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| COVENTRY CITY 0-2 CHELSEA BY KEV MONKS Well, not unsurprisingly, City crashed out of the Worthington Cup. Chelsea fielded a strong side who proved too good for the Sky Blues with two goals in a four minute spell. A sparse 12.582 crowd witnessed a drab affair that had fans leaving well before the end. With Leamington lad and City fan Gary Montgomery replacing Magnus Hedman who pulled his hamstring in the warm up. City looked nervous against the Premiership side who fielded a reasonably strong side and had no luck in the fixture that was poorly refereed by Paul Durkin (so much for professional referees). From early on, it was evident that the main difference between the two sides was Chelsea's ability to look comfortable on the ball and to attack from the back whilst City relied on the hit and hope method. Bothroyd,Thompson and Martinez all created reasonable chances but Cudicini was not really troubled. The Londoners also controlled the midfield with Petit and Zola and the enterprising Jody Morris easily in control of the midfield battle. The best move of the opening period came in the last minute,when Eidur Gudjohnsen beat four defenders and looked odds on to score but fluffed his shot wide of Montgomery's goal. Although Montgomery looked nervous he did well with a superb blocks from Zenden and Graeme Le Saux. Caretaker Boss Roland Nilsson threw on Lee Hughes for the second period but whatever Ranieri's translator said at the interval seemed to do the trick as Chelsea killed the game off with two goals in a four minute spell. In the 55th minute. Zenden got down the right, crossed to Gudjonsen on the edge of the box. The Icelandic striker cut to his right got past Konjic and blasted the ball into the net. Four minutes, later Marc Edworthy and Chippo were caught napping and Zola put over a pin-point cross for Mikael Forssell to loop a header over the bar from 10 yards in to the net. And that was it, City despite giving Gary McSheffrey a late-run out, ran out of ideas although Mo Konjic and Breen both went close and the result summed up a miserable night which was compounded when our after-match drink in Strikers was abruptly curtailed by a fight in Strikers between City and Chelsea fans who apparently all knew each other. One Chelsea fan required hospital treatment after the brawl. Team 33 Montgomery,2 Edworthy,6 Breen,5 Shaw,22 Konjic,27 Safri,11 Chippo,8 Carsley,7 Thompson (27 Delorge 67), 25 Martinez (29 McSheffrey 79),21 Bothroyd (9 Hughes 46). SUBS NOT USED Quinn,O'Neill RATINGS 33 Montgomery 8/10 Good game after a nervous start 2 Edworthy 6/10 lacked pace 6 Breen 7/10 Another consistent performance 22 Konjic 7/10 Another consistent performance 5 Shaw 6/10 Looked a bit dodgy in spells 27 Safri 7/10 Tried hard but found it difficult to overcome a strong midfield 7 Thompson 7/10 Looked ok on the ball but picked up another pointless booking 8 Carsley 6/10 a quiet game 11 Chippo 8/10 Battled well and worked hard with a lot of good running 25 Martinez 5/10 A very quiet game 21 Bothroyd 6/10 Didn't look fit 9 Hughes 6/10 Missed couple of chances but rarely threatened Chelsea 27 Delorge 6/10 Hardly in the game 29 McSheffrey 6/10 Brought on too late to make an impact |