[themaclad]

Coventry City v Preston North End

CBS Arena 23/2/2024

https://www.ccfc.co.uk/

https://www.skybluestalk.co.uk/threads/c...eb.157063/

LAST TIME OUT





FORM GUIDE

COVENTRY 11 PNE 14

Best run of form for us since start of the season

TOP GUNS



HISTORY AND STUFF

Coventry Castle (grid reference SP336788)[1] was a motte and bailey castle in the city of Coventry, England. It was demolished in the late 12th century and St Mary's Guildhall was built on part of the site.

History
Construction
It was built in the early 12th century by Ranulf de Gernon, 4th Earl of Chester.[2] Its first known use was during The Anarchy when Robert Marmion, a supporter of King Stephen, expelled the monks from the adjacent priory of Saint Mary and converted it into a fortress from which he waged a battle against the Earl. Marmion perished in the battle.

In 1147, those loyal to the king retreated to its defences during a siege by Ranulf de Gernon, 4th Earl of Chester whilst he tried to recapture the castle after he had handed the castle over to King Stephen. This was because whilst he was captured by the King in 1146 he was forced to give his castles over, although he only yielded a number of which Coventry was one.[3] After the siege was lifted, King Stephen destroyed the castle, however it was probably later repaired as it was described as a viable fortification in 1182.[1]

Tudor period
In November 1569, Mary, Queen of Scots was detained in Caesar's Tower, by which time St. Mary's Guildhall had been built onto it.[4] The room in which she was detained is disputed. A room in Caesar's Tower nicknamed the "Mary Queen of Scots" was originally thought to be the location due to its cell-like appearance however it is likely she was held in the " Old Mayoress's Parlour".[4]

Present day
Today, Caesar's Tower – which is thought to be all that remains of the castle – still exists as part of St Mary's Guildhall. It was rebuilt after bombing during the Second World War.[5] On the bottom floor of the tower is "the Treasury", and above it is what is known (though, it is thought to be incorrectly) as the "Mary Queen of Scots room".

The Cathedral Lanes Shopping Centre was constructed over part of the castle.[6]

Who’s Available?

Duane Holmes and Kian Best are back in training, and one of them will travel with North End for this fixture, while the other will stay behind to continue in their recovery.

Ched Evans has had a clear out of his knee and is expected to be back fit following the March international break.

Meanwhile, Brad Potts also remains out as he continues to nurse a hamstring injury.

Opposition Focus


After a stuttering start to the season, Coventry City have really kicked into gear since the end of November, having lost just twice in their previous 21 outings.

That remarkable run of form has seen them surge up the table to just outside the Play-Off spots, and Mark Robins will be hoping his side can stay there and go one better than last season, when they were beaten in a Wembley final against Luton Town.

Despite losing arguably their two top performers from last term – Viktor Gyokeres and Gustavo Hamer – the Sky Blues have strengthened accordingly, adding their current two top scorers, Haji Wright and Tashuhiro Sakamoto, among others.

Match Officials

Referee: Andy Davies
Assistant Referees: Greg Read and James Wilson
Fourth Official: Dean Whitestone

Andy Davies will take charge of a North End fixture for the first time since January 2022 on Friday night.

PNE have won just once in the 12 matches which Davies has taken charge of, with that victory being a 2-1 win over Derby County in the Carabao Cup in 2020.

So far this season, Davies has refereed 18 matches, showing 72 yellow cards and one red.

MACS VIEW

M6 on a Friday night my favourite, past the pink church, St Philips at Hassall Green and the horse home at Groundslow Farm, the Bescot home of Warsaw FC.
The sky blue arena 900 of us, 2.30 start with that starting time you almost hope for delays after all there is plenty of things to do on the outskirts of Coventry on a Friday night.
Two fairly well in form sides should be a decent game

[themaclad]

Coventry City line-up: Wilson; Van Ewijk, Thomas, Binks, Dasilva (Bidwell, 45); Eccles, Latibeaudiere; Sakamoto (Palmer, 31), O’Hare (Torp, 73), Wright (Godden, 73); Simms. Subs not used: Collins, Kelly, Kitching, Tavares, Lusala.

