The Sky Blue Revolution

A blog post on Coventry? I remember what they look like. Here’s one.

Evening all, how was your Protest Day? Mine was pretty good, better than the week leading up to Protest Day which had been fairly uneventful. The full gravitas of the situation hadn’t really hit home until Horsfall Senior casually mentioned that both of us will definitely be staying outside until 3:15pm to ‘do our bit’. Until this moment I’d been fully expecting to observe the 15 minute boycott on my own whilst Senor H was tucked up fast asleep in The Telegraph Stand. His call to action had come as something of a shock, together we’re the sort of fans who are quite prepared to ‘sit it out’ in the Tesco Café until 6pm waiting for the stewards to vacate their sentry points at the barriers so we don’t have to pay for parking, so keen are we to get value for money. I’d presumed the prospect of seeing 16.7% less football for our money would be too much to stomach but the call to arms was welcome if unexpected.

First of all, a massive pat on the back to those that organised it. I had nothing to do with it, couldn’t attend any meetings and I don’t really know who was behind it but I know @gstubbs1987 and the @save_our_city boys and girls had something to do with it, so hats off to you Gary and team. For this wasn’t an impromptu sing song coordinated by ‘under the scoreboard’ chancers, this was a professionally orchestrated movement who’s aim was simple. I know it was simple because it says so on my ‘Join the Protest’ flyer, handed to me when I arrived. The flyer details a mission statement, an action plan and notice of the protest’s intention to be peaceful and non-confrontational towards fans not wishing to take part. In the most part this was observed by around 500 supporters (there was the odd cry of ‘Cheerio’ at 2:55pm as some fans made their way to the gates but it never gathered any momentum).

Twitter was a different story I suppose, it didn’t take long for fans to turn on each other with those going into the game at 3pm proclaiming the protest a failure whilst those who defended their right to protest did exactly that. There were a few silly comments questioning the loyalty of those who didn’t protest but I guess we’ve come to expect nothing less over the past 2 decades. When you follow a club starved of any success you enhance your ‘fan experience’ by competing in a race to the bottom. We’ve all done it. “I was there at Plymouth, 4-0 down after half an hour, you were at Old Trafford? So what, so were 12,000 others, I’m obviously a better fan than you” or “where are the 20,000 fans who turned up for the Chelsea game?” The fight for recognition is pretty pointless really but if that’s how you enhance your experience of following City then fair enough.

For me this protest was as much to do with getting SISU out as it was for taking the first steps towards proving that, if asked, we can coordinate ourselves for the good of the club. Someone somewhere once made a comment (it’s on Wikipedia) about the success of a government being dependant on the quality of opposition. In football speak ‘the opposition’ normally refers to the press but I’ve long since given up listening to what the BBC or The Telegraph have to say. The past few months have essentially seen the Coventry media play a game of “we don’t know much but we might try and say we know something so it seems like we’re not stupid and you keep buying our papers and listening to our radio shows, and even if we don’t know anything look I’ve read your tweet out so don’t say we don’t listen to you”. We can all stop asking Radio phone-in hosts what they know. I think we are all agreed that they know nothing. Today could have been the first step in creating an opposition that could eventually do more for holding SISU, or any future owners, accountable for what happens at the club. Getting rid of SISU should just be the start.

In the grand scheme of things the numbers attending today were small, but again proved that if required we can organise ourselves properly, fight for a cause, promote a sensible message and consider everyone else at the club who doesn’t share the same views, all without reverting to type and looking for an excuse to cause trouble. Whatever you think about today’s events we should all be able to agree that we’re fed up with things and it’s the ‘being fed up with things’ that’s driven this protest today. Not only should SISU take note (which they have, agreeing to start discussions with the Save Our City group) but the same applies for Hoffman, the time for running the Sky Blue ship how you want is over, we’re the ones you need to please, get your ship in order and start taking this club forward in a professional manner. That’s what the fans are trying to do.

Oh, there was a game as well today. We lost. Carl Baker had a shot that went for a throw in.

PUSB

A Reaction

Apologies in advance for opinionated reaction I have to today’s statement, I didn’t think 140 characters would have done it justice and despite the Telegraph dangling the ‘story isn’t all it seems’ carrot in a bid to make you buy tomorrow’s edition I’m going to take a gamble and make some pretty damning assessments of today’s news.

I’m pretty sure that SISU don’t want to be here. Four years ago we all thought things would be different, they probably imagined they would buy the stadium, they probably thought they would fund a squad capable of reaching the Promised Land. Hedge Fund companies are, by their very nature, aggressively managed operations and the downturn in market performance over the past few years will have hit them hard. I’m not making excuses for them; they know there’s no money, we know there’s no money but the people running this club aren’t morons. They aren’t going to write off their investment because people want them to, no self-respecting operation would. They might even think that they can salvage something from this mess by working with new investors and in a way I respect them for that.

