Coventry City 0-0 Watford Fc - 06/02/2021

Discussion in 'Match Day' started by BeersThen, Feb 2, 2021.

  1. BeersThen

    BeersThen Reservist

    Last weekend saw Coventry settle for an away draw against Birmingham, in Birmingham; tonight they have a home game in Birmingham against Nottingham and on Saturday the Sky Blues play host to us Hornets, in Birmingham at the interestingly named St Andrews Trillion Trophy Stadium.

    When the call for preview writers came up, I chose Coventry away for purely sentimental reasons so you’ll have to bear with me as I wander back to 1981. I was an eight year old living in Woolacombe on the North Devon coast and it was time to pick a football team to support. Everyone around me was supporting Liverpool, so as I flicked through my almost completed Panini sticker album I found this strange team in yellow with big red collars and a moose on their badge. Watford was for me.

    Supporting Watford at that age from 250 miles away wasn’t easy especially when you had parents who thought MOTD and Sportsnight were on too late. If the MW radio was on the blink I could go ages without knowing the result of a game, it took me two days to find out we’d actually beaten Kaiserslautern 3-0 and were still in the UEFA Cup. There was no chance of getting to a game, and a move to South Africa in 1983 made things slightly trickier.

    However come January 1986 and back on UK soil, through one of my uncles club connections (he was a steward at Highfield Road), we were off to Coventry for the day and a third round FA Cup match in the snow with an orange ball. It was quite surreal seeing this all happen before me - not on the telly, not on the radio or in print, and made even better with a 1-3 result. I don’t remember loads about the day but I think we got Kentucky Fried Chicken on the way home, proper grease, none of this KFC muck you get these days.

    -----
    Just to balance that nostalgic visit, a couple of years ago I went back to Coventry for a meeting with the local council, which took place in a drop-in centre for young offenders. The guys I was meeting were an hour late, and I spent that time being shouted at, threatened and almost spat on by a series of teenagers there to meet their social workers, or turn up, demand money and f**k off. After my long wait the meeting was cancelled as one chap said he was sick and another had another meeting.

    -----
    Coventry was of course hammered during World War II, suffering a series of bombing raids largely down to it being an industrial centre and particularly important in the production of cars and aeroplane engines. Between August and October 1940, 198 tonnes of bombs were dropped. One of them landed near Triumph’s Engineering HQ and on inspection was found to be fitted with a delayed action fuse which couldn’t be deactivated. The only way to deal with the bomb was to take it ‘somewhere safe to blow up’, which was done by lorry with Second Lieutenant Sandy Campbell lying alongside the bomb for the entire journey to warn the driver if he heard ticking. Fortunately they made it safely, unfortunately Campbell died the next day dealing with another bomb.

    The blitz had led to some interesting local architecture including the Britannia Hotel which looks a lovely place to spend half an hour with a lady of the night:

    [​IMG]

    ------

    Cov are managed by perennial League One manager of the month Mark Robbins, who has been there since March 2017 and to be fair has overseen a couple of promotions and an EFL Trophy win.

    They’ve been playing a 4-3-3 even away from home and frankly they look a bit like us - don’t score many, don’t concede loads and they like a 0-0. Usually when I look at the line ups for some lower table Championship team I’ll recognise at least three or four names, but I’ll be completely honest and say I know **** all about Coventry’s players, which I appreciate isn’t great from someone who wants to give us his career in IT to become a full time preview writer on £70k a week. Thankfully I can rely on Wikipedia for loads of true and interesting facts about the Coventry squad, such as:

    - striker Tyrone Walker is the son of ex-England and Forest moustached centre half Des Walker,

    That’s about it.

    It does look like Ben Wilson will be in goal, he’s got a few years to go before he catches up with Steve Ogrizovic’s 601 appearances, I was chuffed when Steve got offered the Swansea job:

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    But all said, who cares if I’ve not heard of any of their players? No doubt that Coventry will play with heart, determination, urgency - like Barnsley, QPR and Wycombe did and like on so many occasions, our “stars” can’t.

    One of things I remember about supporting Watford as a boy and from the other side of the country was I really felt part of the family. The underdogs. The team that my friends laughed at. Until we clambered up the leagues, with heart, determination and urgency.

    Now? I’m not sure I’ve ever felt so disconnected from Watford, despite living an hour away. Despite being about to chuckle along as our goalkeeper smirks to his GoPro on Youtube as the opposition celebrate scoring against him. Despite our captain being on national radio weekly, ribbing his boss who pays him £65k a week. Despite seeing our striker enjoying himself with lockdown parties, twice and being rewarded with more appearance fees. Despite being able to pay £10 week in, week out to watch them from every angle knowing all I’m doing is lining our owners pockets so he can hire another clown of a manager in eight weeks time.

    This will be 0-0.
     
