COVENTRY CITY 1-1 CREWE ALEXANDRA BY KEV MONKS
Coventry City are at times their own worst enemies and some stupidity saw two points tossed away at home to Crewe Alexandra.
Micky Adams had only made one change from the team beaten by Leeds on Boxing Day with Claus Jorgensen coming in for Andy Morrell whilst Crewe who are only in this division thanks to the generosity of the Sky Blues started up front with former Sky Blue Eddie Johnson.
The opening first third of the game on a bitterly cold night at the Arena in front of a reasonable 19,405 was pretty dire with little in the way of chances.
Dario Gradi's side had the first couple with an 18th minute effort from David Vaughan flying past Marton Fulop's left hand post.Vaughan managed another shot seven minutes later which Andy Whing blocked.
In the 31st minute,City went ahead. Attacking the away end where the 300+ Crewe fans were housed, Gary McSheffrey got down the right and sent over a lovely delivery which fell for Don Hutchison to stroke home from six yards.
The Scot whose is looking for a permanent contract with City was in good form, lashing in a 25 right footed yarder which Ross Turnbull in the Crewe goal had to tip round the post for a corner.
In the last few seconds of the half, Hutchison played in Adebola on the left. The striker raced forward before lashing a twelve yard effort just over bar.
At the interval, the feeling amongst the City supporters including one from Norway,who left his home at some ungodly hour last night in order to get to this game, was that things were going ok and we could look forward to another City victory. But as we all know, football is a highly unpredictable game and so it proved.
Richard Duffy required treatment after making a last ditch tackle to concede the first of three corners in the 48th minute.
Ten minutes later, City attacked through Claus Jorgensen who was always looking to get City going forward. The Faroe Islander got the byline , centred for Gary McSheffrey some four yards out. However, somehow, Ross Turnbull got his face to the ball and was able to block what looked a certain goal.
On the hour mark, Micky Adams made his first change of the game with James Scowcroft coming on for Dele Adebola.
Claus Jorgensen who I thought played well was fouled by Anthony Tonkin. When McSheffrey took the free kick,Jorgensen was there to head just wide.
In the 65th minute, Eddie Johnson was booked for a foul on Robert Page and then Michael Doyle was cautioned by Mr Melon for shoving Steve Jones off the ball.
Forty seconds after picking up this caution, Michael Doyle committed another foul. Mr Melin stood there just inside the Crewe half waving his hands for all he was worth. Now from my vantage point, it was hard to see what was going on, I did not see any cards shown but it transpired that Michael Doyle stupidly talking himself into a red card by giving the referee an opinion not to Mr Melin's liking.
Adams tried to change things around following this dismissal with Andy Impey coming on for Don Hutchison who drew large applause as he left the field of play.
The City fans were now on their feet backing the team and in the 73rd minute, the ball fell to Andy Whing inside the penalty area, the ball was going towards the left hand bottom corner unfortunately, David Vaughan was on the goal-line to hack the ball away.
Gary McSheffrey became the next City player in the book, he had raced down the left got inside the penalty area,only for Steve Foster to come across. Down went McSheffrey, to me it looked like he had a valid claim for a penalty but the City striker received a yellow card for speaking out of turn to the referee
Clearly peeved by this, McSheffrey looked like he was losing his cool and Micky Adams opted to bring on Stern John in his place.
Sometimes, you have to live by your mistakes and four minutes after the change, City were down to nine men when Robert Page was stretchered off with a fractured cheekbone.
There was worry and fret amongst the City support as Crewe felt that the odds were now in their favour. Richard Shaw was in good form and so was Marton Fulop who made a lovely save from a diving Steve Jones header and then reacted to a Billy Jones header inside the area pushing the ball past the post for a corner.
In the 83rd minute, nine players became eight. Richard Duffy again had received treatment for a facial injury that later required stitches in his nose. He had gone to the side of the pitch but found his attempts to get back on to the pitch thwarted by the referee. This infuriated the Swansea supporting Welshman who came back on without permission and like those before him, his name appeared in Mr Melin's book, before Duffy was finally allowed back into the game.
Six minutes of stoppage time were announced. The battling Andy Whing made a couple of excellent tackles to keep Lunt and Tonkin at bay.
Then in the fifth minute of stoppage time, it happened. Crewe attacked down the right through Lunt, the ball was banged over and substitute Luke Rogers planted a close range header into the net.
One City fan had had enough and decided to race onto the pitch, Mr Melin kept backing away until he was about twenty yards away from the goal at the CET Stand end. Thankfully,the individual got within about six foot of Mr Melin before he was stopped by the stewards.
As I left the ground, dejected by the stupidity which cost City a victory, the pitch invader was being placed in a police car and being driven away from the ground.
Although a lot of criticism was hurled at Mr Melin (who got a police escort back to the motorway) but it was the players who lost their cool with this official who should take the blame for City not winning.
HT CCFC 1-0 CAFC
FT CCFC 1-1 CAFC
ATT 19,405
Goals Don Hutchison (31), Luke Rogers (95)
Booked Johnson,Doyle,Doyle,McSheffrey,Duffy,John
Sent Off Doyle (68)
TEAM
Fulop,Whing,Page (off 79),Shaw,Duffy,
Jorgensen, Osbourne, Doyle (Sent off 68),
McSheffrey (John 75), Adebola (Scowcroft 60),Hutchison (Impey 70) SNU Ince,Heath
Crewe
Turnbull,Moss, Foster, McCready, Tonkin (
Rogers 92), Roberts,Lunt,B.Jones,Vaughan (Varney 75),S.Jones,Johnson. SNU Tomlinson,Moses,Rix