It is very rare that a team completely dominates a professional football match for a full ninety minutes, particularly at this level, and away from home at that, but this was one of those rarities. Rule 74, paragraph 3 (a) of the rules of how to play football state that somewhere within the hour and a half the opposition usually gets its act together even for a five minute spell. Coventry didn't even do that, and were lucky to get nil. 'Imperious' was the word widely bandied about by London Clarets after the game. As the Oxford English has this down as domineering, arrogant and overbearing, this is reasonable, although probably a bit over the top. After all, we are not French. It was an especially nice performance after being patronized by this lot after the FA Cup defeat when two divisions split the two teams. Welcome to the Nationwide, you Sky Blues.
Anyway, nice warmish day, relatively late start from home, and Virgin trains only ten minutes late gave some positive credence to the view that someone was going to get a hammering by the Clarets soon or later, the way we have been playing. Also stumbled upon a photographic print of an early Claret, sited in the corner of the city centre Wetherspoon's hostelry, which gave out further positive vibes. The Claret and Blue strip circa 1590, as modeled by one Michael Drayton. Even M E Benyon couldn't remember him playing for us.
After a gentle stroll, fortified by brown beer, around the concrete jungle that sadly followed the Luftwaffe's attempts to destroy this once OK city (apparently), we arrived at the soon to be demolished Highfield Road. No compromise on style here, as it struggles to find a balance somewhere between ongoing safety and comfort for 16,000+ footy fans and the roeder to the demolition site. The usual band of 2,000+ extremely raucous away fans kept up our growing reputation for the Division's most extreme partisanship. I have actually seen this comment in both the Sunday Times and the Fascist Graph now, so it must be true!
Coventry were missing one or two of their regulars, mostly suspended, including £5,000,001 worth of talent in an injured Lee Hughes, which was good news. The Clarets still missing 'The Legend', but with Moore A on the bench, which was also on the positive side of positive.
Sadly one of the first pieces of action after some early slick Claret passing saw Lee Briscoe in a bad clash of heads. This led eventually to his substitution before half time by Ball, who proceeded to play with some style at centre-half.
The first goal came early, but in a surprising manner. Taylor got on the end of a Weller cross from the left, and saw his looping header rustle the top of the net, certainly from where I was. It was only when GT made a celebratory rush for the away end that everybody realized it had gone in for his fourth in five games.
A minute later, Moore I nearly scored when he intercepted a back header from Edworthy meant for his keeper Hedman, only to be denied by a last ditch tackle.
The second goal, when it came on 32 minutes, was a tad weird. The man in black lycra ordered a quite deserved free kick on the edge of Coventry's penalty area for a foul by Quinn on Moore. Following some dissent the ball was then advanced to the penalty spot, which I am sure is not in the rules. I had always thought that the ball could only be advanced for dissent up to the edge of the penalty area. May be wrong, but anyway, in an apparently unrehearsed free kick, the ball was not smashed towards the Coventry wall standing on the line, but was pushed wide by Cook to the unmarked Glen Little, who did the necessary. The subsequent fisticuffs between Hedman and the useless Shaw over the marking, or lack of it (the latter must have been stoned at the time, or should be), had as much entertainment as an Audley Harrison BBC exclusively and expensively televised fight, paid for of course by the license payers.
The rest of the half was dominated by the Clarets' slick passing, positive early defending by Cox, and very effective pressing of the opposition in midfield at every opportunity. Game over.
And so to half time, and the opportunity to say something startlingly positive to your neighbour in the urinals such as, 'In the name of all that is Ronnie Jepson, it's life, but not as we know it!' The catering was much like the ground itself. The standard of meat pies made you realise why there was a distinct absence of cats and dogs near the ground. Healthy nutrition is apparently regarded as an act of war in these parts.
The expected response from Coventry at the start of the second half didn't get into first gear, as the Clarets played in the comfort zone for the second half, to a ribald accompaniment from the away end. Moore had two more decent chances to ice the deluxe, covered in double cream, with plenty of fancy bits cake. The appearance of one A Moore for Cook was greeted with some substantial enthusiasm. Oh, and Coventry had a slight chance near the end, not on target.
This was a fine performance from the team, and not a Glen Little show. I particularly enjoyed Cook's performance from a position a little more withdrawn than usual on the left hand side, as I think did he. This laid back, subtle approach had the cardiograph reading of a pensioner dozing on the seafront in high summer. He regularly took the Michael Mouse out of his old team, especially in the first half with a few subtle touches. Good to see Moore A on the pitch, and to see Moore I playing well and nearly breaking his barren goal spell, although I do really wish he would stay on his feet more. Coventry were surprisingly poor, with more than a hint of Railtrack's expertise in organisational paralysis.
Three more bookings, certainly two of which were silly, for Taylor, Cook and Little, in a game were there was little in the way of poor challenges, was a serious disappointment. Let's hope that we don't lose half the team in one foul swoop for an important match. Stan commented on this point in his post match conference, and was inclined to blame the system that puts referees under pressure rather than the black lycra brigade themselves. I am not so sure. It is hard to believe that we are bottom of the Division One fair play league, but presumably this is a function of the challenge / work rate / pressing game we play, where a slightly mistimed challenge is always yellow carded.
The only other slightly disappointing point of the day was the players' half-hearted attempt to share this important performance with the fans. Apart from I Moore, NTG and Gareth Taylor, the centre spot, half-hearted, attempt at applauding the tremendous support provided by the away fans was desultory at best. It was also, I think, minus the scouser temporary captain, which was particularly poignant, as 'The Legend' would have made a point of going over to the away fans, as would of course our very own A Payton esq. The match report is not the place to discuss this phenomenon, but I do wonder about our relationship with this particular set of players as we move forward. One for 'In Pursuit of Brownie Points', methinks.
Team (5-3-2, initially): Michopoulos, West,
Cox, Gnohere, Briscoe (Ball 45), Cook (A Moore 77), Little, Weller, Grant, I Moore, Taylor. Subs not used: Cennamo, Johnrose, Payton.
Scorers: Taylor (11), Little (33).
Crowd: 16,849.
Referee: Frazer Stretton (of Nottingham and the B*****ds home game).
Hego's Man of the Match: Everybody.
The view from Sweden, the home game and
the last time we played here
Clarets imperious on the high (field) road back to the top!