Coventry City v Charlton Athletic
Good Friday … 3pm Kick-Off
Referee: Darren Handley (Lancashire)
IntroductionDespite the excitement yesterday that confirmed a potential change of ownership we must remember (however much we don’t want to) that the football season is still on going and that there are a handful of matches left to play before the 2016/17 season can be boxed up and locked in a room that must never be opened again.
This Saturday we travel to face a side where permanent links between fans appear to have been created, Coventry City are pretty much relegated, four wins from their last four games wont even save them if other sides manage a single point… So its down to us, to stand alongside the Coventry fans in protest at the ownership of our two clubs, yet on the field we may be the side forced to relegate our new friends.
Football can be a cruel game at times.
The OppositionName: Coventry City |
Manager: Mark Robins
Ground: Ricoh Arena
Its feels a lifetime ago when you hear the names such as Highfield Road and Peter Ndlovu leading the line… After a long drop down the Division it appeared last season as though the Sky Blue Ship had been steadied and a promotion attempt was on the cards, sadly that wasn’t to be the case and a mid-table finish was all Coventry could achieve under Tony Mowbray.
This season though the complete opposite has occurred… Now on to their third Manager of the season in Mark Robins, none of the previous appointments could save Coventry from pending relegation with Mowbray sacked in September and ex-Charlton boss Russell Slade sacked in March. Ultimately the difference between this year and the last is their inability to replace Striker: Adam Armstrong who had joined on loan from Newcastle, proving just how important it is to find a goal-scorer amongst your ranks… Relegation to League Two is all but confirmed, lets just hope the slide stops now and that the Coventry fans can have their own bit of good news when it comes to the ownership of the club.
Charlton Team NewsWe’ve only picked up three wins this calendar year but in recent games there have been huge question marks as to why Jay Dasilva hasn’t appeared more often, the on-loan Chelsea youngster has certainly impressed in recent weeks and am sure many will watch his career with interested – In addition we’ve had the returning Jason Pearce to help guide the back line and with a win coming against Southend you’d expect the majority of the squad to remain unchanged.
When (if) safety is confirmed though, there will be questions asked about certain youth players being tried and tested such as Ahearne-Grant or Dijksteel asking Karl Robinson why new players are needed in certain positions when we potentially have them within our ranks already.
Rudd
Solly | Bauer | Pearce | Dasilva
Crofts
Byrne | Konsa | Ulvestad | Holmes
Magennis
Substitutes Bench: Phillips | Teixeira | Chicksen | Watt | Botaka | Jackson | Forster-Caskey
Comments
1.1 draw
Crikey what's happened to this fella?
Also, Jake Forster-Caskey will come good at some point, mark my words.
Been buzzing about tomorrow for weeks. That's because, rather than sitting through a turgid kick around between two clubs who've been disgracefully mismanaged by people who have no interest or understanding in what it means to support a football club, let alone how to run one, I'm off on holiday. I'm heading to sunnier climbs to make friends, maybe even lovers*, and bore the shit out them all by going on and on and on about how wonderful Chris Powell is and then not leaving them alone until they've vowed to wipe their jacksy on a picture of Roland Duchatelet before they go to bed every night.
By the time I climb out of the great iron bird (that's the plane, not one of my lovers) the action at the Ricoh will be done and dusted. I'd be delighted to hear that the match was abandoned or severely disrupted but, failing that, another point closer to safety would do nicely. Whatever the scoreline, I'll just treasure the fact that I'm far enough away not to be able to hear the inane post-match waffling from that idiotic scouser.
Not back until a couple of days after the Swindon match (when I booked the holiday I wanted to make sure I would definitely be back in time for the play-offs, pffft!). It's been a truly hideous season, but it looks like there might be light at the end of the tunnel, let's hope so.
Spare a thought for Russell Slade tomorrow - if it wasn't for the points we accrued playing his hideous brand of anti-football then we'd be in deep, deep trouble by now.
*highly unlikely if the last 15 holidays I've been on are anything to go by.
Instead, we still desperately need the points...