We never get owt against Coventry...or Clinton Morrison

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Them two week international lay offs can be a bitch can’t they?
They either come at a time when you’re on a run or after a defeat and you have loads of time to stew over it and not get it out of your system…
It always seems longer to me than missing one weekend as well…Still I’ve put the Derby game to bed and I was ready for this now…

As far as I’m concerned I’ve had my say on it all and it’s a clean slate today against a team that are a right pain in the arse for us…we hardly ever seem to get owt against em…even worse now they have Clinton Morrison…Did someone pass a law that says he MUST score against us no matter what?
That’s how it seems, no matter what team he plays for, no matter how they’re doing or how well we’re doing, he always seems to spoil our day.

With Coventry AND Morrison in mind I got ready and spared nothing when it came to good luck routines…except a shave this time…thought I’d try without, see how that went…

I put on grey boxers, which I’ve never done before…usually they're black Pierre Cardin though, not ya cheap rubbish…they’ve got a gossamer like gusset ya know...mmmmmm Oh aye…it’s like they’re made of the finest, softest velvet and if ya can’t smile with a velvet gusset then you’re never gonna smile.

I cracked open new socks and opened a new bottle of aftershave…I told ya, nothing spared today….I wanted a win and was pushing the boat out….I smelt and felt great and ready to see Wednesday return to winning ways..Sod Coleman and sod Morrison!

After last nights 80’s love fest at the arena watching Spandau Ballet, it was 80’s music all the way to the car park and then straight into the ground…to join what looked a low crowd, though TBF it DID fill up close to kick off.

Things didn’t get off to a great start as we got into our seats to be told the team news; Tudgay, Esajas AND Woody were all out!

FFS!

It’s never easy for us is it?

THE MATCH
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Well, there’ll be different opinions about this game I’m sure. There’ll be those that see us managing to scrape a win with the help of the officials and a bit of luck and there’ll be those that think we’re right back to our best and everything in the garden is rosy…I suppose the truth, as ever, lays somewhere in between.

We were certainly out of the blocks very quickly and the players looked up and ready for this attacking from the off and considering we scored in the the third or fourth minute and that wasn’t the first chance we had it underlines how much we took the game to Coventry.

That first goal came about from a corner, in front of the kop seeing how Coventry had elected to ‘swap ends’ and it was scripted, as these things are, for Purse to put a nightmare couple of weeks behind him and at least go some way to answering his critics. (Me included) He rose salmon like through the crowd to nod the ball home and almost before he’d landed ran towards the South Stand, veins in his neck bulging and giving some right welly…. He obviously enjoyed it and kudos to the fella, it was just what he needed and WE needed.

We didn’t stop at that and we attacked a fair bit but as usual our problem was in the final delivery or when we DID get the delivery right, failing to get someone on the end of it but our possession was good and we moved the ball about well, we passed well, we moved well and we worked well as a team.

A couple of times we should have scored or at least tested the keeper from the good positions we found ourselves in...

When O Connor got the ball and danced over one tackle, just outside the box but was brought down with the second tackle inside the box, it was no more than we deserved and an easy decision for the ref to make…no doubts stonewall penalty. Fair play though, he didn’t hesitate and pointed straight to the spot. Leon picked up the ball and when he does that I’m always confident of the outcome…

I know he’s going to leather it as hard as he can, the net will strain under the power, the keeper will be nowhere…and that’s exactly what happened…if he’d got in the way, it’d have killed him.

We were good for at least this two goal lead and we continued to play well, though we STILL didn’t bother their keeper too much and when we DID have the ball it was an entertaining game to watch, it only got dull when Coventry got hold of it and couldn’t make headway…

A lot of that was down to the likes of our defence looking solid again but a lot of praise must go to the likes of O Connor and Gray who, when we didn’t have possession worked hard to make sure Coventry didn’t have time to pick passes, work to a plan…they harried them, they forced errors and they must have covered every blade of grass between them.

