By CovSid67
August 3 2010

A disappointingly low turn-out of around 6,000 for 'The Jimmy Hill Tribute Game' saw a decent game between the latest Coventry City side assembled to attempt to climb from The Championship to the promised land, against the side who have spent most of their recent years yo-yoing between the two divisions.

The crowd figure was especially disappointing as prices were a mere £11 for adults, £6 for concessions, and £3 for children - hardly a bank-busting fee, and a great chance to see a decent looking collection of new players, under new leadership. Here's hoping those missing supporters were merely saving themselves for the visit of Pompey, and didn't see Chris Coleman's reign as the last straw....

Gary McSheffrey, 'back home' after a spell up the road, looked sharp, and opened the scoring after 14 minutes (Helped by a quality pass from Eastwood), with new signing Lukas Jutkiewicz missing an excellent chance to put the home side two-up soon after - the former Everton player did more than enough to impress throughout this match though.

The first 45 minutes saw decent displays from the entire Coventry City side, who had been forced into a change as early as the eleventh minute, with Bell replacing Gunnarsson. Injury to Gary Deegan pre-season had already seemed to let Doyle back into the squad, with potential injury to AG meaning Doyle could end up being selected by default, though even he looked worthy of a place alongside the impressive, returning, Lee Carsley.

Half-time saw the usual 'kick-for-cash competition', which, showing some things never change (Alongside tickets bought at the same time, where only one of the two actually worked), saw the compere, the competitor .... but no football (I guess it wouldn't be Coventry City if it ran smoothly). Former players were also paraded, before JH himself took to the pitch, to generous applause from both sets of supporters.

McSheffrey (Booked late on in the first half) was replaced by the sometimes maligned Clive Platt (A surprise signing from Colchester) at half-time, though even he did enough to impress in his first outing in a Coventry City shirt. After 57 minutes, Francis Laurent entered the pitch to numerous 'who?' comments from the terraces, but can't have failed to impress those that recognise Coventry City are horrendously lacking in pace.

Five minutes after coming on Laurent almost put the home side two-up, and soon after Bednar missed an absolute sitter from a matter of yards out. A Jutkiewicz effort went just over Carson's bar, before a moments slack defending (From a defensive display that had looked solid throughout, with Keogh impressing in defence, and on various runs up the pitch) saw Millar equalise for West Brom.

West Brom finished the stronger of the two sides, though found this fixture nowhere as easy as the idiot from local radio seemed to think it was, as Coventry City finished pre-season unbeaten (Albeit against some fairly mediocre opponents).

TEAM: Westwood, Keogh, Cranie, Wood, McPake (Cameron 77), Gunnarsson (Bell 11 off, Laurent 57), Carsley, Doyle, McSheffrey (Platt 46), Eastwood (Baker 70), Jutkiewicz (Clingan 83). SNU: L.Thomas, Quirke, Turner, Grandison, Clarke, Jeffers.