The clubs in a mess, the fans know it and the board know it. What absolutely nobody needs is Hoffman and Elliot and their fictitious band of investors acting with the morals of fox (foxes don’t have morals right?) trying to harness mass opinion against the owners. Couple of things irritated me this week. Firstly standing at Blues on Saturday when Hoffman and his suit wearing friends came and stood right in front of me. It was less of a ‘taking your seat’ moment and more of a ‘self-proclaimed saviour entering the arena to the adulation of fantasists’ moment. I looked right into his eyes, right then and I knew he was full of shit. I’m going to go as far to say I reckon he didn’t mind us losing that much because it would drive more support against SISU. Then we had Elliot on TalkSport in the week in an interview clearly manufactured to harness even more anti-SISU anger from fans towards the current guardians of our club. SISU might have done lots wrong but I’d rather have Clouting keeping the truth from us than have to watch 2 people, who I’d previously had plenty of respect for, drag this club through the gutter with shameless and frankly pathetic practices that should make anyone involved in any business operation shake their head in disbelief.

They did of course have a chance to prove me wrong today and guess what? They were both full of shit. I commented earlier in the week that if this club is too rebuild from here then it has to be without the influence of anyone who’s been part of the unambitious, uneventful and piss poor management of Coventry City over the past 20 years and that includes Hoffman and Elliot. I want SISU out but not half as much as I think they want out.

Birmingham Away

If there are any positives to take from this last week it could be the hardening of the soul experienced by Sky Blues fans in response to a derby defeat and a league cup exit at the hands of lower league opposition. It’s pretty clear, even this early in the season that we are going to have to tolerate some fairly tough times ahead if we are going to see the year out with any sort of dignity so we need to get battle hardened, and quickly.

With that in mind then there’s never been a better time to visit the second city and join 20,000 other fans in numerous renditions of ‘Shit on the Villa’ to make us feel better and in terms of supporters ‘soul searching’ there’s plenty of it going on at St Andrews anyway.

Blues have said goodbye to Craig Gardener, Kevin Phillips, Roger Johnson and Barry Ferguson over the summer while the exit door shows no sign of closing just yet with Scott Dann making the wanted list of several top flight clubs. Dann’s transfer does of course have implications for us with a sell on clause initiated if he goes for more than the £3.5m we let him go for in 2008. The former Walsall man was an unused substitute in Birmingham’s opening day defeat at Derby although knowing our luck he’ll make an appearance on Saturday, only to break his leg in a freak corner flag incident and put pay to any move.

Our last visit to St Andrews came in a 3rd Round cup tie in January, City let a 2 goal lead slide in a game that I like to remember as ‘The Connor Thomas Affair’. Thomas was given his full debut by Boothroyd who I’m convinced knew about a pending offer from Liverpool, sure enough that offer materialised not long after, Boothroyd stated that Thomas would have played an integral role in the first team and blamed the board in a move that instigated his exit from the club.

That defeat in January ended an half decent run of games against Blues, a Clinton Morrison goal (and Westwood worldy) was enough to collect all 3 points on a Monday night back in 2008 while my you have to go back a bit further to remember a Liam Daish inspired victory in 1996. Daish had just moved from Birmingham after falling out with Barry Fry (who have thought) so had scores to settle when the clubs came out of the hat for an early season League Cup tie. The Irishman scored a last minute equaliser at Highfield Road to take the game to a replay, we won the replay 1-0 but not before Daish had been sent off after scything down Paul Furlong to the great delight from the travelling support.

Reminiscing about Liam Daish red cards is pretty good actually, you should all try it in times of despair. It doesn’t have to be Liam Daish obviously; I’ve spent many any hour recounting mazy runs from Laurent Delorge or ranking my top 5 Elliot Ward penalties, set your targets quite low though, I once started to think about my top 3 Julian Gray crosses, before I knew it I’d wasted a week of my life and still couldn’t think of one.

There’s a distinct possibility then that we might be stuck on 0 wins come 4.45pm on Saturday but we all secretly knew that a week ago anyway. The response to Tuesday’s defeat will be interesting and could tell us plenty about the stomach of certain players for the tough times ahead. Goals might be on the scarce side, Adam Rooney could lead the line for the home side, Rooney scored 44 in 74 appearances over 3 years for Inverness and the diminutive front man could pose some problems. For us I wouldn’t be surprised to see O’Donovan given a League start following his midweek goal, 1 midweek goal against League One opposition just about puts him in the best form of all our forward line so he deserves his chance. With our lack of firepower and a Blues side that might just have their minds on a midweek trip to Portugal for a Europa League Qualifier, I’ll side with an optimistic 0-0 draw.

