Flying Fokker
Well-Known Member
Anyone who wants the short report - see last year's home games against Burnley and Blackburn.
Sixfields was an OK lower league ground. City fans had the East stand and a section of the North stand. Pretty good turn out from City. The Coventry fans were pretty much all in the Grandstand. I suspect there were quite a few locals going to see what the fuss was about - one guy I spoke to in the car park was a Blackburn season ticket holder living in Peterborough. Their lot were very quiet no anti-Sisu chants or banners, just a smattering of polite applause and a little bit of a song when they got their fifth.
City were playing towards the City end in the 1st half. Not particularly fluent but City had a bit more possession. Then they get a very soft penalty when Flint and the attacker looked to be going shoulder to shoulder. After that City got progressively worse. Coventry won all the balls in the air. They harried us when we had possession and frequently bullied us off the ball. You could see goals 2 and 3 coming. City were deservedly booed off at half time.
Half time Taylor replaced Kilkenny and City looked much better and more competitive. JET was again a shining light and was a big threat for us. Our goals were all up the other end so didn't get a great view.
I think it was their 4th that was a shocking goal to conceed. Lots of fumbling in the goal month before they slotted home. Elliott brought it level but not surprised to conceed another. If we had equalised in the 6 minutes of injury time they would surely have got a 6th!
All-in-all, Kilkenny deserved to be substituted. Fielding does not inspire me with confidence. He did his run off his line and kick it routine again today but got away with it this time. Didn't think Williams or Maloney were that great. Elliott got a goal but didn't do well enough defensively. Pack and Wagstaff looked decent.
I am not too downhearted. It was pleasing that we came back in the second half and we competed much better with a physical team. Hopefully there is a learning there for some of our youngsters. I still believe we can do well this year aslong as we learn the key lesson from today's game:
Liam Fontaine must NEVER be allowed to wear a City shirt EVER again.
I Don't blame O'Driscoll for giving him a second chance but this has to be the last chance he gets. He was a liability in the Championship and he is still a liability in league 1. We have just got a million for Adomah and we need to spend half of that on a decent league 1 centre back who can actually tackle! Even an average league 1 centre back would be better than Fontaine! Hey you could pay me 5k to stand there and have strikers run past me!
Seriously O'Driscoll and Burt need to act rapidly because I fear without action Fontaine will drag the rest of the team down with him. You can't expect the strikers to have to score SIX goals to win a football match.
Not long back from Sixfields. Wow, what a bizarre, exciting, mental & depressing 90 mins of football that was...
We got bullied today, badly. Coventry sported a team of physical, hard working (If not great technically) players who quite frankly made us look like a bunch of school girls for most of the game. I've never seen a Bristol City side look as narrow as it did today, and what the hell happened to the interchanging positions from our midfielders like what we saw at Gillingham? Pack is a talented boy who hardly ever gives the ball away, and he quite clearly has the eye for a telling through ball. So why he wasn't pushed further up the pitch at times I'll never know. That brings me to Elliot, yes he finished his goal well and he fought hard in the 2nd half, but I would have much rather had him sat in front of our back four like we saw Wynter do for the first few games.
Both defences were so bad at dealing from the ball over the top that it was like a bug in a video game. I'm not surprised to see both teams utilise it so much as both Coventry & ourselves were creating chance after chance through it. That style put Baldock through early in the game and he got his 2nd goal from a similar long ball. The kick and whoosh for Coventry's 4th goal was possibly one of worst pieces of defending I've ever seen in any standard of football ever. Terrible from Fontaine & then Fielding (I'm really not sure about this bloke either) The ball must have bounced 3 times in our box before their chap drilled it home.
Just so depressing to watch, and also on the verge of slap-stick comedy.
As for their winner, horrible ball watching with regards to the knock down at the back post, allowing their free running midfielder to slot home from 6 yards.
Yes, Fontaine was terrible, but Flint looked wobbly most of the game, and Maloney & Cunningham looked like scared rabbits. Can't remember if either of them managed to put a cross over which is a major disappointment considering their attacking qualities. Wagstaff seems to be full of running, but I'm not convinced he's full of quality, time will tell with that one.
JET looks one of the classiest players I've ever seen at this level, and we must work harder at giving him the ball to feet in and around the opponents box, and just getting him into the game whenever we can. Another great byline pull back/cross for our 1st goal and a great strike for the free-kick (Even with the help of a deflection) Also, his long throw in's caused all sorts of problems in the Coventry box, so that was nice to see.
Considering there were only 2000 in the ground, I would have thought to hear how vocal some of our players were. Well, I didn't hear much come out of anyone's mouth? Still think we lack a real leader, maybe it's Flint, maybe it's Pack, who knows. I'm just not sure Sammy B is the right man for the arm band.
We need to gather ourselves and go again against Wolves on Saturday. I'd like to see Bryan get a game for a bit of width down the left, and I'd like to see Pack & Wynter in the middle of the park with Wagstaff on the right. I'd also like to see Fontaine & Fielding dropped on their asses...
