Who on here went then? I'd say: SCHMEICHEL - 6.5 - Didn't really have much to do but looked steady and made a couple of decent saves. Could have been more vocal in the first half because we needed a bit of organising PELTIER - 7.5 - Got the all important goal, a peach of header. Wasn't bad defensively and delivered a great cross for Nugent when he hit the post. I still felt he could have pushed forward more overall though. MILLS - 7 - Looked a little bit shaky in the first half, but got better and better as the game went on, no big errors. BAMBA - 8 - Decent in the first half, terrific in the second. Whenever he loooked troubled he dealt with it, won plenty of important headers too. KONCHESKY - 7 - What I expected. Solid and reliable got forward once or twice but not often, decent passing, was isolated on the left and needed more options than he had. Good performance overall. ABE - 7.5 - Scurried around and got vital tackles in. Had to take the game to them himself at times in the second half. Good display. FERNANDES - 8.5 - Classic holding midfielder's performance, ran around the central 3rd of the pitch and was constantly in the right place at the right time, then played it simple. Good signing. WELLENS - 7.5 - Always looking for options ahead of him but there were often little. Most of the time had to play it simple. Good free kick for the goal. Decent performance, would benefit from better movement from his teammates. DANNS - 6.5 -Very poor in the first half, and I think he can do a lot better. In fact he was quite a bit better in the second half, but still, I think there's more to come from him. Like Nugent though, he was short of support - with 2 of the midfielders dropping back and the full backs not getting forward too much. NUGENT - 5 - Very isolated and it was a difficult game for him no doubt. Showed some glimpses of quality but he was mainly poor. His header against the post was unlucky. Didn't show enough desire (Yakubu-esque I'm sorry to say) and missed a sitter shortly before the goal. However, I'm confident he will get better. I'm just not happy for him to be our main central striker. VASSELL - 3 - Whether it was a sending off or not (I think not), it was a silly tackle and it was always going to tempt the ref. We got away with it but his contribution certainly didn't help. Subs King - 7 - Lively and skilful when he came on, caused them problems. He has the attacking threat that Abe and Fernandes don't, and for that reason I'd probably start him next week. Gallagher - 6 - Was just brought on to see the game out I think (God knows why him). Worked hard but couldn't really make an impact how he would have liked in a normal situation. I would have started him though, and I would start him next week as well. Ref - 1 - nuff said Atmosphere - 8 - Most stood, our fans were very good on the whole I thought, seeing 6,700 celebrate and sing was great. A lot better than previous trips to the Ricoh.
i only listened on the radio, but by the sounds of it nugent looked very good and schiemechal pulled off good saves.
Thought Nugent was excellent - tireless energy, great touch and always available - for a first game of the season with a completely new team I thought there were no weak performances and Danns ran his socks off whilst Fernandes was outstanding.
Schmeichel- 7 - Good shot stopping, took crosses well and generally looked comfortable Peltier - 7 - Cracking header, jumped really well. Solid defender, not as attacking as Naughton but he did manager to float some nice crosses in. Mills - 7.5 - Captain material, Screamed and shouted at his team and got them across the finishing line. Was made to look untidy against McSheffrey who looked quite decent but generally played well. Bamba - 8 - Some magic touches, good passing, defensively sound and won everything in the air. Not much else you can ask of your centre half. Koncheskey - 7 - Some exhibition passes, solid performance, good passing, pace and heading. Abe - 6.5 - Played out of position when Pelts got injured, looked shaky but overall played well. Fernandes - 9 - a class above everyone today, exactly what we needed, played everything simple. won all of his tackles and showed PASHUN! Wellens - 8 - Good passes today,didn't try the impossible. Him and Fernandes ran rings around Clingan Danns - 7.5 - A workhorse, did the dirty work and looked quite strong and pacy. Some good passes and once again, he showed bagz of pashun. Nugent - 7 - Looked a tad isolated, but he held the ball up well and was so unlucky with his header. What we have needed up top. Vassell - 4 - Reckless tackle, as soon as it happened I expected the ref to flash his red card. He made a few ineffectual runs beforehand, could have happened to a better player but it still put us under the cosh for 30 minutes or so. Subs, King - 7 - Some good attacking movement, should have perhaps scored but, looked good in a free role. Gallagher - 5 - He isn't a striker, he can't hold the ball up for ****. His attempt of a knock down header was simply tragic. Atmosphere - 8 - I wasn't in the thick of it but was still next to the Cov fans. The lads up the top looked class though Roll on Reading and Bristol
Fernandes was immense and easily MOTM for me. He lost the ball once in the 90th min, apart from that he made every pass and was in the right place at the right time. Wellens was also a class act and showed real passion and his theatrics to get Cov Scum sent off were priceless! Other I thought played well was Abe, Bamba and King. Mills hasn't impressed me so far. Distribution is ****e and his man on man tackling leaves something to be desired atm.
I was quite low down and lots of people did it. Looked class! At the end when Super Matty Mills (I love him already) gathered the players together I thought they we're going to do a poznan in front of us
Some good posts above. Gives me a feel for what went on for someone who was only listening on the radio. What I'm interested to know is what our overall performance was like. The Cov manager suggested that they controlled the game in the first half (not just 11v10 but 11v11) is that true or is it just an opposition manager looking for positives? The other thing I wondered was whether Nugent looked isolated up front? My worry is that the main thing we're missing is a link between midfield and attack (i.e. someone who can carry the ball past people) and making sure that someone gets close enough to Nugent to support him (one of the front three sitting in whilst one stays wide). Admittedly I'm making these judgments based on the players we've signed and 1 performance against Real Madrid (who aren't a bad unit).
I'd say that the first 25 minutes Coventry looked up for it when we we're trying to get to grips with the formation. They we're zipping passes around the place and playing really nice football but when wellens and Fernandes started playing together there was only going to be one winner. We shut Coventry out and only allowed them to have a few long rangeshots whereas we we're starting to pile on the pressure with lots of great chances. Danns (if he was a foot taller) would have got two from sliding in at the back post and Nugent was so unlucky with a header that hit the post. Good result, we will play a lot of teams that are worse than Coventry though
Can´t comment really, but I will say SGE seems to be doing a God O´Neil in terms of signing 'who´s he' players.
