By CovSid67
January 8 2006

Well, 2005 promised little, and delivered even less. To those people that regard staying up as a success, that was as good as it got. To those of us with our sights set slightly higher (Mid-table obscurity!), it was dire. 2005 started well enough, with a win at rock-bottom Rotherham, followed days later by the disappointing Peter Reid leaving - though like most Coventry City fans, I would obviously rather he had been a success and stayed on. The constant chopping and changing of managers does nothing to help the club....

Then, the man supposedly selected by the supporters (Though as with choosing a PM, it was the person with the biggest minority that won!) came in, and saved us from the drop - except, if a quote he made while doing an interview the day he was supposedly appointed was anything to go by, we didn't actually have any say in the decision, as he had taken the job a few days earlier anyway. Maybe the club just forgot to mention it?

Adams said he would leave Adrian Heath in charge for what should have been his first game in charge, the home game against QPR (A game lost due to a highly dubious goal), though did come down to the dug-out for the second half.

His "proper" debut game as manager of Coventry City was in the F.A. Cup, and ended with a defeat against Newcastle. Which was followed by a defeat away to Preston. And that game followed with a home defeat against Burnley. Not the greatest of starts....

His first win as Coventry manager came away at Reading - one of our favourite away grounds for picking up points (Let's hope I'm still saying that this time next week!) - with a 2-1 victory. Defeat at home to Wigan followed, and after that came possibly the second best game of the year, versus Stoke. Adams' decision not to include a keeper on the bench could have come back to bite him on his arsenal after Ian Bennett was sent off, though a quality display by Stephen Hughes helped Coventry to an unlikely point - which could have been three had a Gary McSheffrey penalty gone in.

Leaving Highfield Road for the final time was a day to remember, as we hammered Derby 6-2 .... though sadly, and rather predictably, the new "home" wasn't ready in time - and the truth is, it still isn't finished. For an Arena that cost as much as it did, some of the work is appalling too. Not Coventry City's problem though, as not much of it actually belongs to the club .... which is possibly one of the reasons there isn't any mention of the fact there is a football team playing there anywhere around the outside of the Arena site.

The summer gave us the chance to sweep out the deadwood that almost took us down, yet for reasons best known only to Micky Adams, he decided to keep the majority of these players on! And of those new players he did bring in, they all seemed to have one thing in common: they were all in his squad during his recent spell in charge of Leicester.

Failure to open the ground on time, coupled with disappointing results and displays in the opening month of the season, meant the chance to see the ground filled to capacity was lost. Only a late play-off push in 2006 could make this a possibility (And not many of us believe this will happen!).

Having claimed Coventry were the best passing side he had been in charge of, Adams & Co. opted for tactics that ignored the strengths of the side, and that simply did not suit the personnel they had to choose from - hoof-ball! - and that are not appreciated by supporters either. Continually playing people out of position doesn't help matters, with Andy Morrell playing wide right looking as out of place as a Villa fan at a MENSA convention.

Results improved slightly towards the end of the year as the team started playing the ball below cloud level. The enforced absence of one or two defenders also seemed to help, with those draughted in making the defence look more solid.

Neither cup gave us much to cheer about (With the chance to swell the coffers missed too), with a decent 3-0 F.A. Cup win at home to Crewe followed by disappointing defeat away to Newcastle (Where because of a bust-up between Souness and Bellamy, the Coventry supporters favourite hate-figure wasn't even selected to play, disappointing those that had gone along especially to hurl abuse!).

The League Cup also saw us record a 3-0 victory, this time over Rushden & Diamonds (A scoreline that flattered us to say the least), followed by a disappointing defeat away to Crystal Palace (Again).

Our record in the league for 2005 makes dismal reading. Of 47 games played, only twelve were won (Three of which came in April, securing our place in the Championship, and three of them in December), sixteen were drawn, and nineteen were lost.

The year also saw another change of chairman, though the opinion appears to be that going from Richardson, to McGinnity, to Robinson, is on a par with Mr. Hyde changing to Mr. Hyde, rather than back to Dr. Jekyll!!