2013/14 season review

Well where do i start, it was an unbelievably chatoic summer, even for sky blue fans, doubts cast over the existence of our once great club and after 19 minutes of the opening day at Crawley, we feared the worst, a 10 point deduction, playing 35 miles away and 2-0 down to a side expected to just about survive relegation.. it was bleak, very bleak. At that point i turned and said to my friend 'we'll be relegated by March'. I had kept hope for so long with my team. my club and my city, but back in August any hope was quickly diminishing.
What followed over the next 10 months was simply astonishing. The team showed grit, determantion and resolve, and for the first time in a long time the players out there were playing for the shirt and were proud to be doing so. A 5-4 ( yes 5-4) victory over Bristol City sparked the start of this unlikely revival. The 2000 that watched at sixfields would have enjoyed this game, although the majority would have gone home unhappy as the away fans outnumbered the 'home' fans in a pattern that would rightly continue throughout the season.
By September, the 10 point dedcution had gone and we were off the bottom after another victory, this time cruising to a 2-0 victory over colchester. With that, hope returned and the belief kicked in that staying up could happen. But this was just the start for us. A victory over Gillingham later that month moved us out of the relegation zone and we started to climb the table.
A 1-1 draw away at eventual champions Wolves was an unbelievable result, as were the next two. A 1-0 victory at Walsall took us to within 3 points of a play off place, all this after a remarkable 3-1 victory over early pace setters Leyton Orient.
The players were giving us that belief yet again and there was a growing optisim with everyone involved with the club. The team were playing with a confidence, not seen for years, and had the best strike partneship in England with Leon Clarke and Callum Wilson.
A 7 match unbeaten run was halted emphatically with a shock 5-1 home defeat to Tranmere Rovers and then a 3-0 defeat at home to Rotherham. Still though, belief was not gone as on the following saturday, 7000 sky blue army inavded stadium- mk to see debutnat chris maguire scored two magical free kicks to give the sky blues a 3-1 victory. Fellow debutant chris dagnall also got on the scoresheet that day.
Draws with Crewe and oldham and a 2-1 defeat at Swindon over the festive period dropped the sky blues back down the table, although we progressed in the fa cup after beating Hartepool in a replay, and a 2-1 win away at championship Barnsley.We then pulled out a dream draw. Arsenal Away.
We lost that game 4-0 but gave an extremely good account of ourselves. Quickly though we came crashing back down to earth, Leon Clarke left for Wolves and we sruggled to string any results together and were quickly looking over our shoulders at the relegation zone after 3 defeats in 4 games in February.
We found ourselves playing catch up in March playing 8 games, winning only 3.
April arrived and we needed to secure our status in league one which we did succesfully after drwas with Bradford, Oldham and Wolves. A 2-1 defeat at Sheffield United on the final day meant that we failed to win in our last seven games, but did manage a seemingly impossible task. We had no ground, a 10 point deduction and a thread bare squad, but we avoided what everybody though was inevitable, relegation to the fourth tier.
On the whole it was a season of more downs that ups but the football that was played was some of the best in recent memory. The players and the manger were hailed by fans and rightly so.
It will again be a tough summer, but again we need to stand united as this season has proved that in the face of adversity you need to stand up and be counted.
Have a brilliant summer all.... and see you next season. PUSB!

FA cup round 2 draw today

The 2nd round draw the for the FA cup with budwesier will take place at 4pm on ITV 1 and BT sport. The sky blues are ball number 17

Sky Blues 3-0 Notts County

The sky blues romped to a 3-0 victory against struggling notts county, to move within 3 points of the league one play offs. The first half was fairly low key the only real opportunity came from a callum wilson effort which was easily saved by the notts county keeper, then minutes before half time county's danny haynes recieved a straight red card for a dangerously high foot on jordan clarke .
The sky blues came out in the second half with the wind in their sales and were ahead two minutes in when leon clarke crashed in an effort off the underside of the bar after some lovely build up play from the left hand side, the sky blues looked a diferent team and were 2 up in the 58th minute after clarke capatilised on a defensive mistake to cheekily dink the ball over the county keeper to give the striker his 11th of the season. Then 6 minutes later his strike partner wilson rounded the keeper to give the sky blues a 3-0 lead and send the 2100 sky blues fans wild. Loanee jamar loza came on to make his sky blues debut and impressed for the 10 minutes he was on the pitch. All in all a great day despite the winter weather kicking in.

Teams
Sky Blues- Murphy, adams, j.clarke, webster, phillips, baker ( garner), fleck, thomas (barton), moussa, l.clarke, wilson (loza)

Notts county- Bialikowski, holt, sheehan, leacock, liddle, tempest, fotheringham, labade, mcgregor, grealish, haynes.

Attendance- 2,693  (543 away)

Dons trip to be televised

The trip to wimbledon in the fa cup 1st round will be televised by bt sport on friday 8th november. The game will kick off at 7:45.

Welcome Back

Hi guys sorry for no posts since pre season i have had a lot of exams and tests at school so havent been able to commit.... but we are back and as of saturday match reports form every simgle remaining game this season will be posted. Thanks for your support and Play Up sky Blues!!

Mansfield 2-3 Sky Blues

Coventry city came back from a goal down on two occasions to beat league two new boys mansfield 3-2 at field mill. Calvin Andrew gave mansfield the lead midway through the first half before Carl baker equalisied from the penalty spot with 9 minutes of the first half to go after Callum Wilson was bought down by the stags keeper Alan Marriott. Then in the second half Sam Clucas scored a delightful goal to restore the newly promoted sides lead.  It was Callum wilson that was the catalyst for the second equaliser, using his pace to bomb down the right and cross the ball into the box where the centre back bundled the ball into is own net. There was time for more drama in the last minute, yet again it was wilson that was bought down in the box, skipper carl baker stepped up and dispatched the penalty to give the sky blues a battling win.

Teams

 

Mansfield-  Marriott Beevers  Dempster, McCombe (Sutton 76), Jennings; Daniel (Meikle 69), Murray (Stevenson 69), McGuire, Clucas; Dyer (McGrath 76), Andrew (Howell 69).


Subs: Speight, Tafazolli, Black, Gnorea, Clements.


Sky Blues -Burge; Christie, Finch, Orozco (Azille-Moore 46), Haynes; Baker, Daniels, Barton, Martins (Garner 64); Wilson, Manset (Maund 84).


Subs: Gott.


Attendance: 1,072 (121 sky blue army)

Fleetwood 2-0 Sky Blues

A young coventry side slumped to a 2-0 defeat to league two side fleetwood at highbury stadium. Joe murphy made a number of very good saves in the first half to deny the league two side taking the lead. Mathiueu Manset had city's best chance as Aaron Phillips and Louis Garner linked up brilliantly down the right hand side before trialist Manset put his shot narrowly wide from 7 yards out. The game went a bit flat in the second half with Garner having city's best chance thrashing a 20 yard shot just past the post. But on 81 minutes the hosts went ahead after a deflected effort from Junior Brown, then 3 minutes later the league two side doubled their lead after Murphy pulled off an outstanding save from Jon Parkin, it was tapped in from three yards to give the league two side the win. A disappointing result but city's young guns showed promise throughout the game and it was certainly encouraging for Steven Pressley and his staff.