By CovSid67
April 16 2006

The last four games sum up Coventry City, past, present, and more than likely future .... and it's getting boring now. Win when it seems unlikely, and lose when it really is quite unneccesary. Pah! As I've mentioned a fair few times now (Despite being told on numerous occasions to "let it drop"), we blew our Top 6 chances by losing matches to sides we should really have beaten - Crewe away, and Preston Reserves at home. Then, with our season over, we come back from two goals down to beat Wolves, and win away at Luton for the first time in ages....

I know every team drops the odd clanger against poor teams, but is there any side that does it with such annoying consistency as Coventry City? Only Eric Black seemed to know how to beat the teams around and below us in the table, but lose to those that were better than us. Losing any match is annoying, but EB's way was easier to take .... unless your name is Mike McGinnity.

Back to matters now....

Thanks to the stupidity of the horse I backed in the National, and missing most Lotto balls by one, a 2-2 draw in a fairly meaningless fixture was as good as last Saturday got (The first two disappointments are also the reason the Wolves report is a week late).

With a ridiculous price of £27 being the cost of watching two teams who have failed to make the play-offs, this was another to add to the 'listening to the radio' collection - somebody really should remind Wolves that they're not in the Premiership anymore! And I thought £21 at the Arena was far to much, but £27 is ridiculous....

Despite Duffy almost certainly not being here next season (Unless Portsmouth have re-signed him so we have to pay a fee for him!), and Hughes admitting a week or so back that he was far from match fit, both were slected from the start.

Coventry were a goal down within a minute or two of the kick-off (Through Paul Ince), and two-down within twenty minutes (Through the re-called Colin Cameron, who had his loan spell at Millwall terminated by Wolves!) - a rout looked on the cards.

According to some - though the issue seems slightly clouded - Michael Doyle was also booked for protesting about the award of the first minute free kick. Not quite as fast as Vinnie Jones record of 5 seconds (Or was it 12?), but not too far off....

Stern John pulled a goal back after 25 minutes (Having missed an easier chance with the score at 1-0), aided by a fine cross from Hall, though it was Wolves who almost added to their score, with Kennedy seeing his shot hit the post after 31 minutes.

Wolves also blew another great chance to add to the scoreline, when the number of their attackers out-numbered the amount of Coventry defenders. Thankfully, as with the match at the Arena, their finishing was poor.

Half-time: 1-2, and off to the fridge for an inexpensive beer.

Scowcroft was given just five minutes of the second half to impress, before being replaced by Adebola (Reports say he was actually injured).

With an hour gone, McSheffrey added to his price tag with a fine goal from a free-kick. Nice to know somebody at the club can take a decent set-piece.

Football commentary took a back seat for a few moments, as my once-a-year bet on the horses saw me glued to my TV set, and for a while things looked good. But, like Coventry City's season, my horse went and messed up when things were going well - the rank outsider I backed, Ballycassidy, tried to run through a fence rather than jump it when absolutely yards ahead. What a pillock....

The disappointment of knowing turning a few pence into a fair few pounds meant my mind wasn't properly focused on the job of listening to two teams try to win, draw, or lose this match, but I have it on good authority that the rest of the match was mildly entertaining, and that a cracking Stern John run seconds from the end almost resulted in three points towards .... finishing top of the also-rans.

Then there was the lottery - what a bar-steward. How close to getting five numbers plus the bonus? So close to almost £60,000, and not actually even winning a tenner. I should have gone for the hat-trick, and cursed the Villa by betting on them to stay up....

While I was busy losing just under £60,000, this result cost Wolves potentially millions of pounds, as it as good as ended their play-off hopes - and reportedly Glenn Hoddle's stint as manager, if reports are to be believed.

One local (Free) paper carried the unblievable story that Coventry were looking to win both their games over Easter (Why do they write this stuff?),

The Luton match saw recalls for Whing, Morrell, Hutchison, and Heath - and, despite the inclusion of the latter, Coventry City still managed to win! (Statistics show that with Heath in the side, the team are far more likely to lose).

This was Coventry's first win at Kenilworth Road in seven attempts, having lost five and drawn one of the last six games played there. Worth noting that Luton had also won three of their last four at home, one of those wins included a game that saw Reading's superb unbeaten run ended - an impressive result! How sad that it merely helps our bid to finish higher than a few of the other 'also rans'.

Once again McSheffrey and John scored the goals, though a few fine saves from Fulop also helped Coventry to only their third away win of the season (Nice to see that McSheffrey and John seem to be acknowledging each others existence too, as there were rumours that they didn't see eye-to-eye a while back).

John scored the first just before the half hour mark, with McSheffrey following up his own effort to make the score 2-0 (Having seen Beresford save his original shot) not long afterwards. And it could have been 3-0 soon after, had the referee awarded what looked a decent shout for a penalty after Hutchison was fouled in the area.

There was also a training ground corner routine that was tried on a couple of occasions, though this has still failed to bring the desired result - a goal! When it comes off (As it has almost worked on half-a-dozen plus attempts so far), it will be spectacular....

One-time Coventry target Steve Howard was moved up front, having been moved to the centre of defence for the first hour, and suddenly Luton looked a bit more of a threat (With Hutchison having to clear a late effort off the line to avoid Luton doing to us what we did to Wolves!).

Adebola and Scowcroft replaced John and McSheffrey with 10 minutes left, and soon after (But totally unconnected) Adie Williams pulled a goal back for the home side. To steal a line from Alex Ferguson, this resulted in "squeaky bum time" for the last few minutes.

Thornton was sent on for the last few seconds, prompting some Coventry fans to ask exactly what he has to do to get a decent run-out. The answer seems simple enough to me: sign the damn contract! (Please do KT. You could be a legend here, but will probably come to nothing elsewhere).

An honourable mention for Andrew Whing, who once again looked decent in defence, and a fine option in an attacking sense too. If he can fine-tune his crossing over the summer, he could be at the top of the leader-board as far as assists are concerned next season.

After the match (Unless I mis-heard) Fulop stated that Spurs had taken up the option to extend his contract by a further year, though he said he wanted to sign for Coventry City. As far as I'm concerned this means we should do everything possible to bring him in - unlike players such as Ganea from Wolves, who has said he only wants to come here because we've (Reportedly) offered him a two-year deal (Something denied by the club), compared to a one-year deal offered by Cardiff.