When City eyes are smiling

BY KEV MONKS

 

Life in the Nationwide League for the Sky Blues started with a trip to the Emerald Isle. With a builders merchant picking up for the tab for City's trip, the opening game was against newly formed Dublin City who have taken over Eircom League second division side Home Farm Fingal in a blaze of publicity.

 

We'd flown over to Dublin on Wednesday on a cheap Ryanair flight for £18 plus tax and seen St Patricks Athletic including St Francis FC (who will now be known as Dublin Saints) beating Northampton Town 2-1 before making our way to Belfield which is the home of University College Dublin. 

 

We were the first in our pre-arranged meeting place of Jury's Montrose Hotel which also happened to be where the team were based. Our word of mouth and email arrangements worked as the bar was transformed into a sea of City support with those from Coventry mixing with a good turn-out of members of the Coventry City Supporters Club Irish Branch.

 

We streamed across the road to the ground, where the Sky Blue support took over the only covered seating area of the ground and were joined by more members from CCSCIB who had not be able to get to the pub. 

As common with most pre-season matches, it was unlimited substitutes and Gordon Strachan decided to field two separate teams. The eleven that took the field were what one would class as a reserve side with John Hartson and Lee Carsley and saw the return of Roland Nilsson.

 

The crowd of at least 300 (of which 150 were supporting City) saw a drab first half  . John Hartson lobbed over the bar after 11 minutes and eight minutes later Ysreal Zuniga shot over the bar. In the 36th minute, Lee Carsley should have put City ahead but his shot hit the post and was cleared to safety. Laurent Delorge looked good in the opening period against a side that included ex City player Tony Sheridan. 

 

Half-time brought changes and City looked a lot better in the second period with Ivan Guerrero and Marcus Hall pressing Dublin down the left handside. Strachan had introduced Julian Joachim at the break and he had only had a couple of touches before he was tackled from behind in the 65th minute. It looked pretty inoccuous but it forced Joachim to limp off with a damaged ankle and miss the rest of the trip.

 

At the same time, City attacked down the left wing. Marcus Hall fed Jay Bothroyd whose short pass found the impressive Guerrero. The Honduran attempted to cut in but was upended by Jackson. Referee John Stacey awarded a penalty. Barry Quinn took the spot kick and stroked the ball past Fitzgerald to give City the lead.

 

The Sky Blues thoroughly controlled the match from then on and in the last minute, delighted the Sky Blue support when Jay Bothroyd crossed for Jairo Martinez to head from close range. 

 

We left the ground happy with a win but not impressed with the performance whilst Martinez left to fly to Switzerland to discuss a move to Lucerne. 

 

Friday saw everyone doing their own thing and myself and Rachel King made the trek out of Dublin to St Francis's ground at Baldonnel to see Shamrock Rovers play Northampton Town. Having been given a the wrong bus to catch, a long walk down country lanes (during which we took a wrong turn), was endured after getting off the bus. Thankfully, we managed to get a lift off a friend of a Shamrock supporter who had been given the same misinformation as ourselves and just made into the ground before kick off. This was the best game of the five we saw as Shamrock ripped Northampton part with a superb second half show to win 5-3 with Shaun Francis notching a hat-trick.Thankfully, the legendary Irish hospitality ensured that we were given a lift to a closer bus stop after the game which had ended in pouring rain.

 

City's second match was on the Saturday against UCD and there was a gathering in Jury's before the match. Bryan Richardson was in the bar but he was Sent To Coventry by the City support who roundly snubbed the Chairman as he sat across from the support watching the Golf on a television in the corner of the bar and talking into his mobile phone. The City supremo kept looking over as he must have heard our comments but nothing was said from either side

 

Strachan again fielded the two team system for the game watched by around 500 supporters at Belfield of which properly half were City supporters. Laurent Delorge,Carsley and Bothroyd all had chances before the former Arsenal youth team player grazed the bar with a 43rd minute shot. 

 

Strachan made nine changes at the break and the half was only 1 minute 45 seconds old, when City took the lead after Jay Bothroyd was fouled by Clive Delaney and a penalty kick was awarded. John Hartson coolly stroked home the spot-kick. This spurred City in to action against a team that had only preserved their Eircom League Premier Division status by winning an end of season play-off.

 

David Thompson twice went close before John Hartson limped off to be replaced by Barry Quinn. In the 79th minute, City increased their lead when a superb ball from Roland Nilsson found John Eustace who lobbed the ball past Pat Jennings in the UCD goal from eight yards. With five minutes left, Jay Bothroyd netted from close range after good work from Hall and Man Of The Match Ivan Guerrero, by slotting the ball between a defender and Jennings.

 

Again, we filed out of Belfield happy with a win but not with the manner of the win. After hearing the good news that City Reserves had won 4-2 at Nuneaton Borough with Gary McSheffrey netting twice, a few beers were consumed before everyone went their own way.

 

The final game of the trip saw City travel to the seaside town of Bray in County Wicklow. The home of Bray Wanderers is the easiest to find in all Ireland and located just to the right hand side of the D.A.R.T. station. After a wander down the beach, we set off to the Katie Gallachers pub for some food and a few beers before setting off for the 30 second walk over the railway line to the Carlisle Ground. 

 

Injuries had not been kind to the Sky Blues and City were reduced to only 16 fit players. Bray who had done very well last term m fielded a strong side and it was felt amongst the City support that this was going to be the toughest of the three games after Bray had soundly beaten Northampton 3-0 on the previous Monday. Talking of support,the numbers of Sky Blues had swelled to around 350 in a crowd of over 1,000. 

 

Our thoughts about Bray being a strong side were proved to be correct when City were awarded a 21st minute free kick in their own half. Carlton Palmer made a shot pass to Lee Carsley who attempted to pass back to Palmer. However, he put the ball past him. Wanderers striker Stephen Fox burst forward easily out ran the former England international, raced towards the goal and fired low past City keeper Hyldgaard. Jay Bothroyd playing as a lone striker, hit the bar from ten yards in the 33rd minute whilst David Thompson was cautioned for a foul. 

 

At half-time, Bryan Richardson was booed by sections of the City support as he presented with a momento of the game and Kirkland,Nilsson,Quinn,Delorge and Marcus Hall were all introduced. These changes seemed to inspire City as the Sky Blues looked like getting back into the match. 

 

In the 54th minute appeals for a penalty after Delorge was fouled were ignored and this was followed by John Eustace heading over. In the 77th minute,Eustace was given the chance to atone for his miss when Colm Tresson clearly handled the ball. Eustace made no mistake from the penalty mark, much to our relief. Carsley who come back on for Gavin Strachan, and Delorge could have put City ahead before Michael Doohan missed with a free header. 

 

As the game went into the dying seconds, City were awarded a corner, the ball fell to the unmarked Paul Williams but with the goal at his mercy, he somehow blasted the ball high and wide of the goal. His miss meant that although City returned home unbeaten, their record did not show three straight wins.

 

Gordon Strachan was less than happy with the performance and ordered his players straight back onto the coach instead of attending a function hosted by the home side who by all reports had gone to a fair bit of organisation.

 

Irish football has improved tremendously over the years and to return with two wins and a draw should I believe be taken as a positive rather than a negative.

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