By CovSid67
February 25 2009

Well, Chris Coleman said we could do it, and we did: we beat Blackburn. It might have only been their second team, but that didn't matter to the majority of the 22,793 crowd - the nights only disappointment. There were massive gaps in the Blackburn end, while the corporate sections were disappointingly under-filled too. I'm sure the corporates will be there a week on Saturday....

Equally, I'm fairly sure that the 6,000 supporters that seem to have recently discovered where the Ricoh is will be gone just as quickly if/when the F.A. Cup dream ends. They should try sticking around, because they helped make a great atmosphere on the night.

There was a delay to the kick-off due to traffic problems, and there seemed to be a slight delay to the home side joining in with the match too, with Westwood forced to make a decent save only minutes into the match following a mix-up in the Coventry defence.

The home side gradually grew in confidence though, and Ward should have opened the scoring after 24 minutes, heading a Fox corner wide of Brown's goal from six yards out, while Morrison also wasted a decent opportunity soon after, firing into the side netting with an empty goal to aim for. Coventry City cannot afford to spurn such chances against Chelsea!

There was a comedy moment early in the second half, with keeper Brown going into the referees note-book for taking to long placing the ball in the correct spot to take a free-kick, failing with around half-a-dozen attempts before Riley showed him a yellow card! 

Henderson enjoyed another decent performance (With the calls to try and sign him permanently getting slightly louder with every passing game), and it was his cross that saw the masked Leon Best score what turned out to be the winning goal on 59 minutes. And Best was unlucky not to score a hat-trick on the night, with his mask seemingly improving his displays!

The cavalry, in the shape of Santa Cruz and Warnock, were sent on by Allardyce on 67 minutes, but they made little difference, as Coventry's players chased after every ball, often forcing Blackburn to send the ball all the way back to their keeper. Another of their tactics seemed to be to kick Gunnarsson at every opportunity, though the Norwegian, making Coventry City a fair bit of money in fees paid by scouts from other clubs coming to watch us, simply got up and carried on!

Henderson looked absolutely spent as the match drew to a close, and this was noticeable as he tried to chase down a long ball late on. Coleman opted to leave him on, making only one substitution: Simpson on for Eastwood (Who played out of position on the night on the left of midfield, but still contributed some quality long-balls throughout the match) after 87 minutes.

Brown denied Best just before the 90 minutes was up, as the fourth official put up his board to show that four minutes injury time was to be played. In time added-on, Samba almost broke Coventry hearts again, seeing his header go just wide of the post. Thankfully he missed, and their were joyous scenes around most of the ground as the final whistle blew.

For once the majority of the home crowd stayed inside the stadium until the final whistle, rather than running to the car parks, to celebrate a famous win.

Gunnarsson, for a foul on Treacy, Ward for a foul on Roberts, and Westwood for time-wasting, all picked up bookings.

TEAM: Westwood; Wright, Fox, Ward, Turner, Henderson, Gunnarsson, Doyle, Eastwood (Simpson 87), Best, Morrison. SNU: Marshall, Osbourne, Hall, Beuzelin, Thornton, Cain.

Coventry Mad reports that Jason Roberts was involved in an incident following the fixture:

http://www.coventrycity-mad.co.uk/news/loadnews.asp?cid=TMNW&id=434318