  2. RookeryLad

    RookeryLad Reservist

    I am not planning on watching this one.

    Best result would be a crushing loss to heap more pressure on the hapless Gino / Scott clown act.
     
  3. hornetboy1

    hornetboy1 First Team Captain

    To be honest, I don't really care anymore. As far as I'm concerned the season is done. We're not going up with our strike force. I've watched football for far too long, have read this story before and know how it ends.

    Munoz will stay for a few more games, before it becomes clear his party spirits are not enough to get us promoted, then he'll be sacked for another inexperienced but serious coach. We'll win a few games and may even trot into the playoffs but we'll lose in the first knockout phase as we will miss our all chances (if only we signed Toney we'll all say).

    So, why linger on the inevitable and watch the games leading up to that? We all know how we'll play. Slow, lethargic, we may have a 10 minute spell which everyone will latch on to. Score a penalty or it may be one of those games where we score a technically good goal, but it's unlikely to occur more than once. We'll either win 1-0, lose 1-0, draw 0-0 or draw 1-1.

    I've got to pull out some weeds and plan to do that Saturday lunchtime, which will be far a more enjoyable use of my time.
     
    Diamond, Chiswell, Carpster and 7 others like this.
  4. The Voice of Reason

    The Voice of Reason First Team Captain

    Spring is on the way, time for some gardening me thinks even though I actually hate it, but maybe it's time for a new hobby :(
     
    HoneypotlaneHornet likes this.
  5. Manatleisure

    Manatleisure Squad Player

    I aint giving up yet. Come on the Hornets!
     
  6. SkylaRose

    SkylaRose Administrator Staff Member

    Troost said on Hive Live "We are very disappointed and want to get it right on Saturday". Nothing will be further from the truth. Gray will start, Hughes on the wing, Navarro in defence and Zinc on at 65mins.

    We will fight like gladiators and lose the sparring match. Another defeat beckons, Gino will give Xisco the old "Vote of confidence" as Nowich, Swansea and Muff all win. Unless it's the total opposite.

    0-2
     
  7. Otter

    Otter Gambling industry insider

    Coventry ?
    Watford 1 (Deeney pen)
     
    Ybotcoombes likes this.
  8. Smudger

    Smudger Messi's Mad Coach Staff Member

    Kiko and Masina need to be back. Still amazed at how long it takes the team to get into matches. Almost every time. For half an hour they do nothing partly because the midfield lacks a Mahon to kick others up the backside. Gosling on the bench. Keep Gray away from Brum.

    Coventry slowly rebuilding are doing a nice job under Robins. Signed two highly promising kids in Fabio Tavares and Josh Reid and brought in Matty James and Gyokeres in on loan. Their window compared to ours is chalk and cheese. One filled by logical development the other a black hole.
     
    MIlton Dammers and SkylaRose like this.
  9. simpleMASH

    simpleMASH Reservist

    Chancers in defence, central players out wide, 500lb scarecrow up front. We’ll get beaten again and we’ll deserve it. The slide to mid-table started last night.
     
    Chiswell, Cthulhu, Smudger and 2 others like this.
  10. Jumbolina

    Jumbolina First Team

    This doesn’t feel like a good fixture to bounce back following last nights dreadful performance and poor transfer window. Could be the start of a rut. Everything feels wrong about the club.
     
  11. RS2

    RS2 Squad Player

    It'll be the same side as last night except Gray in for Pedro because this buffoon refuses to learn from his mistakes. Coventry are another team who are decent with the ball so I expect it'll be us chasing shadows again for most of the game. Hopefully they really punish us and we can get a new clown joining the circus next week.
     
    Markoa$ and SkylaRose like this.
  12. Smudger

    Smudger Messi's Mad Coach Staff Member

    We were once a top flight club. Well established. Then we lost a key figure. There was gross mismanagement by the board. A flurry of managers. Instability. Thanks to the hard work structures put in place meant we almost came back to the promised land. But it was a temporary arrest. We eventually slid back to the lower depths. Only for a Messiah to take us back.

    We are on the same path now. But there is no Messiah to save us this time.
     
    SkylaRose likes this.
  13. Smudger

    Smudger Messi's Mad Coach Staff Member

    ---------------------------------------------------Bachmann----------------------------------------------------
    Femenia/Ngakia-----------Wilmot---------------------------Sierralta--------------------Masina---------
    ---------------------------------------------------Cleverley-----------------------------------------------------
    ---------------------------Gosling/Zinckernagel-------------Hughes----------------------------------------
    --------------Sarr---------------------------------Pedro--------------------------Sema-----------------------

    No more bloody hoofball. Move the ball at speed. Move off the ball carrier. Pedro a free role. High press from the front five. And fackin get stuck in from the off.
     
