Back from the Game - Coventry (H)

[RoyalJames101]

Interesting that mills was prefered to Antonio. Could Antonio be off on loan?

Injured.

As for Feds, best keep in this league.

[Ian Royal]

Cracking goal from Kebe, not sure I believe it's what he was intending though.

Roberts in the right place at the right time for his and a nice little assist too for Kebe. Three big goal contributions in two games. Just a shame we've got so many injuries and Hunt couldn't buy a goal atm. Church returning to form after his brief flurry is also disappointing, but not as much as ALF left sitting on the bench for 90 minutes 2 games running.

[Rex]

Haven't had a ruck like that for a while, had to abandon going to Pizza Hut

What ruck? Handbags and posturing

[blueroyals]

Church returning to form after his brief flurry is also disappointing.

Brief flurry of 1-2 yard tap ins and claiming the goals of others? Frankly I'd be pissed if I was ALF

[rob the royal]

Thought their fans were good to be fair 1300 for bottom of the table, about three times more than we would bring there when we are top half.

Thought our fans were awful. I know it was cold but bloody hell, utter dump... and not much better on the pitch. Federici made sure we didn't embarrass ourselves today. If they'd nicked a goal and got their fans right behind them I think they could have turned it round, we made them look half decent.

Great work rate from Karacan, Connolly seems decent, Cwyka looks useful and Roberts didn't have an amazing game but wasn't bad either, definitely worth having in the side. Mills was poor at left mid and our fans need to have had a few pints to be bothered to support the team. That's about all I took from that game.

I know there's a lot of people who bum Church on here, and clearly McD is also one of them, but personally I'd rather see Le Fondre come on.

[FiNeRaIn]

coventry dominated the second half by possession and chances created, that's obviously not churches fault so which of the midfield allowed them to dominated the second half do you think?

[RoyalJames101]

Why does everyone think ALF is our best striker? He's our best natural finisher, but how many chances have we been creating recently? Hardly any. If we aren't creating much its better to have Hunt or Church to at least run them around for a good 75 minutes, instead of having a natural finisher playing who won't get any chances or run around.

[grey_squirrel]

Routine, drab, uninspiring victory.

Not bothered. It was a potential banana skin game.

Fair play to Karacan. Makes up for his inadequacies by running his heart out (in a very controlled un-Hughes like fashion). Great game.

One great reflex save from Federici. The others were pretty regulation saves/dives, though I know why some people are frothing at them. Good that he only had so many to save from speculative shots from outside the box. Shows that Korkss and Pearce are really becoming the real deal! - which they are.

Credit to the Cov supporters.

[Ian Royal]

Why does everyone think ALF is our best striker? He's our best natural finisher, but how many chances have we been creating recently? Hardly any. If we aren't creating much its better to have Hunt or Church to at least run them around for a good 75 minutes, instead of having a natural finisher playing who won't get any chances or run around.

He's also one of our best assisters (4) and from what I've seen has a very neat touch and vision. Drifts out of games if he's well marked or not getting service. But strikes me as ideal to partner Roberts given Hunt hasn't scored in about 11 games. And has missed more than one sitter in that time, I'm sure.

[RoyalJames101]

Why does everyone think ALF is our best striker? He's our best natural finisher, but how many chances have we been creating recently? Hardly any. If we aren't creating much its better to have Hunt or Church to at least run them around for a good 75 minutes, instead of having a natural finisher playing who won't get any chances or run around.

He's also one of our best assisters (4) and from what I've seen has a very neat touch and vision. Drifts out of games if he's well marked or not getting service. But strikes me as ideal to partner Roberts given Hunt hasn't scored in about 11 games. And has missed more than one sitter in that time, I'm sure.

This is exactly my point above. Our strikers aren't getting decent service at the moment, so playing him would be a bit silly.

[RoyalBlue]

Why does everyone think ALF is our best striker? He's our best natural finisher, but how many chances have we been creating recently? Hardly any. If we aren't creating much its better to have Hunt or Church to at least run them around for a good 75 minutes, instead of having a natural finisher playing who won't get any chances or run around.

He's also one of our best assisters (4) and from what I've seen has a very neat touch and vision. Drifts out of games if he's well marked or not getting service. But strikes me as ideal to partner Roberts given Hunt hasn't scored in about 11 games. And has missed more than one sitter in that time, I'm sure.

Hunt may not have scored but his all round game is very good and he creates numerous good openings and opportunities for those around him. Not his fault they don't exploit them! I reckon Roberts is pretty happy playing alongside Hunt.

One great reflex save from Federici. The others were pretty regulation saves/dives, though I know why some people are frothing at them.

The save after the reflex 1 on 1 save was far from regulation. Did exceptionally well to get the touch on the ball.

