Player Ratings and We won! But that is it, no Christmas Cheer here.

By Knowl 

I’m going to start with an apology, there is no joy here, there will be a little hypocrisy, well those who read this often will notice a certain churlishness in relation to our goals, and a little bit of “about fucking time”.

So yesterday began with two unenthusiastic Cov fans recovering from Christmas dos driving down the M6 not knowing what to expect but knowing two things for certain, Morrison had to be dropped and Stephen Wright had to return to the side at right back only because if he was at centre back we were in trouble.

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Three Parish Notices.

Firstly, going to start with the negatives, Peterboro had more shots off and on target than we did, if we hadn’t scored from set pieces we wouldn’t have scored, we were never really on top at any point and as my dear mother pointed out “we were shit until we scored”, we got two very soft goals in a minute that put us two nil up in a game we were never two goals better in, our defence is still poor and a better team than Peterboro may well have caused us more problems than they did and they scored twice, in addition to missing some sitters. We fucking hung on in the last minute or two after being two nil up, the subs were too late, again, this did not feel like a victory, I’m sorry but I took very little joy out of yesterday, just as the defeat to Newcastle wasn’t the right point to call for Colemans head, beating Peterboro, is not the point to believe any corner has been turned. If anything it could indicate that our luck has changed, two goals in a minute and we retook the lead a minute after they equalised, because lets be honest if we hadn’t does anyone really think we would have won that game and not lost? They were poor and we were no better, yes we won but lets put it in context, we beat a team who are shit and while I wasn’t expecting us to suddenly be brilliant I was expecting us to be competent and unless we beat Plymouth or Donny in the next fortnight yesterday means nothing.

Secondly amazing how being closer to be fired focuses the mind, Clinton dropped, about 5 games to fucking late, Eastwood upfront, well he started there 6 games ago, played well and scored, from there he was dropped to the left wing and then dropped to the bench, only to return to the side on the right fucking wing, and then finally after what was a incompetent amount of time excusing Clintons shitness, Eastwood finally found himself alongside Best. All of his goals were in from inside the 6 yard box, where I’m assured Morrison is at his best. Eastwood didn’t do anything spectacular, he just stood in the 6 yard box and scored. As alluded to earlier, Craine was kept at centre half, where he has never let anyone down and has been one of our better players there all season and Wright was returned to right back, yes all our defenders were in the correct positions, surely this is the season of miracles.

Lastly, ok the positives, because there were some, we scored three goals from set pieces, we scored three very soft goals and boy doesn‘t that feel good. Bell looked good on his return before fatigue kicked in and Clingan made an appearance from the bench. We won for the first time in months and we beat one of our closets rivals when it comes to survival. Coleman keeps his job for a wee bit longer and Eastwood scored our first hat-trick at home in the league in the naughties. Find many reasons to celebrate there? Good, it is the season to be merry.

Coventry: Westwood, Wright (c), Van Aanholt, Barnett, Craine, Bell, (Morrison 82), Cork, Gunnarsson, McIndoe, Eastwood, (Clingan 88), Best, (Madine 85)

Subs Not Used: Ireland, Grandison, McPake, Hussey

Booked: Barnett, Craine

Sent Off:

Goals: Eastwood, 34, 35, 72

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Westwood - 6 Had no chance with either goal, we were right in line with the second and that bastard swerved all over the shop. Peterboro did a number on Westie at set pieces and legally made it very difficult for him to dominate his area, not one of his more commanding games and he needs to alter his distribution, a long kick isn’t the only option.

Wright - 5 As a Cov fan there are some things you thank your lucky stars with what you have seen. I have seen some fantastic right backs, in Bugsy and Roland I have seen two sky blue greats, they never aimlessly ran into midfield leaving their position exposed, they never felt the need to go for headers that were the centre backs, they never ran in behind the centre backs, again leaving their station, and playing players onside. Wrights first half performance was all last ditch tackles and blocks, mainly due to him being badly positioned in the first place. He did improve, but coupled with some truly panic stricken distribution Wright is not convincing anyone that he is playing above poor.

Van Aanholt - 6 Better from the lad, he is still better going forward than tracking back and one piece of jogging back will not impress the watching Chelsea scout. Always links well with McIndoe and they do offer something different to what we are used to, but in a more resolute defence Van Aanholt would be weak link.

Barnett - 6 Am I the only one who just doesn’t trust the guy under the long ball, whether its him heading the ball directly up in the air under no pressure, or him trying to control the ball on his thigh and it pissing off about 5 metres, Barnett, IMO, never looks assured. It is never easy joining a new team and having a new partner every week but I was expecting a little leadership from a lad with his experience and the lack of talking is obvious. When Wood returns Barnett should be the player to make way and under no circumstances should we waste money on his signature in January.

Craine - 8 Following on from his MOTM performance midweek the disgracefully treated Craine was again showed his early promise with a confident display. His positioning and reading of the game was nice to see and his passing, while never Ward flashy, is neat and tidy. A couple of important challenges and tackles showed his importance in the current climate and lets hope he is given the run of games his form deserves.