Gray was superb…he chased everything, when he had the ball at his feet he looked to create when we didn’t have the ball he WANTED the ball…he looked to get it back and give Coventry no time at all with it… He was superb and on one occasion,in that first half, got the ball from slow play from Coventry in front of us, knocked it to Varney who spun on a tanner, crossed a cracking ball across the 6 yard box for Clarke who rose brick like and just failed to connect… Great move again though and all down to Grays never say die spirit.

Not far behind Gray in workrate and influence was O Connor who was like the proverbial ratters dog…he was involved in most things and seemed to take it on himself to hunt down Coventry players at every opportunity…snapping at their heels, chasing…it was great stuff and just what the fans wanted to see, that attitude, that workrate, that desire….Players won’t get criticised if they’re giving us everything they have like this.

Some of the passing though, some of the dribbling, some of the individual skills on display were excellent…especially JJ as he looked full confidence today…and they shit it every time he ran at them…and he DID run at them, often….OK, it didn’t always go to plan and once or twice his passes were astray but I thought he looked before passing this time and at least some thought went into his play…a couple of times he tried cross field balls to switch play to Michael Gray, once it came off perfectly, dropped it on a pinhead, another time he tried to put it in front for him to run onto, but Gray wasn’t quite able to reach it, but applauded the attempt and the idea. There was another instance early on where he was tripped in the box but stayed on his feet, if he’d gone down I’m sure he’d have got the decision but he didn’t and tried to make something of it…it didn’t happen but it was nice work by the lad.

They really seemed to be playing for each other today as much as anything and that’s certainly good to see, that they have this good team spirit, especially when things haven’t gone well.

Coventry hadn’t shown much of anything this half and I couldn’t see where their threat was coming from….Morrison had spent most of his time whinging and Best looked a little jaded if I’m honest’

Mindst you, just before half time it all got daft…from where we are we couldn’t see what happened but it looked as though Coventry had scored and Morrison ran towards the corner flag and celebrated with their fans, as he was enjoying those celebrations Granty threw the ball out and we went on the attack…WTF!?!

The Coventry players were absolutely convinced they’d scored though our players were equally adamant they hadn’t and simply got on with the game as the ref hadn’t stopped play…to make things worse for Coventry we almost scored with the attack and TBH, we should have done…that would have made Clinton Morrison whinge even more as he was still aggrieved at their ‘goal’ not being allowed and having a go at the ref…and anyone that would listen to be honest…and anyone that wouldn’t listen…he was livid.

I have to say though…there’s not much better or funnier than a really angry Clinton…that was the last of the first half action but it wasn’t the end of Clinton anger and frustration…THAT just got funnier….

Fair enough when they belatedly came back out for the second half they HAD to get better did Coventry…and they did, but they still weren’t too much of a threat IMO and Leon Best still looked jaded and Clinton STILL did nowt but whinge…about everything…Strangely enough everything EXCEPT when Leon went through Gunnarsson, then when everyone was up in arms about how bad the tackle was he was the one trying to calm them all down…strange lad.

He got the yellow card did Leon which is what it deserved from my view but TBF the lad was stretchered off so there was no play acting being done and he didn’t return….He wasn’t best chuffed about Gray and Leon trying to help him to his feet either..

If Clinton had calmed down at that point it wasn’t going to be long before someone relit the fuse…

Best gets into our box and into a very dangerous spot and Tommy comes along and puts in the tackle of the season….worth the price of admission alone and simply wonderful…he steals the ball and was about to be off with it when the ref pointed to the spot.

The Wednesday players AND fans were incensed, urging the ref to talk to the linesman…which to his credit, he did…and the linesman, like us, with a cracking view of that wonderful tackle, pointed out just how good it was and that he got the ball and more importantly, that it WASN’T a penalty. AGAIN, to his credit, the referee listened and took that on board and reversed the decision…No penalty!

