Thoughts v Coventry

I know there are more important things in life than football, but that was the most wound-up and angry I have felt walking out of DC for a long time.

After 70 mins and leading 2-0 we had complete control over a team that has spent most of the season in the play-off positions and were touted as promotion rivals. Then we had yet another second half collapse, this time following a red card, and ended up throwing away all the hard work. Id like to see a replay, but from where I was sat, Stacey has another mind melt and plays a kamikaze pass back to Lerma that is intercepted by the Cov player. Jeff has a decision to make and it is a red card all day long. Even then, we had a period down to 10 men where we looked quite comfortable until Parker started to panic. Upto then I think Stacey was having a decent game, albeit with an unusual position in front of Christie. However, his errors have cost us in recent games. I can't help feeling that between him and Mepham, they can both put in a really decent performance but at some point you just know they will do something that will cost us.

So far, i'm quite impressed with what SP is trying to do with our team, however trying to hold out for 20 mins whilst changing the set-up to what felt like 6-3-1 at the end is just asking for trouble. He has got to quickly learn to be more positive to trust his players and show more courage to enable them to front up and deliver. It feels like he is almost encouraging them to panic as his positional set-up allows for no outlet whilst we are letting the opposition to have a go.

It has been a frustrating few weeks. WBA are pony and have been giving us numerous opportunities to put in such a massive gap that promotion would be hard to throw away, and yet at every chance we seem to be handing it back to them. I think our team showed today that even with a number of absentees due to injury, when we are on our game we are some distance ahead of our rivals. However, the fragile mindset that affected us last season is creeping in again. Derby second half was poor, Millwall second half was dreadful, Coventry second half was on cruise control until the panic set in after the red card. Just to make it worse, there was absolutely no way that cov equaliser was a shot, it was a misplaced cross all day long. A very frustrating afternoon at DC.

Best to end on the positives:
Lewis Cook - so good to see someone receive a ball and then head towards the opposition goal instead of the default pass back
Jeff Lerma - I thought he was immense at the back today until Stacey left him up sh*t creek. Some recent forum posts indicate some people would be happy to see him go for a decent fee, I think it would be a massive loss to what we are trying to achieve.
S Cook - I have never bought into the sentimental idea he must play because of his history at our club. However, on todays performance I would have him ahead of Mepham every time.
 
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Real tough one, because after the second goal I had it all chalked up to 3 points. We were dominant and there was no damn way for them to come back,

Agree that from the tv angle, Stacey's back pass was dangerous. Was he trying to play it back to Travers?? It looked like he had an easy option to Meps. Heat of the moment?

Jeff's decision also questionable. Up 2-1 with 11 men on the pitch or 2-0 with 10 men and 25 minutes to play. Tough call. In some ways, like Meps in last year's playoff.

The decision to put in Zeno was in hindsight very poor, given the wind conditions. I doubt he messes up that header in normal wind. If he had been sent on 10 minutes sooner, he might have had a better measure of the wind.

If we hold on, so many good things happen, including top of the league, 10 points over WBA, 12 points over Coventry. I'm now thinking we are in tough come Friday with all the injuries and no Jeff. Can he appeal and get a stay until the following match?

Draw on Friday seems like a good result at this stage.
 
Gutted we didn’t hold on but controlled the game despite the make shift team. In sept or oct (or no wind) we would have held on but things not quite running our way. I am more positive tonight than watching millwall. Get key players back and we will be ok
 
Toronto John said:
Can he appeal and get a stay until the following match?
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Teams use to use tactical appeals to keep players available for certain matches but they made it so if the appeal is seen as dodgy the ban will be extended. Haven't heard anything like that happening for ages so maybe teams simply stopped doing it to avoid the risk.
 
Hindsight is a wonderful thing but had Lerma just left that ridiculous smashed back pass it would at have worst have gone for a throw in or corner and at best Travers might have collected it!

Lerma didn't even need to bring their player down. OK their player would have been clean through but still had Travers to beat and a goal although likely wasn't a given.

On the subject of Cahill, for me Cahill should have brought Afobe down in the Millwall game, especially as Cahill appeared to politely slow down as Afobe cut across him. A collision that far out might have even meant him escaping a straight red!

As I said, hindsight is a wonderful thing!
 
blandford_cherry said:
Well this thread has turned into exactly how I thought it would be after I opened it. The usual suspects involved. Calm down. With 11 men we would have walked that game. It’s bitterly disappointing to walk away with just a point. We have 8 players out - Pearson; Zemura, Cahill, Kelly, Brooks, Smith, Stanislas, Brady, 5 or 6 of those would walk into todays starting 11. It’s natural to have a blip in this league, others seem to think it’s a walk in the park.

There’s still plenty of daylight between us and 3rd. It’s a crap feeling but Jesus don’t some of you go crazy, also don’t forget where Coventry are in the league.

Lewis Cook, Lerma (bar red card) , S Cook, Stacey (bar pass), Anthony and Kilkenny were absolutely brilliant. Lewis Cook got 90 mins and S Cook didn’t look like he’d not played a league game since May.

we go again Friday
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Bah! I deride your calm and reasoned analysis of the situation
 
I wasn’t at the game but have seen the incident . Problem is natural Instincts take over .split second decision is made. Lerma takes him out ..
From all accounts we seemed to be fine for about 10 minutes then it seemed we fell apart .
 
AFCBmattjamr said:
I'm still in a mood about the result! We didn't even lose and didn't drop any points to Fulham or west brom ffs!
I hate loving football
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Same here. Being nearly the last kick of the game (and a misplaced cross) made it all the worse. I listened on the radio, and the commentator had a habit of making every single attack sound like a good chance. My nerves were shredded. Still feeling like I been kicked in the stomach. Pah.
 
Matt Stevenson said:
Same here. Being nearly the last kick of the game (and a misplaced cross) made it all the worse. I listened on the radio, and the commentator had a habit of making every single attack sound like a good chance. My nerves were shredded. Still feeling like I been kicked in the stomach. Pah.
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Urgh how many times do cross like that harmlessly sail into the keepers arms or out of play.
I could feel it coming for the last 5 minutes tbf though.
What really niggles me is how they scored in the extra time they had created through timewasting from the first minute
 
This thread is based entirely on comments about their almost last kick of the game… football is indeed about fine margins but let’s not get too over excited about one fluked goal…

That cross sails wide and we’re all taking about a good three points and being ten points clear of WBA and top of the league…

Let’s not forget the bigger picture of the game as a whole when moaning about the end result…

Tough game today against a team that came to frustrate and offer zero…

Onwards towards Fulham with hopefully Cahill and Kelly back
 
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AFCBmattjamr said:
Urgh how many times do cross like that harmlessly sail into the keepers arms or out of play.
I could feel it coming for the last 5 minutes tbf though.
What really niggles me is how they scored in the extra time they had created through timewasting from the first minute
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BBC comments has somebody stating that if we had not had a board meeting on the touchline after the sending off, Coventry would have won, amazing.
 
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