A quick church notice before we leave, check your change from the St Andrews refreshment stalls, Carson Yeung has to get rid of that laundered money somehow.

Play Up Sky Blues

Bury Away

How frustrating. You wait ages for the season to start then you’re faced with a meaningless non-competitive fixture when you should be getting excited about league action just around the corner. Yep, it’s a less than welcome return to Carling Cup action this Tuesday as The Sky Blues make the 120 mile journey to Gigg Lane to face a Bury side who love this time of year almost as much as we do.

Saturday’s game didn’t really tell us anything we didn’t know. Amidst Leicester’s title winning celebrations, disappointment was rationed, safe in the knowledge that when it comes to keeping the ball there won’t be many better in the Division but when it comes to putting the ball in the net we are going to get left behind, we’re kind of the ‘Arsenal’ of The Championship. Kind of.

My initial instincts were that we would be much more of a threat away from home this season, our ability to keep the ball lends itself to absorbing pressure and hitting teams on the counter, in much in the same way Arsenal do in Europe actually. We get the perfect opportunity to see if that’s the case when we visit The Shakers on Tuesday.

Our opponents got off to decent start to life in League One with a 1-1 draw at title favourites Huddersfield on Saturday but they have a wretched record in England’s least favourite cup competition. They have gone out at the first hurdle in each of the last 4 seasons, all 4 times to nil, all four times to higher league opposition and 3 of those times at home. Ryan Lowe provides the main threat; he scored 27 in Bury’s promotion campaign last year and got the equaliser on Saturday.

Of course we hardly boast a decent record ourselves, going out in the 1st Round in 3 of the last 5 years. Last season’s defeat at Morecambe set the scene for the Boothroyd era, The Shrimps went on to win just 6 home games last year which should have given us a clue as to how bad we were. A 3-1 defeat at Hereford in 2006 (Adebola) was another blot on the record as well as the 1-0 reverse at home to Hartlepool in 2009 but outside of those do have a respectable tally of 7 2nd round appearances in 10 seasons. Amazingly the last time we came into a 1st round tie on the back of a defeat was 2004, we beat Torquay 4-1 (Hughes, Suffo, Morrell) following a 1-0 loss at home to Millwall in the League.

Much depends on Andy Thorn’s strategy, it’s early on in the season of course but if the squad is to become stretched over the next few months then this looks like a good opportunity to build up the experience of fringe players, blood the youth and give the old un’s a rest before our visit to Blues on Saturday. Bury should provide a stern test but I’ll take City’s need for a victory as the greater of the 2 sides to forecast a win for Thorn’s men. I guess winning the League Cup probably looks beyond us this season but that should come as no surprise, Arsenal haven’t won it for 18 years either.

Play Up Sky Blues

Leicester Preview

What. A. Mess.

And you thought bringing in Steve Walsh to replace Gary Breen in the summer of 2002/03 represented a bad close season, well my friends; I think we would all take that now, in fact I’d take news that we spent £325k on Chris Birchall from Port Vale over what we had to sit through this summer.

Welcome back everyone; it’s nearly time to start getting excited about corner kicks again which means Tales of The Expected is back. Nothing has changed really, still an ever so slightly irrelevant and self-righteous take on all things Sky Blue, with all your match previews thrown in for free as well as plenty of good humoured opposition banter.

I’m more than happy, if you are, to draw a line (on headed paper) under the events of this close season. Let’s let SISU and Hoffman play their petty media games while AT and the rest of us get on with avoiding relegation, and be in no doubt that avoiding relegation is the priority. Forget your promotion dreams because remember last year when we finished 18th? Well our squad is worse than that and we still don’t know who’s going to take the throw in’s now Aron ‘second touch is a tackle’ Gunnarsson has waltzed off to Cardiff. Big Joe Murphy has joined from Scunthorpe and looks more than capable of picking out Clive Platt from goal kicks (http://bit.ly/lOjK4c) while Roy O’Donovan looks like a changed man and might just do enough to secure a move to Walsall in January.

Saying Leicester have been more active in the transfer market is a bit of an understatement, Sven has finally been given a war chest to attract the best players to The Foxes, mainly on the condition they stop living in the shadow of The Tigers but failing that he might just get promotion instead.

You don’t become a good side overnight though and Leicester’s 10th place finish last season was due in part to a terrible away record. Only Palace, Scunthorpe and Doncaster conceded more on their travels and ok, they’ve made some signings but Michael Johnson hasn’t kicked a ball at this level since October 2009, Kasper Schmeichel marshalled a Leeds defence that conceded over 1.5 goals per game, the 17th worst record in the division while Neil Danns, Sean St Ledger and David Nugent all played for sides who finished in the bottom 8. Matt Mills looks a quality addition but they’ve let another good un’ in Jack Hobbs leave to wear a Hull shirt next year.

