1. What is your name and how long have you supported Coventry?
My name is Andy and I have supported Coventry for around 16 years now. It mixed in a bit with my glory-hunting schoolboy days of supporting Man Utd, but I realised when I turned 15 that “supporting” a club I had no affinity with was a bit of a waste of time.
2. What are your views on how the season has gone for you so far?
It’s gone far better than I think anyone could have realistically expected before the season started, but almost with a disappointing hue. Our run of 2 defeats in 18 would be lauded as a grand success in any other season I have followed City, but with the team we have it is a concern to most how much of that run is padded out with draws. It’s obviously great to avoid defeat, but we have greater ambitions and we need to convert some of our draws into wins if we want to keep touch with the pack.
3. Who has been your most impressive player and why?
This is a tough question. We’ve got the league’s top scorer in our team in Adam Armstrong, so it’s difficult not to say him. However, the combination of John Fleck and Romain Vincelot in the middle has been an absolute revelation, and allowed them both to flourish. I’d probably have to plump for Fleck, who is unfortunately suspended for this game, because he is finally starting to show glimpses of the promise he showed as a youngster. His range of passing is probably the best I’ve seen in the league, and his added tenacity and positional sense shows why we fear losing him in this transfer window or the next.
4. Which result have you been most pleased with so far and why?
I’ll have to say the 2-0 victory over Wigan on the opening day of the season. It’s not that we played brilliantly, and it isn’t detracted from by the fact that Wigan were horrendous, but a week or two before this game I’d been to watch us play Oxford United in a pre-season friendly and we showed no signs of improvement. At that point I genuinely wondered why I’d bought yet another season ticket and we thinking that relegation was all but a formality. Fast-forward to that Wigan game, our 4-2-4 lineup, and it was a different team. I think most fans knew at that point we were in for something special this season.
5. What are your views on Southend United?
I’ll be honest, I don’t really have an opinion on Southend. They’re a typical League 1 side. I suppose we haven’t really met all that much in recent years, so that would go some way to explaining why. All I know of Southend is that Freddy Eastwood – the £1.2m carthorse – scored a free kick to knock Man Utd out of a cup a fair few years back.
6. Are there any teams in League One who have surprised you?
I think Burton have been a surprise to everyone in the division. They have such a solid defence, and that’s a great platform to build on. Hopefully they concede in a few upcoming games as they don’t tend to score that many, and we could do with them dropping a few points! Aside from Burton, I think the fact Blackpool aren’t glued to the bottom of the table is a mild surprise, as I thought they’d drop straight through this league and probably be battling Stockport within 3 years.
7. If you are attending the game, will this be your first visit to Roots Hall?
I’m afraid I’ve never been, and I won’t be going on this occasion either. I don’t get to as many away games as I would like to, and it’s a little awkward to get to and from by train.
8. Links - What do you think of former Southend winger Jacob Murphy and current Blues midfielder Gary Deegan?
Murphy is a rather frustrating player, because when he is on song he is right up there for the best player in the league. He tore Gillingham – at the time top of the league – to shreds in the first half of our match at the Ricoh, but hasn’t really turned in a similar performance since. I want him to get more involved, and it seems that the game passes him by for the first hour of most matches. I still think he is an important player for us. Moving onto Deegan, he wasn’t too bad for us. Certainly proved to be worth the punt we had on him. I think we picked him up for about £30k and whilst he didn’t pull up any trees he wasn’t the worst player I’d seen. Although having seen the state of his beard now, I’m glad he’s no longer here.
9. Where do you expect both Coventry and Southend to finish this season?
I’m still harbouring hopes of a league title, but we are now at a point where we have to rely rather heavily on other teams falling apart. Realistically, we will probably finish between 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] and 4[SUP]th[/SUP], which is still better than I could have ever imagined at the start of the season. Southend will finish around mid-table I’d expect; it seems your form earlier in the season has tailed off a bit, but there’s plenty of dross that will finish below you.
10. Score Prediction for the game
Southend 0-2 Sky Blues
1. What is your name and how long have you supported Coventry?
My name is Andy and I have supported Coventry for around 16 years now. It mixed in a bit with my glory-hunting schoolboy days of supporting Man Utd, but I realised when I turned 15 that “supporting” a club I had no affinity with was a bit of a waste of time.
2. What are your views on how the season has gone for you so far?
It’s gone far better than I think anyone could have realistically expected before the season started, but almost with a disappointing hue. Our run of 2 defeats in 18 would be lauded as a grand success in any other season I have followed City, but with the team we have it is a concern to most how much of that run is padded out with draws. It’s obviously great to avoid defeat, but we have greater ambitions and we need to convert some of our draws into wins if we want to keep touch with the pack.
3. Who has been your most impressive player and why?
This is a tough question. We’ve got the league’s top scorer in our team in Adam Armstrong, so it’s difficult not to say him. However, the combination of John Fleck and Romain Vincelot in the middle has been an absolute revelation, and allowed them both to flourish. I’d probably have to plump for Fleck, who is unfortunately suspended for this game, because he is finally starting to show glimpses of the promise he showed as a youngster. His range of passing is probably the best I’ve seen in the league, and his added tenacity and positional sense shows why we fear losing him in this transfer window or the next.
4. Which result have you been most pleased with so far and why?
I’ll have to say the 2-0 victory over Wigan on the opening day of the season. It’s not that we played brilliantly, and it isn’t detracted from by the fact that Wigan were horrendous, but a week or two before this game I’d been to watch us play Oxford United in a pre-season friendly and we showed no signs of improvement. At that point I genuinely wondered why I’d bought yet another season ticket and we thinking that relegation was all but a formality. Fast-forward to that Wigan game, our 4-2-4 lineup, and it was a different team. I think most fans knew at that point we were in for something special this season.
5. What are your views on Southend United?
I’ll be honest, I don’t really have an opinion on Southend. They’re a typical League 1 side. I suppose we haven’t really met all that much in recent years, so that would go some way to explaining why. All I know of Southend is that Freddy Eastwood – the £1.2m carthorse – scored a free kick to knock Man Utd out of a cup a fair few years back.
6. Are there any teams in League One who have surprised you?
I think Burton have been a surprise to everyone in the division. They have such a solid defence, and that’s a great platform to build on. Hopefully they concede in a few upcoming games as they don’t tend to score that many, and we could do with them dropping a few points! Aside from Burton, I think the fact Blackpool aren’t glued to the bottom of the table is a mild surprise, as I thought they’d drop straight through this league and probably be battling Stockport within 3 years.
7. If you are attending the game, will this be your first visit to Roots Hall?
I’m afraid I’ve never been, and I won’t be going on this occasion either. I don’t get to as many away games as I would like to, and it’s a little awkward to get to and from by train.
8. Links - What do you think of former Southend winger Jacob Murphy and current Blues midfielder Gary Deegan?
Murphy is a rather frustrating player, because when he is on song he is right up there for the best player in the league. He tore Gillingham – at the time top of the league – to shreds in the first half of our match at the Ricoh, but hasn’t really turned in a similar performance since. I want him to get more involved, and it seems that the game passes him by for the first hour of most matches. I still think he is an important player for us.
9. Where do you expect both Coventry and Southend to finish this season?
I’m still harbouring hopes of a league title, but we are now at a point where we have to rely rather heavily on other teams falling apart. Realistically, we will probably finish between 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] and 4[SUP]th[/SUP], which is still better than I could have ever imagined at the start of the season. Southend will finish around mid-table I’d expect; it seems your form earlier in the season has tailed off a bit, but there’s plenty of dross that will finish below you.
10. Score Prediction for the game
Southend 0-2 Sky Blues