    Knight GT likes this.
  14. Manatleisure

    Manatleisure Squad Player


    No Deeney?!! What's Duxbury gonna say? ;):p
     
  15. YellowKicks

    YellowKicks Squad Player

    Don't know and don't care - will be doing something better with my Saturday.
     
    wfcmoog likes this.
  16. Manatleisure

    Manatleisure Squad Player

    Watford are a hard team to predict, don't know what's going to happen match to match no matter how much we think we do.
    Just when you think things are looking grim a result like Stoke 1 Watford 2 can pop up like it did less than a fortnight ago under the same manager.
     
    wfcmoog, wfc4ever, Vic and 1 other person like this.
  17. Jumbolina

    Jumbolina First Team

    Hope so. Feels like going to work at the moment though watching the team. Almost a chore.
     
  18. tonycotonstache

    tonycotonstache Squad Player

    This is the first game where we can officially be the next Stoke, Portsmouth Huddersfield etc etc.

    We had some great times but it's over. We will be one of those Championship also rans again.

    Midtable Championship Happiness Club welcomes you Gino
     
  19. IRB

    IRB THe artist formally know as ImRonBurgundy?

    I see Troost Ekong is the latest muppet to be rolled out to deliver the usual spiel:

    "we know last night wasnt good enough, we werent on it, we didnt start well, [inset next game] is our chance to make things right, I know we will be better"

    Add to the above type of comments the constant musings from our players about how we have the best squad in the league, or how our strikers are proven at this level etc. The difference between the delusions of these players and their performances on the pitch is hilarious, we're being outplayed every week by teams near the bottom with a fraction of our budget
     
  20. DaveWFC

    DaveWFC Five Star Man

    4-0 win. Our squad is excellent. Not threadbare at all, and we got quality additions in January.

    Anyone who thinks otherwise or has any concerns about anything should go and support a PL team, apparently.
     
  21. Who cares.

    Its all meaningless as this side isn't getting promoted.

    I can’t even get mad over a 442 with big gob and **** up front and Hughes on the wing anymore. A pile of horse dung is a pile of horse dung no matter how hard you wish it wasn’t.

    Lets see what sort of mess the squad is and who the next coach is come September...
     
    lutonh8a likes this.
  22. lutonh8a

    lutonh8a Squad Player

    Coventry are a truly terrible side and will be in serious danger to be relegated this season. Having said that we are pathetic away from home and have a dimwit managing us so who knows what line up we will play and who will be playing where, I wouldn't be in shock if Ben Foster started at left wing this saturday.

    If Kiko is back and Xisco picks a normal team with our best players playing in their actual positions I think we will win. If Navvarro starts and we start Ngakia at left back and Will Hughes at left wing despite being slow and one of the most talented midfielders in the league and Troy and Gray up front it will be a long and difficult game for us.
     
    Last edited: Feb 2, 2021
    Happy bunny and SkylaRose like this.
  23. folkestone orn

    folkestone orn Squad Player

    Yep. Pretty similar to how I view things. The defeats don't even 'hurt' anymore. It's all become a bit 'meh'. There are very few likeable characters in the squad these days.
     
  24. RS2

    RS2 Squad Player

    I know I shouldn't feel sorry for them because they are young guys getting paid a lot of money to play football, but it's players like Pedro and Sarr that I feel bad for. Fantastic prospects that have made the wrong choice joining this complete mess of a club. Both came here because they wanted to play in the Premier League and instead they're playing Rotherham and Wycombe because they were probably sold on fake promises from Gino and Scott.
     
    wfcmoog likes this.
  25. folkestone orn

    folkestone orn Squad Player

    I hear what you're saying. Still, there are billions of people more deserving of our sympathy than teenage millionaires.
     
    Forzainglese likes this.
  26. Harrybassetthater

    Harrybassetthater Academy Graduate

    Gutted last night as I usually back Watford's opponents to ensure they win but for some reason I thought we might win. How deluded. Likewise I'm pissed off with the current situation and don't think we will make the play-offs. Hope to be proved wrong. I'll spend the rest of the season backing our rivals to their predictable victories and win a few bob. Also definitely back Luton, Brentford and Blackburn to beat us when they play us at their grounds. It's like printing money!
     
  27. Supertommymooney

    Supertommymooney Squad Player

    We're pretty hopeless at the moment.

    But so are most of this league.

    It's just our strikers are worse than, and Sarr and Sema a bit better than, most of the other teams.
     
    Cthulhu likes this.
  28. Hornpete

    Hornpete Squad Player

    We're still good enough to win this. We may have been guff yesterday but we've been guff all season and still won games. What won't happen is scoring three and/or dominating the game.
     
  29. Jumbolina

    Jumbolina First Team

    Yep apathy is taking over. The fact Deeney and Gray earn such a high wage and are not even a threat in the championship is pretty goading. Not only do they hinder our chances but we can’t even do a modest rebuild due to their wage commitments!
     