Regardless of how many Championship journeymen you sign though, you just don’t beat Coventry in the first game of a new season. Our run of unbeaten opening day fixtures now stands at 10, 8 wins and 2 draws in that run including winning our last 5. Saturday’s game will be our 4th at home in a row which for most teams might be considered an advantage.

The M69 Derby has seen 4 draws in the last 2 seasons, then there was a gap in 08/09 when we didn’t play each other for some reason and then you had to go back to 02/03 to see our neighbours beat us at home, a Matt Jansen goal wasn’t enough to halt The Foxes promotion charge that season, they won 2-1 on their way to finishing 2nd.

It looks very much like we are destined to spend our season at opposing ends of the table but early form can be a great leveller, our friends from down the road will take time to gel while a vociferous home crowd should inspire a draw at least. And that’s the key this year I think, we are in for a tough season, perhaps the toughest any of us have ever known, and don’t count on SISU or Hoffman to provide any optimism, it’s down to us. If anyone is going to save our season it’s that man Thorn and his army of followers. Make your voice count this year.

PUSB
See you next week.

Superstar Footballer Profiles: Aron Gunnarsson

We all have delusions of grandeur from time to time, you know those times when we start calling a toilet ‘the lavatory’ in front of people we don’t know or you start asking people to remove their shoes when they visit your house, all of sudden getting protective over your laminate flooring, ignoring the fact your front garden’s full of patio furniture and there’s 3 week old copies of the free local paper on your doorstep, you’ve now decided that guests walking in your house with shoes on is just a step too far.

The signs were on the wall quite early on in Aron Gunnarsson’s career at The Skyblues. When he joined for an undisclosed fee in the summer of 2008 he told The Telegraph;

“There were some other clubs interested in signing me but then I saw the Ricoh Arena and spoke to the coach and that was enough for me to decide”

So a thinly veiled ‘I could have gone somewhere else but the stadium’s massive’ throwaway comment and Aron was ready to hit the ground running. He arrived somewhat under the radar. That summer’s major news was the £1.2m (and 3 shire horses) we eventually paid to secure the services of Freddy Eastwood while Clinton Morrison signed from Palace and Stephen Hughes left for Walsall. Big things were expected though from the young Icelandic, after all there were other clubs interested in him and remember all those Icelandic’s that played for Reading, they were all brilliant and don’t forget there were other clubs interested in him, did we mention that?

His first season was pretty inauspicious but he was only 19 wasn’t he? He got off the mark in the 2-2 draw at Ewood Park in February 2009 while his first league goal didn’t arrive until April at Palace. By that time he had already picked up 12 yellow cards and was forging some kind of reputation for himself in England’s second tier. In a team that included Scott Dann, Danny Fox and Kieran Westwood, Gunnarsson amazingly walked off with the Supporters Player of the Year in his first season, not for the first time plenty of fans putting more faith in hard work and tenacity than actual talent. He was only young though wasn’t he and it didn’t really matter what I thought anyway because it wasn’t long before the big boys came calling.

“I know there is interest from various clubs. Celtic, Everton and Stoke City are all interested, but I really don’t see the point in leaving Coventry. I am still young and I get to play a lot here. That’s what counts” (Daily Express, 2009)

A close season of ‘will he won’t he’ ensued as Dann, Fox and Leon Best all left for the bright lights of top flight football whilst Aron and his agent waited patiently by the phone for Celtic, Everton and Stoke to phone. They never did.

Gunnarsson’s second season saw him trouble the scorers and referees even less, one goal and 4 yellow cards wasn’t really the return I expected from a young and improving midfielder and to be fair I think he became frustrated with his lack of progress. Games would often pass him by, a quiet first half would normally lead to an overzealous tackle in the second as the young Icelandic tried to force some sort of contribution. Of the 19 yellow cards (and 1 red) that AG picked up in his 3 year spell here, only 2 came in league victories which kind of suggest they were picked up more in frustration than a positive response to imposing himself on a game. He did manage to change his squad number though, from 12 to 17, the same as his handball playing brother who I’m guessing is probably good at throwing as well. The end of his second season bought about a change in manager as Coleman was replaced by Boothroyd to oversee the final year of Aron’s 3 year deal.

