By AD
December 6 2008

With the senior team continuing to frustrate its supporters with inconsistent displays, 335 hardy souls decided to brave the freezing temperatures to see if the future crop of City youngsters would give us some sort of hope to cling to. After an impressive 6-6 draw with a decent Spurs outfit at the weekend, hopes were high for a decent attacking display.

The game started well enough for City, who had the lion’s share of possession in the early stages, with Ashley Cain using his pace and trickery to beat the Stoke left back on a number of occasions. In fact the only threats to the Coventry goal during the first half were caused by a lack of communication between Chris Hollist and Michael Quirke in goal, who both left the ball for one another, allowing the Stoke attacker to nip the ball away from them before crossing into the centre where Nathan Cameron bravely blocked the resulting shot. Coventry finally scored five minutes before half time as Robert Ogelby, who looked a willing runner up front with a fair amount of pace, managed to stroke home a Cain cross.

The visitors came out for the second half a couple of minutes earlier than the Sky Blues and it seemed their half-time team talk had worked wonders as Stoke burst forward in the opening period after the break, with Quirke taking a number of decent catches and making one superb save diving to his left. City eventually managed to re-assert themselves, with Adam Walker pulling the strings in midfield but looking like he was playing a bit too deep for his passing to really trouble the Stoke defence and utilise the pace of Ogelby and Jeffers. Jacob Blackwell managed to find some space to run into on the hour, but shot over from just inside the area.

Stoke did finally manage an equaliser with a quarter of an hour left to play, as their big No.9 Warwick Alexander, who had been largely disappointing, poked the ball past Quirke after a decent move down the Stoke right, with the Stoke No. 4 being booked for over celebrating. This seemed to deflate the young Coventry charges a little, and the remainder of the 90 minutes passed with little incident other than a number of players going down with cramp as the game headed towards extra time.

The impressive Cain was replaced for the start of extra time by the tall figure of Joel Grandison on the right flank, and he managed to set up a second for City as the first half of extra time was drawing to a close, releasing Ogelby on the right to fire in a low cross which Shaun Jeffers prodded home from inside the six yard area.

Stoke came back at them in the second half, but the central defence pairing of Cameron and Fraser looked comfortable against the Stoke attackers. Ultimately it was to be the flanks that would prove City’s undoing though. With just five minutes remaining and Stoke hemmed into the corner flag, Stoke’s right-winger Tom Urwin managed to wriggle past the two defenders on the byline before his cross was cleared by Fraser. Unfortunately it dropped straight back to Unwin who unleashed a fierce shot past Quirke from just inside the area. Again a Stoke player was booked for over-celebration, this time Alexander being booked despite having been subbed five minutes earlier.

As the game went into the final minute and the crowd waited for penalties, the same happened again down the other flank, with the Stoke left winger chipping the ball over his and Clarke’s head on the byline. The following cross was met by a posse of players in the six yard area and the ball ended up in the net, with an unfortunate Nathan Cameron seeming to knock the ball into his own goal.

Time still remained for City to try and force the game into penalties, and with seconds remaining Suleiman Leluu, on as a sub for Ogelby, released Jeffers only to see his angled drive from the edge of the box just creep the wrong side of the post.

The result was harsh on the lads, and although they don’t look ready for first team duties yet, hopefully they’ll continue their fine league form over the course of the season

Team: Quirke, Clarke, Hollist, Fraser, Cameron, Cain (Grandison 91), Blackwell (Jones 115), Wynter, Walker, Ogelby (Leluu 107) Jeffers