[SCIAG]

No real stand outs today, equally nobody did badly. I'd like to see Church or preferably Le Fondre come in for Hunt.

not church for christ's sake!! he is bloody useless. swapping one goal shy striker for another. le fondre deserves a chance. it's baffling that he plays the 4th choice role when he is the stand-out natural finisher we need playing off of roberts.

Church would suit Roberts better than Hunt because of his pace. Agree that Le Fondre would be better though.

Federici made several mistakes, but also made one excellent save to deny Alex Nimley-T with his feet and another good one to stop a long range shot (though I think his positioning was poor which meant he had to do better). A typical "good shot stopper, bad at everything else" performance a la Julian Speroni.

Let's hope the PL clubs all take this sort of blind/blinkered view! Several mistakes? I saw one! Eeven when he makes a great save he gets accused of being poorly positioned in the first place!

Personally I reckon he should be dropped for tipping the shot over the bar rather than catching it cleanly!

I'm usually a fan of Federici's actually, was one of the few saying he should be in the team ahead of McCarthy and I was one of the few who said he was playing well at the start of the season- I think I remember you saying that was laughable then too, actually.

He twice came out and was beaten by Platt, we might have been punished against better teams. On another two occasions he dropped balls he should have caught. Mind, he hasn't made very many mistakes this season (probably made more today than for the rest of the season combined) and none of the ones today cost us.

I thought the save from Nimley was excellent and the one from distance showed fantastic agility but was somewhat of a camera save due to his poor positioning, agree that he kept us in it. It's the opposite of when David James used to make dozens of saves for Portsmouth but they were never flying saves because his positioning was excellent.

[rob the royal]

coventry dominated the second half by possession and chances created, that's obviously not churches fault so which of the midfield allowed them to dominated the second half do you think?

Was that aimed at me? Yeah, they did. It seemed to me like Karacan and Leigertwood didn't do too bad, they were pressing well enough,but as a team generally we seemed to let Cov come on with the ball.

Meanwhile we were wasted possession a hell of a lot. That's the way I saw it anyway...

On Alfie, I seem to remember a few goal mouth scraps where someone like him might have been useful today... I'd like to see him get a run in the team.

[specialjon]

Interesting that mills was prefered to Antonio. Could Antonio be off on loan?

Injured.

As for Feds, best keep in this league.

Is he injured? Where did you get that info? Official site says he wasn't involved, not injured.

[Snowball]

Church returning to form after his brief flurry is also disappointing.

Brief flurry of 1-2 yard tap ins and claiming the goals of others? Frankly I'd be pissed if I was ALF

Agree with this. I would really love to see Alf playing of Roberts

[Snowball]

Why does everyone think ALF is our best striker? He's our best natural finisher, but how many chances have we been creating recently? Hardly any. If we aren't creating much its better to have Hunt or Church to at least run them around for a good 75 minutes, instead of having a natural finisher playing who won't get any chances or run around.

Alf has equal goals to Church but assists on top of that

and he beats Hunt 11-8

[Snowball]

Why does everyone think ALF is our best striker? He's our best natural finisher, but how many chances have we been creating recently? Hardly any. If we aren't creating much its better to have Hunt or Church to at least run them around for a good 75 minutes, instead of having a natural finisher playing who won't get any chances or run around.

He's also one of our best assisters (4) and from what I've seen has a very neat touch and vision. Drifts out of games if he's well marked or not getting service. But strikes me as ideal to partner Roberts given Hunt hasn't scored in about 11 games. And has missed more than one sitter in that time, I'm sure.

Good point on the assists (plus a few brilliant passes)

but I don't think Hunt has missed any sitters.

(Including the Antonio cross)

[CayeneMatt]

I'm not a fan of Mills as his passing out of defence was truly woeful earlier this season, but that was a brave move by BM and I thought it worked well with him sitting in front of Harte.

No doubt the usual Harte haters will be along in a minute, but he had a solid game with some good delivery. Mills I thought did well filling in for Jobi and that gives us another option.

Agree about Hunt, he's an all round good player and worked hard again today. Why oh why did BM not try out Alf with Roberts?

Wouldn't mind seeing Cywka in central midfield - can't help thinking that although Ledge and Karacan played well, we're still missing something in that department.

[Snowball]

Hunt may not have scored but his all round game is very good and he creates numerous good openings and opportunities for those around him. Not his fault they don't exploit them! I reckon Roberts is pretty happy playing alongside Hunt.

Smack on.

[Whore Jackie]

Personally thought Mills was poor at LM. Obviously injuries somewhat forced the situation, but it wasn't a success. Solid, workmanlike showing from the rest of the team, with some decent showings from Kebe, Jem and Federici. Going foward Coventry looked better than the current position. And kudos to Peter Ndlovu, that was a vintage performance in those stripey gloves.

Looking forward to the next few months, there's going to be a lot of chances for the rest of the squad to make their mark.