Coventry v Norwich (3 Viewers)

Surely Thomas must be in there?

Ahh list your subs on there too so we can see.

I think AT will pretty much put out our strongest team. That way he can test us against a Premiership side to see where we are.

-------------Murphy------------
Christie--Keogh--Cranie--Hussey
-------------Clingan------------
---------Bell--------Baker-------
-----------McSheffrey----------
----O'Donovan-----Jutkiewicz----

Subs - Dunn, McPake, Wood, Bigirimana, Thomas, Eastwood, Platt.

I think tomorows lineup will be more or less the lineup for next week.

CovScott88 said:

I think AT will pretty much put out our strongest team. That way he can test us against a Premiership side to see where we are.

-------------Murphy------------
Christie--Keogh--Cranie--Hussey
-------------Clingan------------
---------Bell--------Baker-------
-----------McSheffrey----------
----Eastwood-----Jutkiewicz----

Subs - Dunn, McPake, Wood, Bigirimana, Thomas, O'Donovan, Platt.

Click to expand...

I think you're pretty close but I reckon AT still has faith in FE

2-1 to us i feel some players have a point to prove as this last friendly and will want to lay next sat

What do we reckon the attendance will be - 6-7k?

CovScott88 said:

I think AT will pretty much put out our strongest team. That way he can test us against a Premiership side to see where we are.

-------------Murphy------------
Christie--Keogh--Cranie--Hussey
-------------Clingan------------
---------Bell--------Baker-------
-----------McSheffrey----------
----O'Donovan-----Jutkiewicz----

Subs - Dunn, McPake, Wood, Bigirimana, Thomas, Eastwood, Platt.

Click to expand...

Wouldn't out strongest team be better with Keogh rb and Wood or McPake in at cb with Cranie?

skyblue87si said:

Wouldn't out strongest team be better with Keogh rb and Wood or McPake in at cb with Cranie?

Click to expand...

My thoughts exactly!

To be fair, I did put "pretty much" our strongest team. Plus McPake is still coming back from injury and Wood hasn't played too much. Christie has played in every friendly and AT has obviously been impressed by him.

So line up is:

Murphy
Christie
Keogh
Cranie
Hussey
Bigirimina
Clingan
Baker
McSheffrey
Eastwood
Jutkiewicz

Bit surprised that Bell's not starting as I'd expect this to be pretty much the starting line up next week.

When everyone is fit I think we should put Clarke RB and try Keogh RM because he puts in good crosses and can rub with it but I don't really rate his defending.

Anyway I think the attendance today will be 6,000

0-1 down already

Bell who has been a pre season highlight not even in the subs? Looks like a bit risqué at the central back pairing? Oops 0-1 after a few seconds with defenders standing still.
Guess we will see what we are made of now. This is not Nuneaton and Hinckley..........

PS can't understand why Eastwood is ahead of O'Donavan.

SkyBluesAndy said:

What do we reckon the attendance will be - 6-7k?

Click to expand...

a couple of thousand fans there. About 150 Norwich fans have made it into the stadium.

So it looks like we were convincingly beaten? I see from CovMad report we had lots of possession and could have scored with a bit of luck and had one disallowed. Seems we conceded too easily. Apparently we play 4-3-3 and struggled to score? Hmm.
Eastwood off with a hamstring pull?
Whoever went please post a report.

Agreed looking forward to a decent match report, It's so hard to gain any understanding of how we played looking at that live feed on the official site nearly every poster on there is just saying League 1 here we come, fucking cretins! :slap:

I thought we played well to be fair, a few good passes and as ever a few bad ones. Christie gets tackled a lot I though but when he manages to get a cross in it comes of nothing because he can't cross a ball! Norwichs first goal was poor they walked through out defense. Second goal was a free header so poor defending and their third was a good goal in fairness. Clingan actually shot for once but we struggled in front of goal and I'm really worried for the season ahead

Paxman II said:

So it looks like we were convincingly beaten? I see from CovMad report we had lots of possession and could have scored with a bit of luck and had one disallowed. Seems we conceded too easily. Apparently we play 4-3-3 and struggled to score? Hmm.
Eastwood off with a hamstring pull?
Whoever went please post a report.