PNE line-up: Woodman; Storey, Lindsay, Hughes; Browne (Seary, 90+3), Whiteman, McCann, Millar (Cunningham, 74); Frøkjær (Ledson, 88); Riis (Osmajić, 74), Keane (Woodburn, 88). Subs not used: Cornell, Stewart, Whatmough, Mawene.

Attendance: 24,500 (946 PNE pre-sales).

Referee: Mr A Davies.

Coventry's night was summed up by giving away an indirect free kick trying to kick off after the third went in. 1 September 2007 Beautiful Girls by Sean Kingston was number 1, it was also the day Coventry last beat us in a league game 21 games ago, get the feeling they will never ever beat us again.
A magnificent Friday journey down the M6 although the gridlock around Sandbach meant we went on a nature ramble around South Cheshire and Staffordshire, some nice properties in the area although not in Kidsgrove and Tunstall luckily avoided the hell hole that is Burslem.
Finally arrived after a 4 and a quarter hour journey, hauled my ever knackered frame up to row VV which is two from the back 30 miles above the ground. Brady injured so McCann came in, Browne to right wing back and Millar back on the left.
First minute corner given away , played short ball into box Riis powers header home. (Picture leading up to first goal)

All over them they made mistake after mistake and another mistake ed to the second although it's a great bit of football that led to it, ball eventually reaches Riis, advances on goal shot is blocked it runs to Da Silva not sure turning to run back towards goal was the wisest thing to do, Riis gets a toe on the ball runs to Keane and hey presto 2 up.
They had a chance to pull one back but Eccles sent it way over the bar, the home fans were less than impressed with their players and were even less impressed after Frokjaer won a challenge near their corner flag got grief from a section of support and started to wave at them.
Lengthy stoppage for an injury to their Japanese player landed awkwardly eventually Sakamoto was carried off on a stretcher, to compound their misery the third was just around the corner, Riis played in down the left tried to fail Mds just failed to connect but have no fear Bobby Thomas is here, plants it past his own keeper three up job done before half time.
City perhaps unlucky not to reduce the arears shot blocked by Woodman and Hughes vcleared the second effort from the line.
All in all a great first half performance

Only had to withstand a brief bit of Coventry pressure at the start of the half otherwise we did enough to ensure they didn't score abd cruised to the points. Seary made his debut in the late stages of the game although without touching the ball. 52 points shpuld really now be safe from the drop edge of the play offs could be interesting, Hull and the now losing Saints next two games. Empty seats by the score long before the end and an untoubled journey home.



Coventry manager Mark Robins told BBC Radio CWR:

"That was as bad as it's been for probably a good few years - it was worse than the Stoke game last year when we lost 4-0.

"Sometimes the game gets away from you early on, and today was that. We conceded after a minute, a really poor goal - you have got to defend that better. They set their stall out from the first minute and we didn't cope with it.

"We've been old-manned. They've got an experienced line-up, they ran and fought harder than us, and did the dirty side of the game better than anyone who has been here, so they deserved to win, no doubt about it.

"You can talk about the clean sheet in the second half, but the game was done. You can talk about trying to salvage pride, but there was no pride in that, it didn't even look like a performance, it was a group of individuals who looked scared stiff and let them get on top of us physically and mentally."

Preston manager Ryan Lowe told BBC Radio Lancashire:

"It was a top performance. On the front foot from minute one, with a set-piece goal that we worked on.

"I couldn't have asked for any more than 3-0 in the first half, and we possibly could have had another one. They had a go, to be fair, but we were just better all round.

"The lads were fantastic. In the second half they were changing shape and were obviously going to come at us with good players coming on, but we kept the ball, nice and simple, tired them out a little bit.

"I'm over the moon for the boys, but it's just another win that takes us closer to the points tally we set yesterday."

Think Mark might actually be giving us a compliment sometime you never know