Feels like ages since we last played Coventry and did we play them at Northampton? Town have a decently fit squad available to choose from. Did Collins do enough to warrant a start in the next game? Will MM stick with the cm or will Lawrence get a start over Ogog/Clark? Leutwiler and Grandison are both available again. Coventry lost to Bury but have beaten Burton, with their No. 9 Armstrong getting six goals so far this season. MM will put out an attacking squad, but it might be a tad more defensively minded than the one we saw at Rochdale. Stick thoughts below and give any reports of you made it to the game. Floreat Salopia.
Yes we did play them at Sixfields - it was a rather dull 0-0 with Eaves missing several good chances. I would have settled for that again after today. I presumed Grandison would come in to a back five and was surprised Ellis was benched even after an apparently poor game at Rochdale. We started quite brightly for the first twenty minutes and pressed high up the pitch without ever really looking like scoring. As soon as Coventry scored ( having before that had two decent penalty shouts) we were under the cosh and remained so for the rest of the half. Halstead made a couple of good saves but the crucial goal was the second. We needed to get to half time just one down to have any chance but instead squandered possession in midfield and gave away yet another penalty. Coventry barely seemed to get out of second gear in the second half but scored another good goal while we rarely threatened. Disappointing to see one like for like substitution in a game in which we were comfortably second best. Lawrence was not at his best delivery-wise but did try manfully to get us going - I am still not convinced about playing both Cole and Kaikai in midfield as we looked very lightweight today. Coventry's front two were a class above that of any team I have seen us play for a long time. Almost a quarter of the season gone and we are definitely in a relegation battle. The defining matches will not be away against the likes of Coventry (who I think will go up) but at home against the lesser lights of this division is where we need to be picking up a few wins.
Coventry were good but the depressing thing today was that we did not give a good account of ourselves unlike against most other decent teams in the MM era. I, too ,thought we would go 3-5-2. Sadler was woeful today and NKP was again caught out today as a result of this. I have been a big advocate of Lawrence but he was recalled today with little avail. Clark/Cole/Kaikai had been excellent on Tuesday and didn't deserve to be split up. Even, though, relatively slight they were winning the majority of the ball purely because of greater mobility. I can understand Halstead being retained and he made a couple of decent saves but he went down far too early for the 3rd goal which sailed over him as a result.
I am pretty well in agreement with you KDS - Sadler's form is a real worry and he just does not look fit. Perhaps we should play the three centre-halves and put Brown in as left wing-back in the absence of a miraculous return by Micky D. Halstead has not done a great deal wrong but Leutwiler will presumably get his place back when fully fit. I did admire Lawrence for not hiding when it was not going that well for him but the crossing from everyone was below par and we put no real pressure on their young keeper making his debut.
As Mickey Demetriou's girlfriend posted on Twitter, 90 more sleeps until he returns to Shrewsbury... Tough game to listen to on the radio. I stopped listening when the third goal went in and instead played footy in the garden with my little boy.
Like all of us I have sat through worse (though not recently). MM has a fair bit of work to do to mend the poor summer we had in terms of recruitment but I am confident he will be up to the job as there is a decent base of players to work with.
Yep, it'd be good to see a couple of home wins and some draws away from home just to take the pressure off of the team. Sadler and the rest of the defense need to sort out their foul record. A lot were excited by Sadler returning and it'd be a shame to see him end up as this season's scapegoat, or Collins come to think of it.
Difficult to see how Collins could become that as he is our top scorer - though all of our strikers are getting precious little in the way of support at the moment. We are a centre back short and have few alternatives to Sadler or Tootle so lets hope we can make a decent loan signing to help out in the short term. However, overall we are in a stronger position squadwise than we were in GT's last season so I am optimistic than we can climb the table.
