 |
 |
| By Kev Monks COVENTRY CITY 0-1 GRIMSBY TOWN Well this has be the lowest point that I and many other City supporters have ever seen the City slump to. The sale of Chris Kirkland to Liverpool eight days ago proved to be the straw that broke the camels back for many City followers. Even City shareholder Ted Stocker had tried to bring about a vote of no-confidence in the Chairman and manager but with Richardson and Robinson having 67% of the shares,it had little chance of succeeding. Something had to be done.otherwise Richardson will have succeeded in running the club into the ground, like he has done with the rest of his businesses and we will be left without a football club to support. Many City supporters are of the same opinion and a good number opted to boycott the game,whilst those who did turn up took part in one of the many protests that had been organised by different groups of City fans. The main protest called for Richardson and Geoffrey Robinson to get out the club and over 10,000 white leaflets had been handed out by a number of volunteers. Many of whom were photographed by the police. The white card protest was timed to go off as the captains took the toss and to the credit of those of who involved in the organisation, Highfield Road turned into a sea of white cards by most of the 14,980 crowd. Despite, Strachan (who claimed to have been hit by a tomato before the game) including fit again Gary Breen,John Eustace and Julian Joachim, City looked no better than they did in the game against Nottingham Forest. Grimsby who had gone into the game top of the league, created the best of the early chances. In the 19th minute, City should have been ahead when Town keeper Coyne fell over and sliced his kick to the feet of Jay Bothroyd. Somehow, the striker hesitated and allowed the keeper back into the goal mouth to collect the ball. Gary Breen and Mo Konjic kept City in the match with some fine defensive work before Bothroyd hit a 25 yard shot that was parried by Coyne to a defender. Just before the break, Julian Joachim let himself down with his first touch and the chance went begging. After half-time, a competition winner from Kix 96 took penalties against Sky Blue Sam. After beating Sam three times, the lad held up a Richardson/Robinson Out leaflet. This was immediately snatched out of his hand and torn up by Sam, provoking an angry reaction from the West End throng. The restart saw another miss from O'Neill before Hedman decided to give Grimsby the points. The Swedish keeper thought he could dribble the ball out of his goal area and as he attempted to go around Rowan, he lost control of the ball. It fell to Phil Jevons who blasted the ball into an empty net from 25 yards. That was it, The "Strachan Out" chants and "What A Load Of Rubbish" rang around the ground much to the amusement of the 300 Grimsby supporters. City could have immediately drawn level but Chippo hit a post and Carsley hit the bar. Although City tried to attack, Grimsby defended well. This did not go down well and the chants continued. To be honest, City could still be playing now and they would not have scored, despite bringing on Zuniga and giving Youseff Safri a debut. There had been rumours circulating about the players not wanting to play for Strachan and on this performance, it certainly looked more fact than someone's imagination. On the final whistle, something had to be done and the protests continued. Around 500 stayed in the West End and Stand to make their feelings known. The Stewards acted quickly to stop any pitch invasions and although things could have got very nasty everyone kept their cool and the protest passed off peacefully and in a good humoured nature. To be fair to the Stewards, they all supported our protest and just stood around watching, agreeing with our chants. At 6.15pm, the police who had been brought in as back-up, finally managed to clear the stand and moved everyone in the car park by the main gates. The Grimsby players were trapped on the coach in the club car park and finally made it out of the ground after the police finally cleared the area at 6.37pm, to a huge round of applause. But by then, the job had been done. Richardson and Strachan as well as all the club officials are more than well aware that we have no confidence in them and feel that it is time they both went. Whilst we had been in the ground, demanding the head of Gordon Strachan and Bryan Richardson, or trying to get the police to investigate the club's financial dealings, others had been talking to the players and reported seeing Marcus Hall leave the ground in tears and Gary Breen stating that he didn't know if Strachan had quit or not. Rumours were also circulating that a press conference had been called for 9am Sunday morning after Strachan had informed the Board of his intention to resign although this was flatly denied later by Richardson but we all know what one of his denials means. The protests will, I'm sure continue at every game home or away until Richardson and Strachan finally admit their failings which are immense and leave the club for good. If they don't,well the future of CCFC is very,very bleak and we deserve far better. TEAM 13 Hedman,3 Hall,6 Breen,22 Konjic,24 Nilsson,8 Carsley,16 O'Neill (7 Thompson 56),15 Eustace (27 Safri 75),11 Chippo (17 Zuniga 74),10 Joachim,21 Bothroyd SNU 30 Goram,14 Quinn RATINGS 13 Hedman 4/10 Easy to see why Everton did not want him. The sooner he is out of the club the better 3 Hall 5/10 Had a quiet game 6 Breen 8/10 Looked solid throughout and made some excellent defensive clearances 22 Konjic 7/10 No complaints 24 Nilsson 5/10 Lost the ball a number of times but did try to get City forward 16 O'Neill 5/10 Another quiet game and it was no surprised when he was replaced 8 Carsley 5/10 Took me ages to realise that Brummie was actually playing 15 Eustace 6/10 Tried but looked tired late on 11 Chippo 5/10 Why does Strachan keep picking him and easy to see why he is still here 10 Joachim 6/10 Obviously lacking match fitness 21 Bothroyd 5/10 Tried but again was not good enough |