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Key events
15 min “Well after some thought I am prepared to believe you are not Frank Lampard,” offers Steve Taylor. “After all, he’s got a football team to manage…”
Yeah, but what’s his liveblogging like?
13 min Newcastle have realised there’s a game going on and they’re there to participate in it. Hall curves a low pass in behind for Barnes, this time he’s onside, and though Willock can’t collect his cut-back, he gathers possession at the second attempt, holds up and sets Barnes … whose low shot is straight at Rushworth. Either side of him and that’s probably 1-1.
11 min Barnes, Newcastle’s most likely creator – not the greatest state of affairs – carries it forward and opens the angle for a curler, only for his shot to be blocked at source. Then, seconds, later, he dashes in behind and the pass arrives, but he’s fractionally offside. It’s a bit more like it, though, someone attacking the last line.
9 min Coventry win a throw maybe two-thirds of the way inside the Newcastle half and the visitors pull all 11 players back. Arsenal used to do that in 2001-02, but because they had henry, Pires and Ljungberg on the counter; Newcastle do not.
8 min Newcastle have started so slowly. They’ll have expected Coventry to come at them, yet did almost nothing to prevent it.
GOAL! Coventry City 1-0 Newcastle United (Rudoni pen 6)
Hornicek dives right, Rudoni sweeps left, and runs off to celebrate, pulling up his top to reveal a t-shirt reading “Get well Nan”. Coventry have their first home goal in the Prem since 2001.
PENALTY TO COVENTRY!
5 min Hornicek makes a total mess of this, too slow to gather a ball when Mason-Clark chases a loose one, before hurling himself in front of Sidiki Cherif, who gratefully flings himself over his body. Silly, impetuous behaviour.
3 min Dasilva looks long for Mason-Clark and, though Miley sees him away, Coventry lock on well to pin Newcastle back again. So far, they’re dominating territory.
2 min …which he does, but without requisite pace and/or whip and/or flatness, so it’s easily headed away.
2 min Nice from Rudoni in midfield, clever footwork taking him away from Gonzalez and Wissa, who fouls him Chance for grimes to stick a ball into the box…
1 min Newcastle, wearing Germolene pink, set us away.
Our teams are tunnelled … and here they come!
Jaissle gets his guns out for the cameras.
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This Coventry kit is one of my favourites.
A bit of news:
I doubt we’ve heard the last of this.
Lampard says the win over Forest was huge for the fans and also important for the players, but he thinks the team can get better. The break gave him a chance to get players fit and have look at others then, on tonight, he says that it’s not so much about shape as principles, then explains that Cherif has adapted in training and got himself fitter; they’re excited about what he can bring to the team.
Though i’ve groused about newcastle’s midfield, I’m looking forward to seeing how Nico Gonzalez pulls up tonight. He’d started the season really well and has the chops to control this game; Lampard might instruct Cherif or Rudoni to get around him so he can’t.
“Newcastle’s starting XI shows that they are determined to get a satisfactory result today,” reckons AnhTuan Nguyen Huynh. “They just need to go out there and play their natural game with the shackles off.”
I’m a little disappointed with the team Jaissle has picked. This is the kind of game he should feel able to go with a little more flair, whether it’s Steur in midfield, Touré out wide, or both. If I was Frank Lampard – which, for avoidance of doubt, I’m not – I’d be heartened by the XI that’s been picked because the class differential isn’t as wide as it might’ve been.
As for Newcastle, they’ve gone for solidity in midfield and a centre-forward in the no 10 position. That makes me think they’ll be relying on their full-backs and wingers for creativity and, good players though Miley and Hall are, I’d like a bit more quality in attacking areas. I can see Coventry being able to frustrate them, unless Barnes has a good night or Fernandez-Pardo is now acclimatised to the league.
