By CovSid67
August 13 2007

As with last season, an away win at Barnsley, but an entirely different reaction from supporters this time! And three goals from three different Coventry strikers (When was the last time that happened?!) made this a cracking start to the season for Iain Dowie's men....

Dowie knows the  defence, midfield, and attack were the problems last season, so brought in players to address this. The irony was, it was two of last seasons disappointments that put Coventry City on the road to victory!

The keeper position looked fairly OK last season, but Dowie sprung a surprise by selecting Konstantopolous ahead of Marshall. With Leon Best picking up a knock a few days before, there were no other surpises in the starting XI.

Dowie had asked his players to treat Barnsley like Barcelona, though trying to visualise Rohan Ricketts as Ronaldinho would be a tough task for all but the most drug addled of players or supporters.

It took a mere five minutes for Leon McKenzie to open his and Coventry City's goal-scoring account for the season, and only a minute more for Coventry City to give away a soft goal! Kyle or Borrowdale (Or even McKenzie, depending which website you read!) handled in the area, and the chance for Konstantopolous to start the season with a clean sheet was lost.

This seemed to knock the stuffing out of the away side, and there were moments where we even made Rohan Ricketts look almost decent (But not as good as Ronaldinho).

As well as possibly having given away a penalty, Kyle, who has promised to win supporters over this season, was booked for a foul after 40 minutes.

The half-time team-talk seemed to do the trick, and within five minutes of the re-start, the first of three Jay Tabb assists saw Kyle make his scoring record for the season read: played one, scored one. Carry on with that average, and you'll become a firm favourite with supporters, KK....

Five minutes later he did miss the sort of opportunity that had (Some) supporters dis-liking him last season though!

Isaac Osbourne was booked on the hour, as Barnsley seemed to resort to underhand tactics to get back into the match. Soon after, they were just about put out of their misery, as a classy finish from Gray put the result beyond doubt.

Kyle was replaced by Mifsud with just under 20 minutes left, and Mifsud became the third Coventry City striker to find the net, and put us top of the table (All-be-it only alphabetically!), with seconds left on the clock!

A great start, which needs to be added to with victory over Notts County on Tuesday, and a decent attendance, plus a victory, over Hull at The Arena next weekend.

Team: Konstantopolous, Osbourne, Borrowdale, Ward, Hall, Tabb, Gray, M. Hughes (S. Hughes 81), Doyle, McKenzie (Best 72), Kyle (Mifsud 72). SNU: Marshall, Hawkins.