By CovSid67
March 6 2009

Whatever happens tomorrow, there will be at least one part of Coventry City that comes out as a winner: the club's bank balance!

Takings from our cup run are expected to reach the million pounds mark, though Ray Ranson will, according to the Coventry Telegraph, be 'savouring the spectacle rather than counting the profits'. The latter he can do on Monday, unless there is another F.A. Cup fixture for Coventry City to play in! Not that the bookies think that outcome is likely....

Some supporters were confident of taking one of the biggest scalps possible when the draw was made, but a match official assisted loss on Wednesday, and an injury to a key player, has seen excitement levels fall to a more realistic .... well, they've plummeted! 'Banksie Watch' on the Untrust site has seen the former long-hair almost disappear!

Without wishing to over-state the importance of Dan Fox, I'm sure when Chris Coleman said he was 'relishing the prospect of an FA Cup quarter-final with Chelsea', he was saying this with thoughts of having all of his biggest assets in the starting line-up. Our best XI would struggle if Chelsea play to their full capabilities, and whoever replaces Fox is probably going to have to put in the performance of a life-time if a hammering is to be avoided.

We are always prone to making errors, and while we might get away with it sometimes in the Championship, Anelka and/or Drogba will not be as charitable. Marcus has struggled in the Championship this season, so the prospect of him facing a real class act might just see me make my first million by selling spare pairs of pants (Boxer shorts also available!) throughout the match to home supporters!

Our best bet is that Chelsea have their minds on the second leg of their fixture versus Juventus, and that their players still believe that winning the Premiership is still a reality - leaving the F.A. Cup as third on their list of priorities. A couple of hefty but fair challenges(!) in the opening minutes - preferably not resulting in a booking - should be the order of the day!

With Coventry's players looking slightly drained, according to some supporters, in the fixture versus Sheffield United, and Chelsea having had an extra day to recover (Having played on Tuesday), opting to play our midweek fixture on the Wednesday doesn't look such a clever choice in hindsight. Most Coventry players will probably end the quarter final match on auto-pilot .... before travelling to Bristol City for another Championship match on Tuesday!

Over recent years we've given a decent account of ourselves against the top sides, beating Blackburn twice, and an expensively assembled second choice MU team at Old Trafford, and were extremely unlucky to go out of the League Cup in the last two season against West Ham and Newcastle. Those sort of displays - and more - will be needed tomorrow. The home crowd could play a big part too, and losing this fixture will probably see fifty per cent of them disappear again (Only 16,300 three days before the Chelsea match) until the club have any more success, with the 'stayaways' clearly costing the club.

A fuller house and an enthusiastic crowd will always spur the team on (And enable the club to pay better wages to players we want to keep), as has been commented on many times by many different players and managers. Chris Coleman is right when he says 'the people in the city are hungry and desperate for the football team to do well', but more of them need to stay around for more than just the (Few!) good times.

[To anybody that  knows such details, I am wondering if Coventry City could qualify for Europe merely by reaching the semi-finals, if Manchester United and Arsenal are in the Champions League, and Everton finish high enough to qualify for the newly branded Europa League?!?! It would certainly make up for being deprived of our chance in the 87/88 season!]

'It is not impossible for us to beat [Chelsea]' - Chris Coleman.

'I think we probably budgeted £20,000 for losing away to Altrincham or something like that' - Ray Ranson.

Coventry-Chelsea : Preview 2

Discussion started by Covcitytilidie , 06/03/2009 13:22

Covcitytilidie
06/03/2009 13:22

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dixon9
06/03/2009 19:49

Good previews with some interesting stats.

Should be a great match!



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"It is born out of hypocrisy and fundamental insecurity. There have been two kids on the block for the past 12 years. Suddenly, there is a third and that one is threatening to be more successful than the others and they don’t like it." P Kenyon.

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CCFC Sid / CovSid67
06/03/2009 22:50

I hope so fella! I'm not looking forward to it as much as I was when Fox was in our line-up....

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dixon9
06/03/2009 23:58

You are supposed to be good with set-pieces - and that has been a weak point for us recently. You may well snatch a goal from one.



.



"It is born out of hypocrisy and fundamental insecurity. There have been two kids on the block for the past 12 years. Suddenly, there is a third and that one is threatening to be more successful than the others and they don’t like it." P Kenyon.

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CCFC AD
08/03/2009 08:49

Quote:

dixon9
You are supposed to be good with set-pieces - and that has been a weak point for us recently. You may well snatch a goal from one.

That's the reason our fans were so gutted Fox was missing.

You can hardly say Chelsea have a weakness, but the chink in the armour seems to be Cech struggles with high balls since his injury, so being able to put him under pressure from free-kicks and corners looked like our best bet to score, but on the eve of the match our only decent set-piece taker gets injured. Gunnarsson's long throws caused you a few problems though - Cech came a few times and didn't get there.

Overall, Chelsea were much better and their movement and passing was great to watch, as was Drogba giving a masterclass in forward play. We weren't disgraced though so hopefully we can use the money well and build for a realistic promotion push next year

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