“Like all players, which is their right, they read the papers and if Wayne Rooney is getting £250,000 a week then Aron thinks he should be on £245,000 a week” (Aidy Boothroyd, 2010)

Things actually started positively for Gunnar under Boothroyd. The long throws were phased out (unless Aron could throw it from one penalty area to the other then AB wasn’t really interested) and he began to turn in some decent performances on the right hand side. Sticking him out on the wing gave him a bit more time on the ball while it didn’t put as much pressure on his first touch as he could pop the ball out in front of him and stretch his legs. He added 4 goals to his tally to take him to 7 in 133 league and cup appearances and finally got off the mark at home in a 2-1 defeat to Preston in September.

Players like Henri Lansbury, Jonathan Howson and Andy King all shone this season for their promotion chasing teams, taking responsibility for performances while Gunnarsson’s time ended with the player seeing out a contract and hoping the phone would ring. In the end it did, but only after he had a new contract offer put in front of him by the club and not before we had another ‘will he, won’t he?’ saga drawn out over the back pages with his agent proclaiming a whole host of clubs were still interested. In the end though it wasn’t Stoke, Everton or even Celtic, it was Cardiff who took the plunge in a move which probably tells us more about their ambitions than anything else. Peter Whittingham and Seyi Olofinjana form a pretty formidable partnership in the Bluebirds midfield so it will be interesting to see how many chances Gunnar gets under new boss Malky Mackay.

Personally (and unsurprisingly to regular readers) I’m more than happy to see the back of him. There’s no doubt that Aron has potential, whether he has the mental aptitude to realise that potential is another thing. If he ever reads this post then I hope he recognises some truth in it (he might do, you know when you can tell just by looking at someone that they spend a few minutes most days searching for their own name in Google?), and if he does make a success of it at Cardiff then I’ll be happy to say he learnt everything he knows from our club, I’ll even invite him round my house for a cup of tea, he will have to take his shoes off first though.

Play Up Sky Blues.

Hey Joe

Sacking managers? Releasing players before they reach their potential? Overestimating how many people would buy a ‘Coventry Vs Chelsea, FA Cup’ scarf (still available in the club shop by the way)? It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly what our club is synonymous with but it doesn’t take a big stretch of the imagination to suggest it could be decent goalkeepers. Matthews, Glazier, Ogrizovic, Hedman, Kirkland, Westwood, Stephen Hughes, the list goes on (it doesn’t, it almost certainly ends there, before we get into Shearer, Debec and Luke Steele territory).

Long before Kieran was packing his bags for a new life in the North East, City had been courting Joe Murphy at Scunthorpe. I think I’ve heard ‘the Murphy rumour’ for at least the last 10 transfer windows but we finally got our man this week as Murphy signed a 3 year deal to become the new City No.1.

Murphs? (no that doesn't work)

Twenty Nine year old Murphy’s career now spans 13 years after joining Tranmere as a trainee in 1998. Three Hundred and Seven appearances (and 0 goals) later he returns to The Midlands after spells earlier in his career at West Brom and Walsall. Just over 200 of those appearances came at Scunthorpe where Murphy experienced 2 promotions from League One and 2 relegations from The Championship. His first season at Glanford Park was probably the one that made his name. Scunthorpe won the League One title by 6 points, conceding just 35 goals in the process, only Forest in 07/08 managed to concede less (32) since football lost the Old Division Two. Murphy played 52 games that season, keeping 25 clean sheets, winning the League One ‘Golden Gloves Award’ for the most CS that year and earning himself a promising reputation in the process.

Promotion to The Championship the following year saw Murphy keep a respectable 9 clean sheets but couldn’t save The Irons from a return to the 3rd tier. Promotion in 08/09 earned Scunthorpe a prolonged 2 season stay in The Championship, Murphy keeping 12 clean sheets in the 76 appearances since they reclaimed their spot. Obviously life’s difficult when you’re plying your trade at the wrong end of the division (tell me about it) but to put that into perspective Kieran managed 21 clean sheets in 93 appearances over the last 2 seasons.

At 6ft 1” Murphy stands as tall as his fellow countryman Westwood, I’ve no idea just yet on whether there’s a head in the towel type ritual thing going on but one difference of note is their comparative disciplinary records. In his 5 years at Scunthorpe Murphy picked up 26 yellow cards and 3 reds, a phenomenal amount for a keeper which puts KW’s 8 yellows in his 3 seasons at The Ricoh in the shade. One of those red cards came against City, Murphy bringing down Jay Tabb (I bet he was facing our goal) for a penalty in a 1-1 draw back in 2007. He conceded another penalty at Leyton Orient a year later before picking up another red at Blackpool in 2009, this time for handling outside the area. Time will tell I suppose but worth keeping an eye out in his first few games to see if he has the kind of temperament that indicates a disciplinary problem, if so then Chis Dunn might be needed sooner rather than later.
A quick check on the message boards and it seems many Scunthorpe fans were surprised he stayed around so long, unsurprisingly most of them didn’t think it would be too long before they saw him again in League One though, most thought relegation would see him move to a decent Championship side (how disappointed they must be). Performances over the past season suggested that the time had come for both club and player to part company but he leaves with plenty of Irons fans wishing him well.

