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Match day thread: Coventry

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  • @DJWYC14 said:
    It was like watching a cup tie today given the vast difference in quality.

    How have Coventry not won away, their number 26 was a man possessed, and the wing backs were excellent. Add to that a hattrick by Godden. They were up for it today and you cannot offer gifts up like Sido did with a dreadful piece of defending.

    This is a true test of Ainsworth now to get a reaction against Ipswich. It is a huge game in the context of our season. As I said the other day, Gape and Grimmer wanted back urgently. Plus possibly Fred also as Kashket looks off form and a man with his mind elsewhere. Hope Smyth starts ahead of him on Wednesday.

    Kashket's response to the charge is on the 31st, so there's every chance he won't even be in the conversation for a couple of months.

    Ipswich are on an outrageously poor run of form themselves, so it's certainly going to be a huge game. And not for the reasons the tv people originally thought!

    That Sido defending was just breathtakingly mad. Why on earth didn't he clear it?! Why would you go back to your keeper, who will only clear it anyway?
    Then tripping the guy. Just horrible, and killed us having a foot back in the game.

  • @HCblue said:
    We talked a few weeks ago about statistical analysis suggesting we'd had some luck, in terms, among other things, of opponents' quality of shots and the like. I bought into it then and I'm seeing a reversion to the mean over the last three games.

    That said, we gifted the first three chances from which they scored today - this is within our control.

    Coventry having no game midweek was a huge benefit to them, and they looked massively fresher in the early exchanges.

  • @Malone said:

    @DJWYC14 said:
    It was like watching a cup tie today given the vast difference in quality.

    How have Coventry not won away, their number 26 was a man possessed, and the wing backs were excellent. Add to that a hattrick by Godden. They were up for it today and you cannot offer gifts up like Sido did with a dreadful piece of defending.

    This is a true test of Ainsworth now to get a reaction against Ipswich. It is a huge game in the context of our season. As I said the other day, Gape and Grimmer wanted back urgently. Plus possibly Fred also as Kashket looks off form and a man with his mind elsewhere. Hope Smyth starts ahead of him on Wednesday.

    Kashket's response to the charge is on the 31st, so there's every chance he won't even be in the conversation for a couple of months.

    Ipswich are on an outrageously poor run of form themselves, so it's certainly going to be a huge game. And not for the reasons the tv people originally thought!

    That Sido defending was just breathtakingly mad. Why on earth didn't he clear it?! Why would you go back to your keeper, who will only clear it anyway?
    Then tripping the guy. Just horrible, and killed us having a foot back in the game.

    Sido missed his whack at the ball regardless of where he intended it to go then seemed to take the man out whilst straightening up. As ludicrous as it was awful.
    Another poor game, combo of injuries, players out of form, lack of backup and ineffectiveness when we can't keep it tight.
    Difficult for the boss as we were never the best players in the division but have done great so you can see why there is over reliance on and keeping going at plan A
    Curtis seems to have been rushed back because of Gape and without the defensive solidity we get overrun.
    Think we need to strengthen midfield and hold on a bit more to protect the defense and give the wide players a chance, 451 or 442 rather than 433 or diamond but we are too short at the moment.
    Positives are possible new players or returns, there must be some lower teams due soon and err... we seem to be ending the year 4 points clear of a league many now ranting on Facebook said we'd be lucky to stay in.

  • We didn't look at it right from the very first minute. Thompson and Sido on the RHS just couldn't cope with the movement on their left (not helped by IMHO Thompson being not fully fit - he was grimacing and hold the top of his hip from the very start). No surprise that's where the opening goal came from, you could see it would happen.
    Looked like the only change was to switch Nambdi to the right to give Sido more protection, although what was going through his mind prior to the back pass is anyone's guess. It baffles me that, in a team that is more than happy to lump it up to Bayo, he didn't just hit it as far upfield as he could when he had that option. Even if he'd made good contact with the back pass it was still risky.

    I could go on about the mistakes we made today there were so many, but it wont change the result. Coventry were very good and we were very bad and the result could have been more emphatic.

    BUT we're still top of the league and, with Ipswich in poor form, to we have a chance to reverse this run of bad results.

    Here's to a happy New Years Day.

  • Last time we lost this badly at home (worse actually, 0-4), we won the next game and got promoted.

  • @chairboyscentral said:
    Last time we lost this badly at home (worse actually, 0-4), we won the next game and got promoted.

    Great comment. It’s all about the next 2 or 3 games now. We could do with strengthening in January in defensive and midfield cover but we have plenty of striking options. Injuries have cost us over Xmas.