Bell - 6 Bell offers width, intelligence and touch, some might argue three things we lack at the moment. He is prepared to get on the ball, move in to space and receive the ball under pressure. The question is, would we be higher up the table if he had played every game? obviously I can not answer that but if he returned to full match fitness soon he will have a big impact on the way our season goes in 2010. However, he should have been withdrawn after an hour when he disappeared from view, he was obviously knackered at that point and he was not offering the outlet he had been.

Cork - 7 After a cracking second half performance on Wed we were looking for Cork to take that into yesterdays match and to an extent he did. His short game is better than Gunnars and with the returning Clingan I would drop Gunnar and give Cork a couple of games to act as the attacking midfielder with Clingan sitting. Still struggles to position himself most effectively and can be caught out when he chases in to areas that are other peoples domains, but what he wastes in eagerness he makes up for in attitude.

Gunnar - 7 Made space for himself and got away a pretty decent shot in the first half. Maybe I’m being kind giving both our centre midfielders 7s but I though, like Cork, Gunnar gave it his best shot for a while. His attempts to stretch the game were noteworthy and he sat more than Cork and gave our defence some protection. Still not at his maurding best but a more controlled performance will do him favours and give him a little confidence, needs to work on his all round game and getting to lose balls quicker.

McIndoe - 7 A couple of great crosses, ok no one was in the box but a great cross is a great cross even if no one is there to capitalise. Still tucks in a lot and doesn’t hug the touchline as efficiently as Bell but McIndoe will improve as the side gets its balance back.

Eastwood - 8 So happy for the guy, in the last two games he has started upfront, he has bagged four goals, ok the last time he played upfront was in October but he had a good game that day to. His workrate was impressive and his touch, while sometimes heavy, was causing the opposition problems. Now this is the key point for me, Westie punts it forward, Best wins the flick on and, no the defender doesn’t get there first, Eastwood picks it up. Now bugger me, it almost looked like a strike partnership, maybe after they have played ten games together they will even develop the understanding they never managed to create with Clinton after ten games together. Three goals, all inside the 6 yard box, all poachers goals from knock downs from set pieces, isn’t that what strikers are meant to do and isn’t that why they are signed? Why was he suddenly in those positions that no one has taken up since Dion left? Sometimes football is that simple.

Best - 7 Stop it, just fucking stop it, I know you played upfront with Clinton but stop fucking whinging at everyone when the ball isn’t played as you would want it, stop sulking and stop letting your head drop!! Now, Best was dominant against the giant defender and some of his touches were brilliant and his trick and shot in the first half illustrated why he must be retained. Apart from Eastwood, who lets be honest didn’t look like scoring in open play, and his antics in the box from set pieces, Best was the only way we were going to score again and until we get more players in the box we will continue to look toothless in open play.

Subs

Clinton - Headed the ball off the line, well done son.

Madine - Put himself about.

Clingan - Nice to see him back.

The Manager

Coleman - 6 If you have being paying attention to the above you would probably come to the conclusion that I’m not as happy as maybe I should be. Coleman is no safer today than he was before yesterday, yes we won but at no point did we look in control and during the second half there was a spell were Peterboro took over, we needed fresh impetus from the bench, we were looking tired and there for the taking. Peterboro can count themselves very very unlucky that we scored straight after they equalised and in the last minutes we didn’t concede a pen, yes the man who handled the ball in our area was wearing sky blue and Clinton headed one off the line. In those brief passages of play Coleman hangs on to his job.

The teamsheet was, IMO, correct, every single player was playing in the position they were signed to play in, the biggest question mark was whether or not Coleman had the bollocks to drop his golden boy, but yes the joy of Clintons omission warmed the alcohol fazed head. The team finally looked like they had a plan and the return of Bell cannot have come to soon for Coleman, however his idiotic plan to sign 4 defenders on loan, two left backs, yet go into the season with only one right winger must be called into question. Not many managers out there have three left backs on the books and only one player to play in each wide midfield position and while the injuries have taken their toll the build up of Colemans squad is at the root cause of some of our problems.

After many months it would be churlish not to congratulate the manager on his 7th home league victory of 2009, but this result will mean fuck all if this isn’t the followed up by more victories, because while the Newcastle game can be discounted so can this one and to beat the bottom side in the division, aided by good fortune, is a positive start it is not even half way to appeasing this particular supporter. We will continue to go and there will be no Coleman out campaign but when it comes to the crunch, remember that we got a bit lucky to end the draught but how we progress from here is under close scrutiny.

In short. We won but take no comfort in the way we won or where we go from here. Peterboro are the poorest team we will play this season and IMO if we played them at their place next week I have no confidence we would beat them again. They were the right team to play for Coleman but a defeat and poor showing next week and all this is forgotten as blip more than a recovery.

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