SOD, over to you...
Sixfields was an OK lower league ground. City fans had the East stand and a section of the North stand. Pretty good turn out from City. The Coventry fans were pretty much all in the Grandstand. I suspect there were quite a few locals going to see what the fuss was about - one guy I spoke to in the car park was a Blackburn season ticket holder living in Peterborough. Their lot were very quiet no anti-Sisu chants or banners, just a smattering of polite applause and a little bit of a song when they got their fifth.
City were playing towards the City end in the 1st half. Not particularly fluent but City had a bit more possession. Then they get a very soft penalty when Flint and the attacker looked to be going shoulder to shoulder. After that City got progressively worse. Coventry won all the balls in the air. They harried us when we had possession and frequently bullied us off the ball. You could see goals 2 and 3 coming. City were deservedly booed off at half time.
Half time Taylor replaced Kilkenny and City looked much better and more competitive. JET was again a shining light and was a big threat for us. Our goals were all up the other end so didn't get a great view.
I think it was their 4th that was a shocking goal to conceed. Lots of fumbling in the goal month before they slotted home. Elliott brought it level but not surprised to conceed another. If we had equalised in the 6 minutes of injury time they would surely have got a 6th!
All-in-all, Kilkenny deserved to be substituted. Fielding does not inspire me with confidence. He did his run off his line and kick it routine again today but got away with it this time. Didn't think Williams or Maloney were that great. Elliott got a goal but didn't do well enough defensively. Pack and Wagstaff looked decent.
I am not too downhearted. It was pleasing that we came back in the second half and we competed much better with a physical team. Hopefully there is a learning there for some of our youngsters. I still believe we can do well this year aslong as we learn the key lesson from today's game:
Liam Fontaine must NEVER be allowed to wear a City shirt EVER again.
I Don't blame O'Driscoll for giving him a second chance but this has to be the last chance he gets. He was a liability in the Championship and he is still a liability in league 1. We have just got a million for Adomah and we need to spend half of that on a decent league 1 centre back who can actually tackle! Even an average league 1 centre back would be better than Fontaine! Hey you could pay me 5k to stand there and have strikers run past me!
Seriously O'Driscoll and Burt need to act rapidly because I fear without action Fontaine will drag the rest of the team down with him. You can't expect the strikers to have to score SIX goals to win a football match.
Not long back from Sixfields. Wow, what a bizarre, exciting, mental & depressing 90 mins of football that was...
We got bullied today, badly. Coventry sported a team of physical, hard working (If not great technically) players who quite frankly made us look like a bunch of school girls for most of the game. I've never seen a Bristol City side look as narrow as it did today, and what the hell happened to the interchanging positions from our midfielders like what we saw at Gillingham? Pack is a talented boy who hardly ever gives the ball away, and he quite clearly has the eye for a telling through ball. So why he wasn't pushed further up the pitch at times I'll never know. That brings me to Elliot, yes he finished his goal well and he fought hard in the 2nd half, but I would have much rather had him sat in front of our back four like we saw Wynter do for the first few games.
Both defences were so bad at dealing from the ball over the top that it was like a bug in a video game. I'm not surprised to see both teams utilise it so much as both Coventry & ourselves were creating chance after chance through it. That style put Baldock through early in the game and he got his 2nd goal from a similar long ball. The kick and whoosh for Coventry's 4th goal was possibly one of worst pieces of defending I've ever seen in any standard of football ever. Terrible from Fontaine & then Fielding (I'm really not sure about this bloke either) The ball must have bounced 3 times in our box before their chap drilled it home.
Just so depressing to watch, and also on the verge of slap-stick comedy.
As for their winner, horrible ball watching with regards to the knock down at the back post, allowing their free running midfielder to slot home from 6 yards.
Yes, Fontaine was terrible, but Flint looked wobbly most of the game, and Maloney & Cunningham looked like scared rabbits. Can't remember if either of them managed to put a cross over which is a major disappointment considering their attacking qualities. Wagstaff seems to be full of running, but I'm not convinced he's full of quality, time will tell with that one.
JET looks one of the classiest players I've ever seen at this level, and we must work harder at giving him the ball to feet in and around the opponents box, and just getting him into the game whenever we can. Another great byline pull back/cross for our 1st goal and a great strike for the free-kick (Even with the help of a deflection) Also, his long throw in's caused all sorts of problems in the Coventry box, so that was nice to see.
Considering there were only 2000 in the ground, I would have thought to hear how vocal some of our players were. Well, I didn't hear much come out of anyone's mouth? Still think we lack a real leader, maybe it's Flint, maybe it's Pack, who knows. I'm just not sure Sammy B is the right man for the arm band.
We need to gather ourselves and go again against Wolves on Saturday. I'd like to see Bryan get a game for a bit of width down the left, and I'd like to see Pack & Wynter in the middle of the park with Wagstaff on the right. I'd also like to see Fontaine & Fielding dropped on their asses...
SOD, over to you...