  • I think we're pretty well covered in midfield, just got the set-up badly wrong today. Maybe another creative midfielder, though? Hopefully get a right-back and a centre-back in.

  • Coventry were the kind of side I've been expecting to see all season. Mobile, quick and with intelligent movement. Not sure what we could have done with the players available today.

    Thought Phillips had a good game today and Kashket looked lively when he got involved. Totally done with Sido. He does my head in.

    Feels bad having nearly all our defeats in such a short period but its hard for me to feel too angry about today. The better side won

  • Kashket got utterly smashed by one of their players after releasing the ball, and the ref totally missed it. That seemed to play on his mind for ages afterwards. He was trying some dribbles and losing it, and I fear for his already pin thin legs, and those miniscule shinpads. Someone's really going to demolish him one day.

    Don't get Phillips much myself. Just seems a big step down from Charles and not that great in the air, which has to be a key requisite. Not easy stepping in for his first game in ages in fairness.

  • @Right_in_the_Middle said:
    Coventry were the kind of side I've been expecting to see all season. Mobile, quick and with intelligent movement. Not sure what we could have done with the players available today.

    Thought Phillips had a good game today and Kashket looked lively when he got involved. Totally done with Sido. He does my head in.

    Feels bad having nearly all our defeats in such a short period but its hard for me to feel too angry about today. The better side won

    Agree with all of this. My only lingering regret is that Gaz took so long to make the changes we needed. We actually looked half decent in the last 20 mins once Smyth and Freeman came on.

    Coventry put in one of the finest all-round performances I've ever seen at AP. They were absolutely superb.

  • edited December 2019

    Phillips isn't bad in the air - wins as much as Charles. He wasn't great today - looks a bit too eager to come rushing out for the ball at times and his positioning is a bit off - but he's young and learning, so it's hard to be too harsh on him. On the one hand, you want him to get game time, but on the other hand, he's such a downgrade from Charles.

  • With the players available today, wouldn’t it have made more sense to play Giles Phillips at right-back & Sido alongside Anthony Stewart? Phillips also has an excellent throw.

  • @chairboyscentral said:
    Phillips isn't bad in the air - wins as much as Charles. He wasn't great today - looks a bit too eager to come rushing out for the ball at times and his positioning is a bit off - but he's young and learning, so it's hard to be too harsh on him. On the one hand, you want him to get game time, but on the other hand, he's such a downgrade from Charles.

    Did no-one else see Phillips let the ball through his legs for the third goal?!

  • @A_Worboys said:
    With the players available today, wouldn’t it have made more sense to play Giles Phillips at right-back & Sido alongside Anthony Stewart? Phillips also has an excellent throw.

    That's what I would have done, not confident with Sido at RB but still have some confidence in his ability at CB after last season.

  • @chairboyscentral said:
    Last time we lost this badly at home (worse actually, 0-4), we won the next game and got promoted.

    The forgotten goal that day is the Crawley equalizer against Exeter (I think with about 20 mins to go) which kept our destiny in our own hands even after losing to Accrington. If Crawley had already been on the beach, the next week at Chesterfield could never have happened, as we would have started the day behind Exeter.

  • @HCblue I think he'd bought and paid for the dummy sold by the Coventry player long before the ball entered the net, not his best moment.
    But then who had their best moment in a Wycombe shirt today?

  • True - and I'm pretty sure Chesterfield were already down by that point - but we still had to gather ourselves after having been taught a footballing lesson by Accrington.

  • "Highlights". https://www.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/football/11897793/wycombe-1-4-coventry

    Fair to say Cov had everything run well for them today.

  • edited December 2019

    Might pass on that one HC!

    It's all too much for some of the FB lot too.

    One lad has written a massive long post basically trying to get everyone to report the drummer. I thought all that fuss had died down, but I suppose when you get battered at home, everything irritates just that little bit more.

    Had a couple of once a year types behind me in the Frank Adams today, and their shrieking and moaning about everyone and everything really was hard to bear.

    We're all biased to some extent, but I think they peaked when trying to say Kashket diving to the floor was a more blatant pen than Sido tripping their guy!

  • The drumming was getting on my nerves today and I sit almost right down the other end of the ground. It's usually tolerable, but wasn't it pretty obvious that no one was in the mood for singing? It wouldn't be missed if we were to get rid of it.

  • edited December 2019

    I think the essential difficulty is that it is not at all obvious to Tom(?) that others may not like the noise he makes. He has a coterie of fellow supporters around him for whom he drums and who sing along with him.

