COVENTRY CITY 0-0 WATFORD

SAT AUG 20 AT The Ricoh Arena, Coventry

REPORT BY KEV MONKS

Coventry City picked up their first point of the season in a match where off the field matters were more on people’s minds with a 0-0 draw against Watford.

At the end of a week where there had been defeats at Birmingham and Crystal Palace and the boardroom battle had plunged to new depths with a statement from current Chairman Ken Dulieu about a meeting with a consortium introduced to the club by Gary Hoffman and Joe Elliott, later being proved not to be entirely accurate, Watford visited the Ricoh Arena. 

It looked ten minutes before kick off that those not staying away until the current board and certain employees are gone or who refuse to pay the match-day price increases or won’t go until City start winning, only numbered around the ten thousand mark but it picked up as the teams came out on an afternoon which was getting sunnier after earlier downpours. 

Those in the ground saw Andy Thorn send out a team, which saw David Bell back in midfield along with free from suspension Carl Baker and Freddy Eastwood back on the bench.

As the teams came out, a large banner, which said “You’re Not Fit To Run The Club – SISU Out”, was unfurled under the scoreboard by City supporters and there were plenty of calls for a change in the ownership of the club as the match got underway with City kicking towards the stand where the reported 850 Watford fans were. 

The chants continued after Watford won the first corner of the afternoon and in the tenth minute, there was outrage from the City supporters after a rapid response steward acting under the orders of the Chief Safety Officer grabbed the banner and threw it to the ground right in front of everyone in the stadium. Now this could have provoked an outbreak of trouble and with the way things are with the club at the moment, riling your admission paying customers is not good business practice.

Thankfully, there was no trouble when this banner and one from the CT Stand, which had simply “SISU OUT” was taken away by the stewards (and returned late in the game).

On the pitch, Cyrus Christie was having a stormer. With City’s defence playing like they had worked out like the supporters that Joe Murphy is not as dependable as Keiren Westwood was, Christie, Keogh and Martin Cranie cleared what they had to deal with.

They weren’t helped by the conceding of needless free kicks including one in the eighteenth minute, by Baker, which Clingan, who worked hard in midfield with Gael Bigirimana, initially headed away before Murphy was impeded as he punched Audley Harrison v David Haye style at the ball.

Lukas Jutkiewicz was struggling to get any decent service today. With David Bell pretty ineffective, Jutkiewicz’s only real chance of the half came in the 32^nd minute when he fired just over the bar with a shot on the turn.

Five minutes later and Watford were denied a blatant penalty when Troy Deeney was impeded before Murphy blocked his shot with his body.

In the 40^th minute, a superb block from Christie conceded a corner when it came in, Murphy could only push the ball into the path of Mark Yeats who slipped it past him in and into the net. However, the flag was up and thankfully for the Sky Blue players, management and supporters, the goal was ruled out.

City won two corners at the start of the second half but with no target man to aim at, they were easily dealt with by a Hornets defence led by Martin Taylor.

In the 53^rd minute, Carl Dickinson was close to seeing red when he was cautioned and vehemently protested in the face of the assistant before spitting and just missing a ball boy with his phlegm by a matter of inches.

The chant of “Andy Thorn’s Sky Blue Army” rang round the ground as Christie ran into the area and delivered a ball right across the face of the goal.

As already mentioned, City needed something else up front and Freddy Eastwood came on to huge cheers in the 62^nd minute.

Watford were denied another penalty at the other end and in the 75^th minute, so was Lukas Jutkiewicz, who three minutes earlier had a shot beaten away for a corner by Loach, when he was pushed over by Taylor.

Jutkiewicz headed a Bigirimana cross wide and Eastwood sent a twenty yarder from a Hussey cross over before City’s Burundi born player just missed the target with a 78^th minute screamer.

Watford had given up on their ‘one goal would be enough’ ploy and although  Murphy took three attempts to get an 85^th minute cross under control, both sides were happy with the point.