Here is Nat’s latest match preview for our forthcoming visit to The Sky Blues.

——————————————————————————————————————

Current Form

The Sky Blues have won just one of their last five competitive games, and go into this game on the back of having last-gasp equalisers scored against them by Lancashire’s finest Burnley and Blackburn respectively. They did however, win their most recent local derby against Wolves at the Ricoh (and on that day a last-minute Wolves penalty was saved), so obviously endeared themselves to Bluenoses.

Last time out

The last time we went to the Ricoh on Halloween night 2006, we did so having just emerged from the Autumn of Discontent, where all hope was lost and Steve Bruce had pretty much admitted defeat in the battle to keep his job after that infamous loss to Norwich just fourteen days before this game. As we all know now, Blues went on to win the local derbies against Derby, Albion and the Sky Blues which followed that game, and contrary to the Armageddon many had predicted, Blues ended up eight points clear at the top by Christmas.

To suggest that this game was a relative breeze however would be a complete falsehood however. Soon after kick-off, Blues’ players seemed to freeze in front of the vocal 5,371 away fans behind Maik Taylor’s first-half goalposts. After efforts by Coventry’s Kyle and ex-Bluenose Stern John, it was Blues who took an undeserved first-half lead through loanee Nicklas Bendtner, who somehow managed to guide his far post header underneath Andy Marshall’s after good work by Mat Sadler on the left.

The second-half was just as dicey, with Blues not looking at all cohesive at the back. Leon McKenzie had one header which cannoned off the woodwork with Maik Taylor beaten all ends up. Gangly Kevin Kyle out jumped our defence again soon after but failed to hit the target. At this point it has to be said that Jerome could’ve made things a whole lot easier for us, but he spooned his effort wide after going through on goal.

The game’s most poignant point came in injury time however, when Sky Blues front man Stern John showed his true allegiance by missing the target with the whole goal to aim at from six yards out. The final whistle followed soon after, much to the relief and joy to those who had travelled from the Second City.

Final score: Coventry 0-1 Blues

The season so far

Chris Coleman’s first full season in charge at the Ricoh started very brightly with two league wins against Norwich and Barnsley and progression in the Carling Cup after eliminating Aldershot. A new look squad which had included the signings of top Football League strikers Clinton Morrison and Freddy Eastwood looked an outside bet for a play-off push at least.

However, those who backed the two-tone City to be challenging at the top were soon in for a rude awakening with no wins in the following five games, including having six goals put past them in two home games by Bristol City and Newcastle. After such a promising start, it wasn’t until the end of September that City managed to halt the slide with a 1-0 triumph vs. QPR. The blip had left some wondering whether like in the previous two campaigns the perennially mediocre side were in a scrap to maintain their Championship status, a far cry of pre-season hopes of establishing a top-half finish at least.

From the on however, Coventry’s season petered out with neat football being blighted by incorrigibly inconsistent form. They didn’t look good enough to really threaten the better sides in the division, but didn’t look woeful enough to be scrapping it out with the worst. This sort of stability would probably be something most football fans would be quite apathetic to, however having six managers in five years has probably made it a longed for and cherished commodity.

They have shown signs of being able to compete at the highest echelons of the Championship. One such example of this is when they came to St.Andrews in November and at times comprehensively outplayed us, fully earning their 1-0 win through a Clinton Morrison goal. This appears to show that Coleman is assembling a team which gradually will be looking to drag Coventry back to the top-flight, from where they have been absent for eight years now, when at one time they outlasted the likes of Man United, Chelsea, Tottenham and Villa with their stay.

In recent times they have started to embark on a run in the FA Cup. After overcoming potential banana-skins in non-league Kidderminster Harriers and Torquay (the latter having felled Blackpool in the previous round), they earned a fifth-round draw with Blackburn, where only a Christopher Samba equaliser in the ninety-fourth minute salvaged a replay for Rovers after Coventry, looking to repeat the shock they caused at Ewood Park in the same tournament last year, had replied to Roque Santa Cruz’s opener with goals from Gunnarsson and Michael Doyle. The winner of the resultant replay has a lucrative quarter-final tie with Chelsea to ponder.

The Manager

Chris Coleman is a figure within football who has always commanded instant respect, whether it be as a consummate professional or as a top coach and manager. The Swansea born Left-Back started his career at his hometown club before moving to Crystal Palace in 1991, who a year previously had come within an inch of changing the course of English football by beating Manchester United in the FA Cup final and earning Sir Alex Ferguson the sack. A four year stay in South London followed before moving to Blackburn in 1995, and from there a switch two ambitious third-tier Fulham, bankrolled by Mohammed Al-Fayed and managed by Kevin Keegan.

After a car crash in January 2001, Coleman suffered leg injuries which ultimately ended his playing career despite a comeback attempt. After joining Fulham’s coaching staff in October 2002, he replaced the enigmatic Jean Tigana as manager towards the end of the 02/03 season as caretaker. After managing to keep them up, he beat off competition from the likes of George Burley and Klaus Topmoller to land the post full-time to become the Premiership‘s youngest manager.