And so he embarks on the next chapter in a career that many people might have thought would have progressed a little faster than it has. Whether his stay at Coventry is the stepping stone to bigger things remains to be seen but at 29 we should be getting a stopper approaching the peak of his career, I doubt he’s a big a threat at set pieces as Stephen Hughes was but good luck to him anyway.

Thoughts and comments always welcome, what do you think lies in store for Joe at The Ricoh? Who is the best keeper you have ever seen in a Sky Blue shirt? Or just feel free to congratulate me on avoiding the obvious temptation to call this post ‘Murphy’s Law’ or something similar.
Play Up Sky Blues.

“We said ‘Meh’ Marlon, we said Meh…”

“He scores goals Marlon, he scores goals”, 13 of them in fact, 85th in the post war scoring charts for those interested, nestling nicely in between Mustapha Hadji (12) and Elliot Ward (14), a little further back than Andy Morrell (19) and a long way back from Stern John (26), he was much more prolific than Graham Barrett (6) though which I’m sure was an overriding factor in convincing Blues to take ‘our’ man to St Andrews.

And he was ‘our’ man wasn’t he? We took him in, gave him a home, sang his name and told anyone that would listen he could fire us to promotion, he might have been a convicted sex offender, but he was our convicted sex offender. We shouldn’t really care though. The greatest trick football pulls is in elevating the social standing of morons who in any other walk of life would be confined to societies depths alongside benefit cheats and the kind of people that use the ‘pay at the pump’ aisle at the petrol station then go and get some chocolate in the forecourt shop. And I’m not just talking about the sex offending, drug cheating, diving or greedy ones (you know your staple footballers CV), I’m talking about them all. This is a group of individuals who count Clarke Carlisle as a ‘genius’, a man who has 2 A’ Levels, treated like some kind of freak of nature by his peers because he stayed at school after he was 16. (Clarke does a lot of work for charity by the way, I like him, I’m just making a point, a point that Clarke would definitely get if he read this, yes almost definitely). Footballers as a rule are morons, yet we idolise and hang on every misspelt word emanating from their twitter account and believe every verbal agreement that comes spluttering out of their cliché ridden mumblings. Marlon was no hero. He was just a bloke that played 28 games and scored 13 goals. Just passing through football, amounting to nothing more than a footnote in our history, earning the sort of money that should be reserved for nurses and soldiers, receiving the sort of adulation that should be confined to teachers and X-factor winners.

No surprise then I won’t miss him. The way in which things transpired was unfortunate of course, the club is still trying to get used to this ‘communicating with the fans’ idea, an idea that seems to consist almost entirely of one man on Twitter although he was ably supported this week by a letter from Chief Executive Paul Clouting. Clouting’s offering in response to the published accounts was fantastic, no spelling mistakes, carefully constructed paragraphs and not a hashtag in sight. The King saga did plenty of damage but was more regrettable (IMHO?) for detracting from a genuine attempt by the club to change the tide of attitude stirring in the SkyBlue City. While it wasn’t welcome in all quarters it did at least show that the club is thinking about supporters and if anyone is listening then that’s definitely the way to go. Twitter is great but our poor Canadian friend just ends up responding to every question to prove he’s communicating, often just defending the clubs actions which if we are being honest were taken as a result of placing too much faith in footballers making the right decisions. Mr Brody had every right to think a verbal agreement meant just that because in normal life that’s what it means.

I suppose what this post is trying to say is that when push comes to shove I’ll always side with the ones running the club. They might just be in it for the money but we can’t hate everyone and I think I’ve chosen to hate the ones who use capital letters at the start of sentences a little bit less.

Play Up Sky Blues

Playing By Numbers: The Sky Blue Season

One season, 49 games, 2 managers, boardroom unrest, a steady stream of 15,000 fans through the gate and a transfer embargo, even by our standards this has been an unstable season but true to form we’ve ended up pretty much where we started. Even with the unrest it was another season where The Championship seemed to pass us by. Leeds and Norwich came up from League One with no respect for reputations and instantly looked a threat for honours with their annoying brand of entertaining football whilst seasoned campaigners like Sheffield Utd and Preston fell through the trap door, acting as a reminder for all City fans that things could have ended up a whole lot worse. The Blades were as short as 5/1 to gain promotion back in August but their decline only served as confirmation that there’s a new breed in town. Attacking teams full of match winners filled the playoff places in a season which saw 14 teams score over 60 goals, the highest proportion since The Championship stopped being Division One. The SkyBlues have reached the 60 goal mark on 3 occasions since relegation but not since 2005/06.