  30. a19tgg

    a19tgg First Team

    Don’t care.

    First game this season I’ll just check the score afterwards.

    It was fine when we were genuinely crap, we knew we were crap and we couldn’t do much about it. But every so often there would be a moment or a win to make it worthwhile.

    Watching this team week in week out with it’s obvious yet completely avoidable shortcomings isn’t enjoyment or entertainment in any shape or form.
     
  31. lutonh8a

    lutonh8a Squad Player

    I said this to myself but I know deep down I will be watching the game come Saturday and even if I didn't I wouldn't help but check the score every few minutes. Unfortunately Watford have been like an addiction since I was about 8 years old.
     
    Carpster, GoingDown and DaveWFC like this.
  32. Chumlax

    Chumlax Squad Player

    Sounds like we/you are not the only ones - I am as shocked by this as anyone, but in the most recent FTRE pod from this afternoon, Leventhal is a guest and he and Mike Parkin talk about QPR, Coventry and the team and season as a whole in a way I've never heard the like from them before, and was extremely interesting to listen to given the FTRE's clapper status. Given their sentiments, we may just have welcomed our first two celebrity members of the BWO.

    Here's a transciption of one part of their conversation, though I would recomment listening to the rest as this is far from the extent of it:

    Adam Leventhal - “There are so many things that you see in matches, and you think ‘no, no no no, this is happening again; it’s happening again!’ and you’re just wondering why? Why is it happening, again?Why is no one grabbing hold of this, and why is no one making a different gameplay/a plan of action, because yes, I understand what you mean about the scarring of the Ivic era, when everything was slowed down and there was more possession, but it was an interesting that that I saw on social media: I think it was posted this morning, actually, you know, in terms of the statistics, in comparison with Ivic and Munoz, and effectively Watford haven’t been as effective under Munoz as they were under Ivic in certain metrics. So, let’s be brutally honest about this: not much has really changed.​

    Yes, there is maybe a more simplified formation of 4-4-2, but then you go and sort of ruin it by sticking Will Hughes on the left hand side! I said previously, and this is, in my defence, I said previously against Stoke I could understand out of possession you have an extra midfielder, you can tuck in, you can be tight, and that seemed to work, but COME ON, you know, let’s be bold, let’s be brave, let’s play Sema or let’s play Zinckernagel, let’s try something different.

    And, one final point on what Munoz said: he was basically saying tomorrow, you know, we’re gonna have to change, you know, and the intensity hasn’t been right. There HAS TO BE a different approach against Coventry. If there isn’t, then, you know, I don’t wanna say it, but…you know what I’m gonna say. If things don’t change against Coventry, and they turn out another performance like that, then *exhales sharply* two words… two words, and I’m not even gonna say it, cos I don’t wanna tempt fate, but [Mike Parkin - “Two letters: CV”] Well, I was gonna say ‘corner flag’, but… It would not surprise me, and anyone can have a go, about being ‘reactionary’ and all that sort of stuff, because we’ve got a body of work in front of us that says if it’s clear that things aren’t working, things happen, and that will be just another deep cut, in the whole process.

    Mike Parkin - The performances are… you know, there’s no way around it… the performances are slightly different shades of grey, from the first game of the season, to the most recent game against QPR; they’ve all been occasional good things, but the majority has been just like a big old field full of mulch, hasn’t it, and there’s been no sort of incremental improvement, there’s been no clear direction of travel in terms of identity or shape or how we’re gonna win a game, and, and, and, it wouldn’t be so frustrating, if it wasn’t so obvious…​
     
  33. GoingDown

    GoingDown "The Stability"

    Aha, so they've had their brief. Turn on the coach. Considering our Parkin was waxing lyrical after any sort of win, his comments are a surprising u-turn to say the least. I'm basing this on his twitter posts as opposed to the insipid podcast.

    I'm assuming that there was no comments on the hierarchy, otherwise you'd have mentioned it. Not a surprise considering Parkin's 'fair play to Gino' about our transfer activity and some desperate 'low key gem' crap about Dan Gosling.
     
    wfcmoog likes this.
  34. FromDiv4

    FromDiv4 Reservist

    Worth a try, we need to find a way to score some goals.
     
  35. wfcmoog

    wfcmoog Tinpot

    Lockdown - no end in sight
    Weather - shyte
    National beacon of hope - sadly passed away RIP
    Virus - mutating, rendering vaccines less effective
    The economy - absolutely screwed
    Work - groundhog day
    Kids - missing their friends, stir crazy
    Future - nothing to look forward to

    Ah, it's matchday soon. Let's look at the club I follow as a hobby, to bring me joy and relief.

    Watford FC - grim, noisesome stew of effluent. A Charybdis of brown, noxious jetsam, sucking in every craft of hope and enthusiasm and crushing them into matchwood, to be digested through the bowels of the gruesome monster that our club has become.
     

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