Coventry City (A) League 1 Saturday 8/12/12.

[fatboyslim]

:|

[wednesburysaddler]

the annoying thing is there are glimpses of some great football by walsall
look at early season and for some spells in matches recently

okay i admit some have been dire but when we do pay football its nice quick and easy on the eye.

this to me suggests that the majority of the players do have the ability but something in the dressing room isnt right or players dont want to play for this manager
i hear smith in radio and he sounds like a wet lettuce no passion no oompphh.

id love to know if he at all motivates the players as it doesnt feel it from where i sit.

unbelievably were still outsde bottom 4 lets do something about it now before the inevitable happens

[WelshWalsallBen]

Went to the game it was bad but not a patch on Scunthorpe in my opinion. Think everyone needs to understand it doesn't matter what keeper we have between the sticks the defence we have at the minute we will ship goals.

Going Yeovil next week but working away early part of next year for couple of months. Hoping to sign off with a win. Miracles do happen :D

I said pre season we would go down. After a promising start I thought I would be wrong. No doubt about it for me were going down no question. No great escape.

[Whitters]

[
If population comes into it then China or India would be world cup winners every 4 years.

I would have thought the following argument would be fairly non contentious

Bigger population -> bigger fan base -> more money -> better facilities/better players-> more success.

Perhaps this argument carries less validity now you get the likes of Abramovich and Man City Oil Sheikhs

The India/China point can be explained with a nanoseconds thought and it's disappointing Whitters lacks the capacity to do so himself, but i'll bite.

Football isn't the national sport in India/China, so they although they have bigger populations, they don't have the requisite pool of football talent.

In years to come I fully expect China to become more successful at football

India (big country - national sport = Cricket ) England (small country - national sport = Football) How come England tonk India at cricket?

There are other variables that affect the outcome of a sporting event, plus there is always a random element to a one-off match.

I am not saying the bigger population wins every time. I am saying the country/town with the bigger population has the greater likelihood of being successful.

We are part of a vast conurbation.
Potentially we can draw on millions of people within a few miles.
We get a miserly 3,000 odd of our local people at games if we're lucky.
Note that people travel from all over the UK to watch teams like Man U.
We have been gross under-achievers at what we do.
With a succession of very good managers we could be Championship regulars at the very least.
You just need one bad one to stuff it all up and we've had a shed load.
Ok there are obviously other factors but the population is there and it will travel if necessary.
We are centrally located at the hub of the motorway system and therefore have an advantage over teams like Plymouth when it comes to player recruitment.
We've got a lot of things going for us but we haven't fulfilled our potential.
It's as simple as that.

[wfc & chips]

look on the bright side; we may get to send crewe down at their own place on the last day. and statistically we're improving, last time i watched us play cov we lost 6-1!

in all seriousness that was dismal, to ship 5 against what was a poor team themselves bodes ill. so far i've supported what smith's done but i'm seriously concerned now. except for the strikers everyone was culpable, not saying they couldn't have done better. defence and midfield were hopeless without the ball, and too often not good enough with it. at least chambers introduced some bite when he came on. the keeper let himself down, in stark contrast to the man at the other end, our only competent guardian since jimmy left in my opinion (ince too prone to mistakes), a man we should've snapped up when given the chance, twice i believe. i digress.

i think butler's 2nd was for the challenge, he was trying to talk himself out of, not into, a booking. surely the referee's report will confirm this, or otherwise? couldn't see enough of the 1st, think the ref took the easy option, my mate swears the cov player raised his hands to butler's face. whatever, with 1 yellow, you have to be absolutely certain with every challenge thereafter. if it was a booking for the challenge, it was foolish, if for gobbing off, absolutely bloody idiotic.

god knows where we go from here, god knows. whatever you think of taundry's abilities, he's absolutely shot & needs taking out of the firing line. we need another centre-half, as downing isn't strong enough yet, & i haven't rated holden since i 1st clapped eyes on him. & how bad must baxendale be in training if he can't disturb this lot? he looked 1 of our best to me earlier in the season. flo is undeniably superb, hard to believe his age, but he ain't ours & we need a basket with more than 1 egg, to mangle a metaphor.

if we play this lot again next season, i might just stay in the greyhound & save myself the half hour walk down the cut. roaring solid-fuel stoves & delicious winter ales i'd never heard of. a great day until about half 3. you live & learn!

[Willenhall Saddler]

4-1

GINGER MOURINHO

The actual chant was ginger Benitez.Then there was a chant of "we want Hutchings back"

[Willenhall Saddler]

Well just back from the latest horror show.It just goes from bad to worse and it seems there is not a damn thing anybody can or will do about it. We are stuck with a clueless manager given a new 2 and 1/2 year contract by a incompetant board.

The bizarre thing to me is that there must have been over 1000 Saddlers fans there today who were ALL resigned to the fact that we are totally useless and are going down.

Nobody thinks the club will act and do what any other club would do and sack the manager. Talking to varoius people today the general consensus seems to be that if Smith goes (which he should) who in their right mind is out there desparate enough to be employed by Bonser.

Todays performance highlights that the players themselves have totally given up.

How the hell are we not in the bottom 4 after 15 winless matches. In a macarbre sort of way I'm interested to see if we can create a new club record for winless matches.

Still a way to go to beat the club record, it's 22 games without a win.We're on 15.

[Willenhall Saddler]

Run of winless games- wfc's record is 15, set in 87 isn't it?

No, worst run without a win is 22 games, set in the 50's i think.

[Aldridge_saddler]

Guys this is only one loss in 4 games!

Gew on the swifty boys!

[Willenhall Saddler]

But as the great philsopher on here says (crodonilson) KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON!

[4143]

I doubt I'm the only one where my level of apathy is reaching an all time high.