This season’s tally of 55 points does at least represent a modicum of progress. Our highest total since 06/07 although still some way short of our best Championship points total of 66 in 01/02. Over the last 10 years in England’s second tier 70 points would have got you a playoff place in just 2 of those seasons, in 8 of those seasons you would have needed at least 73. Seventy points still looks as far away as ever with City only reaching the 60 point mark in 2 of our 10 seasons in The Championship. Thirty Two of those 55 points came at The Ricoh which equalled our worst return in 6 years and was one of countless reasons which attributed to an average home attendance just over 16,000; 28,000 came to watch the playoff six pointer against Leeds back in November which was no doubt boosted by the travelling support yet still meant there was a good number choosing to spend every other Saturday curled up in front of Soccer Saturday watching Dean Windass mumble through another match report instead of witnessing first-hand the latest drama emanating from a half empty Ricoh Arena. The Championship saw an average of 45% home wins throughout the season, City managed just 39%.

Away performances improved this season, the 23 points gathered away from The Ricoh represented our best return since 03/04 when we finished 12^th after seeing 3 managers take the reins in another turbulent season (McAllister, Black and Reid). Despite our points haul we still trailed the rest of the league who averaged 29% of away wins compared to our 22% due in part to a winless run against teams in the top half. Only 2 other teams in the division (Barnsley and Doncaster) failed to register a single away victory at a top half side while home and away we had the 3^rd worst record against teams in the top 12. Only Preston had fewer wins (2 compared to our 3).

Records against the top 6 look worse on paper, we only managed to lose by more than 1 goal in 2 of 12 games against the top 6 but with just 3 draws, and 9 defeats the 3 points attained was the worst return against this group of teams since relegation; although 2 of those 3 points came under Andy Thorn’s watch. Our record against the bottom half of teams in the division once again saved us from the drop. We finished the season with the 8^th best record against the bottom 12 and the 39 points achieved has only been better in 2 of the last 10 season and not since 03/04. A minus 4 goal difference emphasised the fact that despite losing 19 games we never lost by many. We only conceded more than 2 in a game on 3 occasions (Leeds, Bristol City and Millwall) and ended up with a goals against average of 1.26 per game.

Attacking wise we averaged 1.17 goals per game (18^th best record in league) and were one of only 3 clubs to never score 4 or more in a single league fixture, Doncaster and Sheffield Utd being the other two.  Whilst -4 in the goal difference column is progress it extends the run of negative goal differences to 8 seasons, 2003/04 being the last season we scored more than we let in. It’s been well documented that we lead the ‘hit the woodwork’ league, 32 times in total, a few more lucky bounces (or a bit more shooting practice) and the goals for column could easily have been added to.

Players wise, Richard Keogh became the first outfield player since Gary McAllister in 99/00 to start every league game. The full back just got better all season for me and made a mockery of my post match comments following a pre-season game at Northampton back in the summer. Marlon took the headlines of course with 12 goals in just 24 appearances to notch up the best tally since Gary McSheffrey (15 goals) back in 05/06, a tally that MK should have had in his sights if he had avoided becoming only one of 9 players to receive more than 1 red card this season Unsurprisingly Aron Gunnarsson committed the most fouls, 52 in total, each and every one coming after a first touch no doubt, and each and every one met with a stunned look from the young Icelandic. As a club we received 64 Yellow Cards and committed the 7^th most fouls in the division (516) while we used just 32 players (only Forest, Burnley and Portsmouth used less) including 2 substitute appearances from the elusive
Roy O’Donovan.

This season was ultimately about the last 10 games though; Andy Thorn oversaw a run of games that would decide which division we would play our football in next year. Thorn lost just 2 of those 10 games to make sure the season ended in a relatively stress free manner for fans that were
just about to give up after 1 win in 17 led to Boothroyd being given his marching orders in early March. Ten games is not a big enough sample to draw any conclusions from but essentially the difference came down to a loss percentage of 47% under AB compared to just 20% under AT, Boothroyd’s first 36 games yielded 1.13 points per game while Thorn improved that figure to 1.4 ppg, securing safety in the process. The goals for column averaged 1.6 goals per game since Thorn took charge (1.05 previously), 1.6 goals a game over a 46 gameseason works out at 73 goals in total so the signs are good.