We were gobsmacked.

When was the last time that happened?
The lineman usually keeps his gob shut because it’s easier or the ref doesn’t listen anyway…Not only was this a good result it was the RIGHT result and fair.

Guess who disagreed.
Oh aye…Owd Clinton was beside himself…

He ran to the linesman, he wasn’t listening…he ran to the players, they weren’t listening…to his manager...not listening...to OUR manager, not listening....to ANY FOOKER!               WHY WON’T ANYONE LISTEN?                  I was in tears now…he was making my day was Clinton…He’d gone all Clinton Meldrew…he couldn’t bahleeeeve aht!

It was probably this point that the rest of the Coventry players suddenly realised this just wasn’t their day and they had a look of abject desperation on their faces…resigned to a beating…Not Clinton though.

Right up to the end he chased everything, he ran everywhere, he WANTED EVERYTHING…HE WAS GONNA SHOW EVERY FOOKER! And of course….he whinged some more…when the ref called for a foul…Clinton whinged and threw the ball in frustration…of course I laughed….when his team mates passed short, he whinged…I laughed…when they got caught offside…he whinged…when they didn’t run he whinged…ran, didn’t run, moved, didn’t move…he whinged…. having bad hair, looking at him wrong, the pitch was too green, the stand was too blue…Clinton was in the mood for whinging and he must have whinged about them all…and yes…I laughed….He prolly whinged at that.

When he came and took a corner in front of us…of course I taunted him…we all did…’COME ON CLINTON! YOU CAN DOOO EEET!’

I was almost cheering him on by now….he’d almost won me over…

When the Coventry full back slowly walked over to take a throw in near us, outside our box, he ran over like Billy Whizz, shouting and roping at him….to hurry the fook up….he took the ball from him, he took the throw…and if he’d been able, he’d only have thrown it to himself….when the board went up for 6 minutes of added time he went into hyperdrive….he was absolutely everywhere…

By the time the whistle went he’d managed to cram 2 hours worth of whinging into 90 minutes of football and that my friends, is no small achievement.

We had played reasonably well, we’d deserved the win but I’m telling you now, owd Clinton went up in my estimation today…he was the real winner for me….OK, it was funny, very funny, but how much does that bloke want to win?
How much drive and desire has he got?
It may have kept me laughing out loud but it was fookin great to see…if the rest of his team had that, they’d be unbeatable…kudos to the lad

So what about us then?
This was the result we needed…most of it was the performance we wanted and it was a deserved win.
We played well across the midfield and we played well as a defensive unit…

If I’ve got a criticism of the midfield it’s that Potter didn’t have enough say on things…he’s invariably the most talented player on the pitch but he hasn’t shown it last couple of games IMO and we need him back to his best, pulling the strings.

Gray and O Connor were magnificent…they play with such gusto, like a dog just let off the lead….they love it…you can see it in everything they do….Gray is like a kid at the moment, you wouldn’t believe he was the oldest bloke on the pitch….JJ was very good too, he’s trying is the lad, he’s trying to cut out some of the poor stuff….

Our back four impressed throughout…there were little mistakes from each of them, let’s not get carried away, they weren’t perfect and the clean sheet is more of a boost for Purse than the goal, even though we all enjoyed that.

Things didn’t quite go for our front two today but they still showed promise IMO and WILL get better the more they play together.

This was a good solid performance…not spectacular but solid.
We showed what we can do, that we have flair when we want to produce and it IS VERY good when we do produce it…teams can’t get near us…but that we can also take our foot off the pedal and allow the opposition back into it instead of killing them off….taking our chances…making the keeper work….

I still think someone, one day, will get a right mullering from us when everything clicks…you can see it…I hope I’m there when it happens…

How about Tuesday night against Preston?

Or Friday against Watford?

Or BOTH?

              

Cheers

Steve:Beastie
Owls Alive


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