So where is our game? Coventry will want to use their wide attackers to get them up the pitch. Down their left in particular, I’d expect to see Dasilva and Mason-Clark ganging up on Miley, who isn’t a full-back, with Rudoni and Yirkenkyi making late runs to give them presence in the box. I also wonder if Cherif will look to run off Botman, who isn’t the quickest, with Thomas-Asante and Van Ewijk looking to supply him with crosses.
Email! “I say this is a perfect fixture,” writes Mary Waltz. “To get back to semi normal football. We have had a week to focus on the City problem but let’s get real. Whatever happens to them it will probably months before the lawyers get all their billable hours in and we don’t know what the final outcome will be. I for one am tired of speculating when it is pointless until the powers that be make up their minds. Let’s play ball.”
I actually wonder if the events of yesterday will have persuaded the suits that they need to act sooner rather than later. I can’t see that, given how long process can take, they’ll wait for the appeal to be heard to administer any punishment, should there be one.
Back to our game, I’m a little surprised Coventry have changed back to a formation that saw them lose five in a row. Not just because they won, but because three at the back and a packed midfield is a good way for a team to make things difficult for those better than them. Opponents are forced go around the outside to create, and there are men up front to cause problems.
On the other hand, if you match formations against a superior team, usually you lose.
Now we know where V for Vendetta got their idea.
Here he is!
Given Coventry have gone back to the blue and white stripes, here’s some reading to get you in the mood for a game some old folk are calling the Killer Kilcline derby.
As for Newcastle, Gonzalez returns from the bang on the head he sustained at Leeds, with Steur dropping out; Miley is at right-back. Otherwise, it’s as you were from the win against Hull but, on the bench, can be foundDan Burn and Joelinton, neither of whom has played this season.
Er yeah, about that midfield battle I trailed. Coventry bin the 3-4-2-1 that worked at Forest to restore the 4-2-3-1, and bring in Van Ewijk at right-back for Mfuni at right centre-back, while up front, Onyeka drops out of midfield, with Cherif, a summer signing, making his first start up front.
Teams
Coventry City (4-2-3-1): Rushworth; Van Ewijk, Pinnock, Thomas, Dasilva; Yirenkyi, Grimes; Thomas-Asante, Rudoni, Mason-Clark; Cherif. Subs: Bentley, Sakamoto, Simms, Mfuni, Onyeka, Latibeaudiere, Torp, Gboho, Hamer.
Newcastle United (4-2-3-1): Hornicek; Miley, Thiaw, Botman, Hall; Gonzalez, Willock; Murphy, Wissa, Barnes; Fernandez-Pardo. Subs: Pope, Schar, Joelinton, Bamba, Osula, Steur, Toure, Burn, Dedic.
Preamble
I don’t know, it kind of feels like a fight to focus on this game, doesn’t it? Yet, at the same time, there’s loads to look forward to about this game because why shouldn’t there be? Such is the current state of the Premier League, Coventry reaching it after toiling through some of the worst mismanagement and neglect ever endured by a football club … for this?
But here we are so here we are; let’s dive in. Coventry won’t have relished the timing of the international break having snapped a run of five straight defeats with a win at Forest. I’m especially excited to see how Caleb Yirenkyi performs tonight – he’s a proper talent and a brilliant get, his game perfectly suited to competition it now feels much more comfortable to snark at as “this league” rather than “oor league”.
Opposite him – and Matt Grimes, playing in the top division for the first time aged 31, one of those lovely stories you get with promoted clubs – will presumably be Lewis Miley and Sean Steur, two terrific talents of complementary qualities. Their battle will go a long way towards deciding the outcome of this game.
However it won’t be lost on Mathias Jaissle that Coventry’s winner in Nottingham was their first league goal of the season, which is to say Frank Lampard must find a way of offering greater threat while maintaining some semblance of defensive security. Easier said than done, of course but, similarly, it won’t have escaped him how comprehensively Newcastle were outmuscled by Leeds and, if his side can use their similar formation to lean on them in similar fashion, they might just find similar joy – even if they lack similar goal-threat.
Or, in other words, though the overall picture isn’t good, there’s every chance this is.
Kick-off: 8pm BST
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