Click to expand...

Tbh I thought we were pretty awful today, only shot of note was when O'donovan tapped in the rebound to be called offside. My ratings
Murphy -6 - Barely made a save all game, thought maybe he could have done better with the third goal.
Christie-5- Showed lots of enthusiasm getting up and down the flank but lacked quality with the cross often not beating the first man.
Keogh-6-
Cranie-6- Both CB did ok, tried to build from the back well but were shaky in defense at times
Hussey-6-Got into some good positions to deliver good crosses early on
Clingan-6-Started well but seemed to fade out the game for long spells
Birgi...7-Showed some nice passes and touches early on, went quiet for a while before coming on strong at the end
Baker-5-Ineffective
Mcsheffery-3-I forgot he was playing at times.
Juke- 6- lots of effort lacked quality
Eastwood-6- showed glimpses of quality but went missing for a large part of the game.

O'donovan looked lively when he came on other subs were ineffective when they came on.


I think we got into some good positions today but didn't find the killer pass or have that cutting edge that maybe a Marlon King gave us last season. We started off well in the first 30 mins after conceding the early goal but tailed off miserably for the rest of the game.

Big improvement needed for next week.

Just my thoughts

First hour of the match we were more than matching Norwich, and in my opinion we were the better team, what was lacking was clear, a playmaker in the final third and a speed merchant up front to stretch the opponents even more. The key difference in the game yesterday was the substitutes Norwich made, their 11 fresh players coming on just totally took the game beyond us, up untill that point we competed very well and were probably the better team, we're missing a couple of key links from having a very good first XI. Not sure about Keogh at centre half, at times he looks very indecisive and hesistant, his pace gets him out of trouble a lot of times, from a tactical and technical point of view the first and second goals were his fault. Clingan bossed the game from the base of the midfield as usual, Birgimania shown a few nice touches, but on the whole I don't feel he'll be ready, the game was played at a slower intensity yesterday than the cut throat speed of the Championship, he may struggle. Baker was his usual self, looks like a world beater one minute then the next second he'll show his true self, a league 2 player at best, he doesn't have the ability to play one two's or one touch playing, he holds on to the ball far too long and he isn't good/quick enough to do it, and like Bell he's just to one paced, hasn't got that turn of pace you need. Mcsheffrey was dissapointing, Juke linked up well at times and shown some nice touches as did Eastwood. On the whole a decent workout, had Norwich played via league rules (3 subs) we wouldn't of been on the end of a 3-0 defeat, their fresh legs won them the match, not that it really matters. The first half performance was impressive, Chris Hussey was very good aswell.

Player Ratings


1.Murphy - 6 - No chance with any of the goals, could here him from the top of block 21, claimed a few balls and played the ball out a lot quicker than Westwood did.

12.Christie - 7 - Good going forward, beat his opposite number with ease at times, not so sure defensively, positonally was caught out a lot.
15.Cranie - 7 - Solid as usual.
2.Keogh - 6 - Looked shaky and hesistant to me, not a centre half.
3.Hussey - 8 - Our best player on the day, very good going forward, solid defensively.

4.Clingan - 7 - Bossed the first half, some excellent switches of play.
16.Birgimania - 6 - Some nice touches, some bad touches. Definately a player there to work with though.
8.Baker - 5 - Sorry mate, you're just not upto this standard.
11.Mcsheffrey - 5 - Pretty anonymous, and with our style of play, theres no excuse for that.

9.Juke - 7 - Some strong hold up play, good link up play, needs to get on the end of crosses more.
10. Eastwood - 6 - Some nice touches here and there, but like Mcsheffrey he can be anonymous at times, needs to run in beyond a bit more and stretch the back four, he has the pace.

Subs

7.Thomas - 5 - Didn't really touch the ball, thought he was superb at Chesterfield. Had he been on in the first half he may have shone.
5. Wood - N/A -
19 - O'Donavon - 5 - good follow up play for the disallowed goal, didn't get involved enough.