We say it every year but next season is already looking tough, Brighton, Southampton and one from either Huddersfield or Peterborough will
join Blackpool, West Ham and Birmingham in a campaign where we will need to improve once more just to preserve our Championship status.  Only 4 teams are currently longer than us in the promotion markets for next year (Huddersfield/Peterborough, Doncaster, Barnsley and Palace) but significant steps are already being muted the club which suggest we could be in a progressive season.  Addressing the ‘goals for’ statistics looks a priority depending on where MK chooses to spend next season of course, more attacking options should be on the agenda for this summer’s activity. It’s a new breed of football that will get you out of this division, if only someone had told Aidy sooner.

Plenty of posts during the Summer, by which time hopefully I will have grown out of this annoying habit of referring to people using just their intials.

Play Up Sky Blues.

SkyBlues Vs Scunthorpe (Guest Post)

The arrival of a new baby Horsfall has meant limited time for researching, evaluating and composing extensive match previews for Scunthorpe at home this Good Friday (It takes time and effort to come across this self righteous every week you know). This weeks preview comes courtesy of our good friend Jamie Firth who you can follow on Twitter at @mrjfirth. It’s very good. Enjoy.

Well kids, just a year ago this weekend our heroes were sliding down the usual slippery pole of crushing disappointment, losing away at Sheffield Utd to bring up a 3-game losing streak. In a long-standing tradition of giving up on a season immediately after mathematics had ensured safety (just), Skybe supporters were just a couple of bore-draws and a last-day humiliation at the Ricoh away from going off to their Summers thinking “maybe next year”. Again.

But hey, that was 2 managers and a Marcus Hall ago. Right? RIGHT?

What a turnaround this year. From the depths of that Watford 0-4 drubbing in May, five months later we were daring to dream of automatic promotion. 5 months on from there, the very real fear of relegation. Now we welcome Scunthorpe hoping to extend a terrific late run and finish the season with a bang.

City are finishing the season like a train comparatively to other seasons, having already exceeded the totals of the previous end-of-season capitulations: In 2009, results from March onwards saw City take just 7 pts (1 win) to finish with 54pts. In 2010 they took 8pts (1 win) to finish on 54pts (again). This season we have 12pts (3 wins) and are already up to 52pts with 4 left to play. And you thought things weren’t getting better you cynical, cynical Sky Blues…

Man-of-the-moment Marlon “Luther” King is on fire right now. Kieron Westwood aside, he is clearly a class above: everything about him has stood out all season: great touch, fizzing passing, good movement and he has now found that deadly finishing. It’s tragic that we have basically facilitated his return to both fitness and goal scoring form just in time for him to go elsewhere and (probably) bang a couple past us next season. And all for free. But that’s the position we are in (and merely an extreme example of what’s been going on at the club for years). I only hope that if it is to happen, then it happens fast: too many times we have ended up scrapping for what remains of available strikers to lead our line in the first few weeks of the season, and then blamed a lack of pre-season on his form. If he is to go, then a replacement must be found quickly. Still: he’s ours for now and I fully expect, nay DEMAND, that he gets a bundle more goals in a Sky Blue shirt. I’ve been tipping him for a hat-trick all season (he was SO close to doing that last week) and Friday’s game looks most likely of the remaining fixtures: do it for me MLK.

Scunthorpe here, of course, have much greater need for the 3pts: since they jettisoned manager Ian Baraclough in March and replaced him with Bury’s Alan Knill, they’ve much-improved their play. They have switched to more attractive, even expansive, football and have had some impressive performances as a result. Sound familiar? Indeed.

I doubt that they have the skill to stay up personally, but then I had the same doubts when they smashed 4 past team-of-the-season QPR t’other week, so that’s no guide. They are organised and playing some sweet sports right now.

All of which should make for a great game: both teams have good reasons to need the victory: Scunthorpe need the win to stand any real chance of escaping the drop (the Doncaster versus Crystal Palace game elsewhere is pivotal in that: what I like to call a “real three-pointer”) and all the teams down there have tough games to go. A win here would keep them scrapping, and the hot breath of a rampant, resurgent Preston now just one point behind will have them plenty motivated.

For the City, a point would secure mathematical safety in the division (although obviously with our much-improved goal difference this year, we’re basically there now) but the momentum building behind the team is invaluable in giving fans a reason to believe. The points are not really of any importance: we’re going to end up finishing pretty much where we are come the final day. However a little run of results may just see the crowds start to build again. For hope to spring back up and give us a lift. Yes, the squad is almost certainly going to be ripped apart with the loss of our 2 best players (and little Aaron of course) for free in the summer, but momentum at the end of a season to carry over to next is something we have not had for a very long while indeed. In fact, not since Andrew Whing scorched that 6^th goal in on that magical day in the sun at the Ol’ Corral have I kept the faith throughout the summer…

It will all be better next season kids. And I say that because, as always as a Skybe, it’s the hope that kills ya.