COVENTRY CITY 1-2 AET PORTSMOUTH BY KEV MONKS
Date 12/01/10 At The Ricoh Arena FA Cup Third Round Replay
Coventry
Westwood, Wright, Wood, McPake, Cranie, Bell, Gunnarsson, Clingan (Eastwood 46), McIndoe, Best (Grandison 92), Morrison SNU Jeffers, Hall, Hussey, Cain, Konstantopolous
Portsmouth
Begovic, Borre, Mokena, Wilson, Hreidarsson, Diop, Mullins (Basinas 76), Boateng (Utaka 55), Brown, Piquionne, Smith (Webber 69) SNU Ashdown, Sowah, Williamson.
HT CCFC 1-0 PFC FT CCFC 1-1 PFC
ET1 CCFC 1-1 PFC ET2 CCFC 1-2 PFC
ATT 7,097
Goals Leon Best (22), Stephen Wright (OG 89), Aaron Mokena (120)
Referee Mike Jones
Booked Cranie, Bell,
Man Of The Match James McPake, Leon Best, Keiren Westwood and Richard Wood.
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Coventry City dumped them-selves out of the FA Cup with an extra time defeat after giving away two goals to a disinterested Portsmouth side.
With this Third Round replay being shown live on ITV4 as well as via other media forms, it was only the hardcore of both sets of supporters who made their way into the Ricoh Arena on a bitterly cold evening.
By the time, kick off came around, it was clear that the effects of cold weather and television had taken its toll as there was only 7,097 in the ground. 487 of these had made the journey from the South Coast, whilst there were City supporters from Northern Ireland, Kent, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Northants and South Wales who opted to be at the game rather than having a cosy night in.
The Sky Blues, who were comforted for the second smallest crowd of the season by a £72,000 fee for their part in hosting this tele-visual treat, faced Portsmouth whom had been ordered to pay £7m by the Premier League to their football creditors by 5pm today and Chris Coleman brought in Richard Wood into the defence and dropped Freddy Eastwood to the bench.
Both sets of fans did make a good amount of noise as the teams were announced – the Sky Blue Army with their singing whilst the noise from the away end was that of clanging bells, trumpets and drums.
Stephen Wright had a shot after a mazy run in the ninth minute but for most of the game showed that his days of being able to compete with Premiership players are now behind him as he let Kevin Prince Boateng get past him with ease time and time again.
The biting cold had got to me and in the 22nd minute, I had to dash to the toilet. I was just coming out of the toilet when I heard a massive cheer and got back to find out that Leon Best had scored to put City ahead.
As I got back to my seat, I walked into a load of stick from various City supporters jokingly asking me to keep nipping out in the hope it would bring more goals.
Thankfully, when there was a 35th minute break in play, the scoreboard which had shown the Barnsley subs rather than the Portsmouth ones prior to kick off, showed the goal, that was started by Keiren Westwood, David Bell headed the City keeper’s long ball to Leon Best on the edge of the area. The striker, who had been tipped by his manager to score after not scoring since the 2-2 draw at QPR, superbly volleyed the ball into the net.
Being a goal up against a side looking clearly as disinterested as Blackburn had done in the FA Cup Fifth Round Replay last season, we sat there, expecting City to go for the jugular in the second half on a pitch that was watered during the interval, especially after Freddy Eastwood replaced Sammy Clingan at the break.
However, it was not to be. David Bell, who tried hard along side the no longer fans favourite Aron Gunnarsson, if you read the latest Twist N Shout, failed to find any width and Pompey were allowed to control the midfield.
Michael McIndoe had been pretty much invisible for most of the match but in the 62nd minute, he did get in a decent cross that Leon Best volleyed over.
Westwood made a one handed save to push the ball onto the roof of the net in the 64th minute before Avram Grant made changes. One of these was Angelos Basinas and the Greek player ran and chased to hurry up a Pompey side.
With City sitting back and giving Begovic absolutely nothing to do apart from fumbling an 85th minute Gunnarsson shot, the visitors started to look more threatening and on the stroke of full time, with some City supporters heading for home, they were level.
It wasn’t even a Portsmouth player who scored. It was Stephen Wright who headed past Westwood to send the game into extra time.
The mood amongst the City support including one of my best mates from Cardiff who was getting some worrying texts concerning the amount of snow in South Wales, was downbeat but we tried to lift the team for the period of extra time.
Chris Coleman went for a change two minutes into the first period of extra time and stunned the City support when he replaced Leon Best with Jermaine Grandison and played him up front. It was a tactic that did not pay off as City were still as lacklustre in front of goal,
Portsmouth had two good efforts in the second half of extra time. The first saw Westwood deny Danny Webber and the keeper along with Stephen Wright in clearing the danger from a John Utaka 117th minute effort.
The clock was coming up to the 120 minute mark. No stoppage time had been announced as Portsmouth won a corner. The City defence watched the ball come over and Aaron Mokone, headed in before celebrating with the jubilant visiting fans and dump City, who lost out on valuable income by not having their club shop and ticket office open after the game, out of the FA Cup.