My level of apathy has reached an all time... meh.

[WFC_Rob]

It's taken me til now to be able to post, but Saturday was absolutely woeful. Any manager and group of players to get outclassed so drastically against a club in the same league should hang their heads in shame.

I haven't had chance to read this whole thread, but I do think KC's comments about Smith's team selection are approproate. The thing is, I don't think he is unsure as to what his best team is - I think Dean Smith's convinced himself that his best team is the one he's put out for most of the previous 16 games. The same team that hasn't won a single one during that time. That's the major worry for me.

Earlier on in the season, we played 4-5-1, making the most of the fact that the middle of midfield is probably where we have the greatest strength in depth. Playing one up front is also the best we can do to address the fact that George Bowerman is the only player in our entire squad capable of troubling defenders (and goalkeepers, most notably) at this level. By playing this system, we were playing good football and picking up points. Yet two of the players who were key to that run - Bowerman and Baxendale - have barely kicked a ball in anger since October.

The other issue we have is that we have one or two players who help our opposition more than they help us. Richard Taundry was completely destroyed at least five times on Saturday, yet there wasn't even a suggestion that we might look to change things and stop them tearing us apart down that left flank. Even before they equalised, Taundry had been ripped apart twice. What on Earth is James Chambers doing in our squad if he isn't even deemed good enough to replace Taundry?

Equally, I can count on one hand the number of useful crosses Jamie Paterson has delivered this season. What will it take for him to get dropped?

I'm by no means suggesting they're the only two culprits as the likes of Taylor and Holden were also pretty shoddy on Saturday, but the worry for me is that despit this run that we're on, Smith seems no closer to changing the system or the players within it. How does he suddenly expect our fortunes to change? Just to add further insult to our predicament, Smith has resorted to blaming everything and anything but his team selection, tactics and his players' performances. The ref was poor on Saturday, but he didn't gift them five goals.

[Aldridge_saddler]

Equally, I can count on one hand the number of useful crosses Jamie Paterson has delivered this season. What will it take for him to get dropped?

Ah Bludz, I crossed it in yo! butz it turn3d into a shot Init!

[King Crimson]

I doubt I'm the only one where my level of apathy is reaching an all time high.

My level of apathy has reached an all time... meh.

:grin:

[latviancheese]

Can only say what i saw from the goals conceded, but the attempts at defending from every single player were so bad, i actually laughed out loud. Dunno wtf Taundry was doing. Some aerobics to lose weight probably.

Goalie culpable for at least one, near post. Terrible goalkeeping. Thats 101 stuff.

I know people say Butler got sent off for dissent, i think he got booked for the "foul" though :?

Coventry have some good L1 players, no doubt about that, but most of the team is not all that better than ours, and to lose 5-1 without an ounce of fight is disgraceful.

[Bernie]

Run of winless games- wfc's record is 15, set in 87 isn't it?

No, worst run without a win is 22 games, set in the 50's i think.

-
Our worst run was in 1988-89 after Tommy Coakley had taken us up into the second level. We beat Sunderland on 2-0 at home on 8th October, and from then our run of results was: LDDDLLLLLLLLLLLLLDLLLL the final defeat was seven nil at home to Chelsea. We then went to Sunderland on 11th February and won 3-0 with a hat trick from Stuart Rimmer.

The 22 match run without a win includes 18 league matches, 2 FA Cup matches (a home draw and an away defeat to Brentford), 1 League Cup match ( away defeat against Liverpool), and a defeat in the Simod (??) Cup to Crystal Palace. We had a run of 13 consecutive defeats, which covered the whole of November and December 1988. Coakley was sacked on 27 December 1988, after 11 consecutive defeats. He was replaced by John Barnwell who took us down and was sacked in March 1990 when relegation to the fourth division was looking likely.

[Willenhall Saddler]

Run of winless games- wfc's record is 15, set in 87 isn't it?

No, worst run without a win is 22 games, set in the 50's i think.

-
Our worst run was in 1988-89 after Tommy Coakley had taken us up into the second level. We beat Sunderland on 2-0 at home on 8th October, and from then our run of results was: LDDDLLLLLLLLLLLLLDLLLL the final defeat was seven nil at home to Chelsea. We then went to Sunderland on 11th February and won 3-0 with a hat trick from Stuart Rimmer.

The 22 match run without a win includes 18 league matches, 2 FA Cup matches (a home draw and an away defeat to Brentford), 1 League Cup match ( away defeat against Liverpool), and a defeat in the Simod (??) Cup to Crystal Palace. We had a run of 13 consecutive defeats, which covered the whole of November and December 1988. Coakley was sacked on 27 December 1988, after 11 consecutive defeats. He was replaced by John Barnwell who took us down and was sacked in March 1990 when relegation to the fourth division was looking likely.

Thanks for that Bernie, i knew it was 22 games.God knows where i thought it was the 50's though.Maybe because 3 seasons running we finished last

[ShyTallKnight]

I was not at the game on Saturday. But from what little I know of Smith I would suggest that once we took the lead he passed on the message to hang on to what we had got, not concede and see the game out. That is why we went to rat poo shortly thereafter. Have heard him in the past constantly shouting at Bowerman (when he played!) to 'get behind the ball'. Our manager is a first class turd.

[Neuromantic]

4-1

GINGER MOURINHO

More like:

[WFC_Rob]

I'll tell you what sums up Smith's tactics at the moment. The decision to replace a striker with Adam Chambers when we were 4-1 down.

I don't care whether George Bowerman is an arrogant, gobby little sod or not. To keep him on the bench on Saturday was absolutely criminal.

[philthesaddler]

See my tweet from the moment when he made that change.

Hash tag "IveSeenItAllNow"