    Their number is not great, however, and there is a much larger group around them who do not at all appreciate the constant drumming. There was a fair amount of expression of this opposing sentiment today, as there was a few months ago, including some very specific information about the precise amount of drumming that was desired from that source.

    Tom and his group seem sincere in their desire to express support for the team and I make no complaint about their intentions. I am, however, becoming increasingly distracted by the noise his drum makes, which appears to lack some of the qualities of rhythm and timeliness that one might wish it to have. I regret to say that, based on my observations today, it seems there is a possibility that the ill-feeling may find some form of physical expression in the future. This would, of course, be wholly undesirable as well as unwarranted. Nonetheless, there is clearly at least some part of the terrace constituency in whom balance and patience are not present in unlimited supply.

  • I think the Trust (pending the sale) need to sort the drumming problem out to avoid potential aggro.

  • One chap wrote a post inviting everyone to complain to the club about him.
    That feels a bit uncomfortable.

    But then I'm not amongst it, and specifically choose to be away from it.

  • @rmjlondon said:
    Were not keeping him is what I mean

    Well say that then you dozy fucknut.

  • One other thought on today - wasn't today meant to be a be a celebration of the trust's period of ownership, and the success we've had in that time. I didn't arrive until just before kick off but was expecting something at half time. Did I miss it?

  • @Last_Quarter said:
    One other thought on today - wasn't today meant to be a be a celebration of the trust's period of ownership, and the success we've had in that time. I didn't arrive until just before kick off but was expecting something at half time. Did I miss it?

    I think that's on New Year's Day?

  • The drummer reacted to verbal abuse by upping the volume and on the back of the drubbing on the pitch emotions in the crowd ran high. Is there any way we can have a drumming section or limited time period or do people think the only answer is to cut it out completely?

    Not many people were up for chants today and it seems Tom may have overcompensated with constant noise. He does it to get behind the lads but I see how it can be too much on a Sunday arvo. New years day may see a fair few nursing hangovers also...

    The club needs to find an acceptable solution before it does kick off, sad to see such a split in sections of support who obviously care deeply about our club. I do hope an amicable compromise can be reached asap.

  • @Shev said:
    Also, this is a really tight division - teams like Ipswich, Peterborough and Portsmouth can look like world beaters one minute, and then all lose today by at least two goals. There are pretty much 15 teams that could come 1-15 in any order.

    Bad runs are hard because the negativity builds on itself, but the way I look at it, we built a buffer in the first half of the season, which means we will remain relevant for a while yet, no matter what happens. During a good run, it feels as though the marginal things go your way, and then it is all reversed during the bad run.

    In the last three games, we have seen a Bayo red, injuries, mistakes, and so forth, that all happen in a short space of time. It's the fickle nature of the sport. You never have the right to win - it has to be earned game after game.

    It can be hard to take a step back when the negative momentum is building, but we can still enjoy where we are - we have spent a huge amount of time at the top of the division, having been favoured to go down, and I am relishing where we are!

    Thank goodness for a common sense, mature assessment of the situation. We were given a football lesson today, but despite losing 3 in a row, we’re still top of the table at the end of the year. Who would not have accepted that at the start of the season?

  • The 'positive' (if you can call it that) from my point of view is that clearly we had a bad day at the office and can reasonably expect to be much better in future games. Gaz normally gets the team compact and tough to break down but today we were fucking all over the place with gaps everywhere. That should hopefully be a one off. Curtis Thompson normally has a great touch but today he couldn't trap anything, and nnamdi is normally strong and combative but today kept getting pushed off the ball. Again, these things should change. Sido, much as I love him, is very often worth one goal to the opposition, so we know what we are getting there, but the others just had a bad day. Also, Smyth and Freeman off the bench looked much better and will be rested for Ipswich. I'm hopeful that we can salvage something from the Xmas period still!!

  • Just watching the goals back again. First one is a brilliant finish but probably only comes because of Bloomfield's slip at an inopportune moment; second is ultimately down to Sido's moment of madness, but Thompson might have stopped the move developing had he been fit - seemed to lose his man very easily; third was very poor from us - offside trap totally failed; fourth was sublime stuff from them. Some avoidable stuff there, but I still think the scoreline was a fair reflection of the performances of both teams. Charles back for Ipswich will be a big boost, but hopefully Phillips plays at RB if Grimmer doesn't return. Just watched the Ipswich highlights and they were absolutely all over the place at the back today - could do with putting a bit of pressure on them, maybe a Samuel game and would like to see Smyth get the nod from the start.

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