His first full season in charge was a huge success, as he guided Fulham to ninth in the Premiership after they were tipped to struggle badly. His first season included a famous 3-1 demolition of Manchester United at Old Trafford. In the intervening years, he performed the oracle time and again by keeping Fulham from relegation despite the fire-sale of players such as Edwin Van De Sar, Steed Malbranque, Luis Boa Morte and Andrew Cole with Fayed now refusing to spend too much of his own fortune. The decision to sack him in March 2007 after a winless run of seven games was met with derision from the wider footballing world, who could see the evidently remarkable job Coleman had done to merely maintain their top-flight status. An ill-fated spell in charge of Real Sociedad was followed by a move to the Midlands after new Coventry chairman and ex-Blues full-back Ray Ranson appointed him to replace Iain Dowie in Winter 2008, less than a year after his departure from Craven Cottage.

As a manager, the likeable Welshman has a reputation of being a good man manager, being able to maintain a semblance of popularity amongst his players whilst running a disciplined club. He also has the shrewdness to maintain and build a squad able to keep up with clubs who quite often have much bigger resource pool than his own, as shown by getting Fulham to punch above their weight during his time in charge there. He is a Manager who belongs in the Premiership, and I get the feeling that next season he will have built a squad at Coventry to attempt entry to the land of manna.

Team news

Scott Dann looks set to make his second successive appearance following his recovery from a dislocated shoulder. Centre-Half Elliot Ward is a doubt whilst Isiah Osbourne is definitely out.

Possible line-up

Marshall, McPake, Dann, Turner, Fox, Gunnarsson, Beuzelin, Doyle, Henderson, Morrison, Best.

Key man

Clinton Morrison is a striker Blues fans need no introduction to. The energetic workhorse made himself popular at St.Andrews with his work-rate and knack for getting vital goals in the Premiership. In the Football League, he almost has a track record of nabbing a goal every two league games, and is one to watch for any Championship side. He also has a knack of scoring in big games, as evident by the fact he scored against Wolves, Albion, Liverpool (where his brace led to us coming from 2-0 down at Anfield to draw 2-2 in September 2002) and of course, the two he got in two different games against Lozells FC. His energy also has the potential to out manoeuvre our rather immobile defence, creating space for others to run into.

Tactical strengths

Up front, their likely strike force of Best and Morrison has the physical prowess and mental configuration to really unsettle our defence. It is quite likely that Coventry may deploy a more direct style of play to try and get amongst us early, as it is probably known throughout the Championship that we are a side who do not start games brightly. One idea is that, to start with at least, we defend quite deep so that we do not allow their two strikers the space to run in behind our centre-halves.

Tactical weaknesses

One weakness I notice is that their central-midfielders are predominantly quite conservatively minded, with no natural inclination to create. This means we should start the game by defending with our two centre-midfielders in front of their two to shut them out and frustrate them. Coventry also lack true width, so, we should look to get men behind the ball at first to make ourselves tough to break down and to try and null the game as to get it under our control.

A second more obvious weakness is their concentration levels, or lack of them, as shown by the fact that they have recently conceded last-minute goals to lose leads. To try and impact upon this, we should look to bring on either Bouazza or Jerome to play up front towards the end to drag Coventry defenders out of position with their pace, and the lack of mental focus could mean they are unable to cover the spaces in the final third that will obviously leave.

They played for both teams

In recent times, there have been a few players to switch between the sides. Here are three.

Julian Gray-A talented and pacy left-winger who’s time at St.Andrews was blighted by bad luck, poor performance and a crowd who just seemed to want to deride him at any opportunity. After joining on a Bosman from Palace in the 2004 close season he started brightly for Blues in what became an increasingly disappointing season for us. His early form sparked rumours of an England call-up for the friendly at the Bernabaeu against Spain which was blighted by racist morons being let out of their cages to spout their bile, but nothing (some would say fortunately) materialised. After that, bar scoring the winner at home to Lozells, his form seemed to tail off, and the following season he became a figure of fun with desperate performances out of position at left-back as the club sank into the Championship. In 2007 he joined Coventry on a free, and like at Blues he had a good start before faltering. He moved on to Fulham last Summer.

Gary McSheffrey-Mr Coventry City has been, at one time or another, a favourite of fans at both clubs, though his popularity amongst both sets of fans at the moment is questionable. After coming through the ranks at Highfield Road, he made his debut in the Premiership at sixteen years of age away at Lozells during a fantastic 4-1 win for the Sky Blues. After getting thirty-one goals in two seasons for Coventry, he left the cash strapped club to join big-spending Blues looking to bounce straight back to the Premiership, and after an incredible period from September to December 2006 where he scored fourteen goals his form became downright poor, scoring just one league goal from open play. His downturn in form has led to him becoming criticized heavily by Bluenoses, but one hopes he can regain the form he had in his early days here.

Dele Adebola-The phrase you don’t know what you have until you lose it was never truer than with Dele Adebola at Blues. The Gangly Nigerian was often slighted for the way he played during his time at Blues. However if you now say a bad word against him in Bordesley Green you will get no response other than a glare that could kill. A semi-prolific second-tier goalscorer, his physical presence would cause mayhem for opponents, and like the aforementioned Clinton Morrison he could always be counted upon to get an important goal, such as against Watford in the 1999 play-off semi-final or against Tottenham and Newcastle in the League Cup run of 2001. After joining Coventry in July 2003, he averaged a not too prolific one-in-five goal ratio, but he could be counted upon to hold the ball up and bring others into play like he did at Blues, and once again he became a popular figure with the fans. As of today, he is still banging in the goals for Bristol City in the Championship.

Prediction

A keenly contested derby game where Coventry will look to really get amongst us, I do see Blues eventually capitalising upon their defensive frailties and running out narrow winners.

Score: Coventry 1-2 Blues