October 16 2005

Jon Macken

This was not as good as the scoreline suggests, it was better. Despite the International break, we took off from where we left off against QPR, writes Simon Pophale.

This time it was north to the Midlands to play a Coventry side which even Micky Adams was calling a 'Jekyll and Hyde' team.

From the 1st whistle, we attacked and for almost the entire 1st half, all Coventry had to show by way of attacking was a Micheal Doyle effort which Kiraly tipped over his bar on 4 minutes. Otherwise, it was one-way traffic.

With Morrison and McAnuff bringing out saves from Steven Bywater, it seemed that the home support needed some whipping up and so, with the match in full flow, strains of Queens’ 'We will rock you' blared out of the speaker system for 2 minutes. Cue booing from the hordes of us in the Jewson stand.

Once the music stopped, we went ahead on 14 minutes. A Ben Watson corner fell to Danny Butterfield and his shot was charged down in the area but Darren Ward was on hand to make it 1-0 from close range. For the next 25 minutes, it was all about us attacking.

Coventry could not match us in midfield and McAnuff was causing havoc down the flanks. Richard Duffy made was looked like a backpass on 34 minutes but Alan Wiley waved play on, which was something that we were getting used to as a minute later, Richard Shaw brought down Freedman but again, nothing was given.

Coventry did manage to start to apply some pressure in the closing stages and won a succession of corners in the last 5 minutes and on the stroke of half time, from their 3rd, Matt Heath headed an equalizer.

But no sooner had we kicked off, Clinton Morrison was brought down 20 yards out and Danny Butterfield swung over the free-kick which Morrison stooped to head past Bywater to restore our lead going into the break.

Micky Adams changed things at half time, taking off Stephen Hughes and bringing on Youseff Sofiane and this almost brought dividends as he set up McSheffrey but Kiraly made a great save.

From then on, it was back to the rhythm of the 1st half and on 53 minutes, we scored possibly one of the best goals that we have scored this season.

A six man move which encompassed our entire midfield and Freedman was finished off by Ben Watson who slid in to meet McAnuffs’ cross and make it 3-1. The game was now as good as over.

Lilian Nalis and Sofiane tried in vain to keep Coventry in the game but despite the Sky Blues having more of the possession, they did not have the final ball which was going to cause our back four any problems at all. Despite having around 5 corners, they could not make any of them count.

So imagine Micky Adams and what his thoughts must have been as first Micheal Hughes, then Andy Johnson and lastly Jon Macken came on for us as the second half ticket on.

Quite simply, it was boys against men at times as Coventry simply did not have the strength in depth that we possessed.

They did keep battling though and never gave in, but ultimately, on a day when they were beaten by simply a better opponent, they ran out of steam.

But for us it was a day of celebration and it was nicely rounded off when Marco Reich fed fit-again Andy Johnson on the right and his shot was parried by Bywater but Jon Macken was on hand to apply the finish and score his first goal in our colours.

4-1 and the few Coventry fans that did wait until the final whistle voiced their disapproval, but they were soon drowned out by our travelling fans, who were as magnificent as the performance on the pitch.

Finally we are in the groove now and with Brighton next, Tuesday is going to be another special night at Selhurst Park.