. It showed that Mayenda could scare their defenders at any rate. Neil made a crucial block when Allen had a shot on target in the twentieth but shortly afterwards Neil lost the ball in midfield and Wright slammed a low shot in from about twenty yards out and we were one down. Burnley had gone 2-0 up at Swansea so the afternoon wasn’t going at all well.

Mundle had a shot that went wide in the twenty-fifth while Mayenda was down injured in what appeared to be an off-the-ball incident. Something must have occurred between Mayenda and Kitching so cool heads were needed. In the twenty-seventh Mepham blatantly tripped Wright in the box and from the resultant penalty Wright put them 2-0 ahead, blasting it down the middle. My 3-2 prediction was looking a bit shaky. Benno and Barnes said that with the possible exception of Mayenda we really hadn’t been at it so far and had been second best all over the park. We slowly started to put a move or two together and in the thirty-fifth we were awarded a free-kick twenty-five yards out. That came to nothing and we continued to give the ball away far too often. I was looking forward to getting to half-time as we were getting nowhere. Cirkin put a shot over in the dying seconds of normal time and then we were into an extra minute. It remained 0-2 as the whistle went and we needed to revitalise the team if we wanted to get anything out of the game. Benno said we’d shown little fight while Coventry had plenty.

I’d been half-expecting a substitute or two from the beginning of the second period but there weren’t any and Coventry restarted as they’d left off by winning a corner in the first minute. Isidor and Watson soon started warming up as we continued to be on the receiving end. O’Nien made a crucial block from Wright in the fiftieth but again Coventry had carved through our defence all too easily. Then we conceded a third corner and it immediately led to their fourth. There was a fair bit of argy-bargy around referee Dean Whitestone and Hume emerged with his tenth yellow of the season, though the amnesty had cleared all the previous ones. Another scrummage soon erupted near the centre of the pitch and following that Rigg joined Hume in the book. Isidor and Watson had been waiting to come on for a while and after everything had settled down they replaced Neil and Mundle. Taking your captain off is a drastic measure. Back to the football, Coventry soon won another corner and this led to another corner after a great save from Patto. We had a good opportunity to pull one back in the sixty-first when Hume fed Mayenda and his shot clipped the left post. A few minutes later Hume fed Isidor but his shot went wide. We were at last creating some real chances and with a quarter of the game remaining, maybe we could manage a draw?

Cirkin was down injured for a few minutes and was finally replaced by Seelt. In the seventy-third the game went completely beyond us when Coventry got their third. It was a hat-trick for Wright after a break down their left. Browne replaced Roberts in the seventy-eighth and in the final stages the home fans were in great voice while a lot of ours drifted away. I don’t think Dovin, Coventry’s goalie, had to make a save yet. Five minutes of added-time were announced and soon Simms came on as Wright went off to take his ovation. Simms scoring was all I needed but at least we were spared that further ignominy and it ended 3-0.