[themaclad]

Coventry City
Deepdale 19/10/2024 12.30pm

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

MANAGER



Rumour about falling out with ex assistant manager who has left the club, maybe not the hapy ship that it used to be

LAST TIME OUT





MYSTIC MACS FORM GUIDE

PNE 8 COVENTRY 5

A first this season a higher points reading than our opponents and ever more astonishing we are actually above them in the league table

IN FORM



TRANSFER ACTIVITY



IN THE PAST



Coventry are due to beat us sometime although think they are still be penalised for having the temerity to make us pay to watch Carlton Palmer

OTHER GAMES AND TABLE




MACS PREVIEW

Another international break has gone and proper football can resume although again we are lumbered with a dinner time kick off
Looks like as we as fang Osmajic, we are likely to be without Keane, which does leave us a bit short of fowards, Greenwood back after a ban.
Coventry not had the best of starts usually hate playing against us, we scored three against them twice last season basically about 20% total of the goals we got last season.
Robns no mug but hopefully we can pick up where we left off in the last game against the Hillbillies

[themaclad]

The Sky Blues

Coventry City sit just a point and a place below PNE heading into the weekend’s round of fixtures, having won two of their nine matches so far this season.
A lethal strikeforce of Ellis Simms and Haji Wright helped the Sky Blues push towards a top six spot and reach the FA Cup semi-finals last season, and they’ll be hoping they can get firing again this term.

Mark Robins’ side will come to Lancashire looking for their first away victory of the season in the Championship, and their first league win at Deepdale in club history.

The Officials

Referee: Josh Smith
Assistant Referees: Sam Lewis and Daniel Leach
Fourth Official: Ben Toner

Josh Smith, who refereed five PNE matches last season, will take charge of his first North End game of the current campaign this weekend.

So far this term, he’s shown 38 yellow cards and one red in ten matches – including two games in the Premier League.

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The Boss


With seven matches coming up within a three-week period, Paul Heckingbottom is prepared to use the depth of his squad for the upcoming run of fixtures.

PNE’s return to Championship action on Saturday against Coventry City will mark the start of a run which will see North End in weekend-midweek action until the next international break.

Having been pleased with what he’s seen from all of his squad, though, he has no worries about utilising everyone available, although the gaffer's looking for them to show they deserve their spot.



Hecky said: “Everyone will be needed. The good thing is we’ve seen good performances from the boys that have been starting and those that have been coming off the bench as well.

“We’ve had good performances out of 15, 16, 17 people per game which is good because it gives us that opportunity to change the team about when we need it.

“If we just want to change it for energy, if we want to change the starting XI to have impact from the bench, it’s important.

“In the international break, we put a friendly in there to get some players 90 minutes-plus and just targeted the physical outputs in the game, which they did. They went above and beyond what a Championship game would be so that was important as well, coming into this short period with a lot of games.”

The manager is hopeful he’ll be able to choose from all of the players who spent the international break away with their countries, except from the suspended Milutin Osmajić.


Ali McCann was the last to arrive back at PNE and will only return to training on Friday, but that’s not a concern for the manager.

For Coventry City, they head to Deepdale a point and a place below North End in the table, looking for their first ever league victory in PR1.

Hecky said: “He’s obviously lost some good players at the top end of the pitch but replaced them last summer, and again this summer with some big signings.

“I think he’s come out and said that in terms of depth and options at the top end of the pitch, it’s the best he’s had in his squad which says a lot given the players he’s had.

“I can see that in the games. They look really dangerous going forward. They’ve had the second-most shots in the league from counter attacks and the most shots in the league, so it shows they’re an attack-minded team and one we need to be really prepared for and perform well against to get the points.”

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Robins view

Mark Robins told how him and his team are looking forward to getting back playing in front of the Sky Blues supporters this weekend.

City head to Deepdale to take on Preston North End, looking to bounce back from defeat last time out.

The Sky Blues have had six players away on international duty during the break, with Robins confirming those players have all returned back healthy ahead of the weekend.

The City boss also provided an update on Tatsuhiro Sakamoto and Jake Bidwell.



International players returning to Ryton…

“Everyone back by yesterday, some were back a day before, but they are all back in the building now ahead of the weekend.

Mixed fortunes for them, but they all go away and enjoy being in those environments for their respective countries and then they come back and fit straight back in.

When they come back in, you’re gauging where they are at and how they are feeling, but they’ve come back in good nick.”



The week leading up to facing PNE…

“They’ve done some training, and they’ve worked really hard, and the sessions have been good, so we’re looking forward to getting back in front of our supporters and playing and turning our fortunes around.

The results haven’t been what we’ve wanted, some of the performances have been great, but ultimately, we have to try, and pick points up.”



Coming up against Preston North End…

“There's always opportunities, there’s no point hiding behind it, it is what it is and for whatever reason we haven’t won a game there.

Since I’ve been back here, it’s been a tough place to go, and it will be no different tomorrow.

Paul Heckingbottom has gone in and there has been a slight change in what they do, maybe a fundamental change over time, but they are a good side with a lot of talented players.


They have a really good squad, and we expect another difficult game, but we have nothing to lose, because at some point it has to change.”



Conceding too many goals…

“We’ve conceded too many goals of a poor type that we’ve contributed to ourselves, and we’ve shot ourselves in the foot a few times.”



Working their way into the season…

“I said at the start of the season that I was concerned with the level of expectation, and you have to manage the expectation, but go into games knowing we have got some really good quality and capable players.

We’re going to make mistakes and there are going to be ups and downs, but we have to have an understanding of why things happen.

We’ve started seasons in the Championship not particularly well apart from one season, when we won the first seven games at home, but we couldn’t win away from home.

Those other seasons, we’ve worked our way into them, and it feels like that’s what has got to happen again, but there are good signs earlier, whereas last season I don’t think we performed particularly well at the start of the season and we were struggling to pick up points.

We’ve got to face facts and move through it as we always do.”



Tatsuhiro Sakamoto’s injury healing…

“Tats is fine, he has trained well and has got himself back into the reckoning and it’s good to have him moving freely and he looks close to being back to where he was last season.”



Jake Bidwell update…

“He’ll get himself back really quickly. He will miss tomorrow but he won’t be too long. They are looking at about eight weeks, it’s been a few weeks now already, but I think he will be quicker than that.

It was similar to Jamie’s injury and they might be back around the same time, but it won’t be long.”

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Preston North End 1 Riis Coventry City 0

Attendance: 15,907 (2,595 Coventry City fans)

Referee: Mr J Smith.

It's now 22 games since the Sky Blues last beat North End, only surpassed by Lincoln City's inability to beat Birmingham which goes back to 1911.
Mark Robins must love this fixture if his players had had taken their chances they would have got something from this one as well, they actually played well
Two changes for us Big Thor in for Potts and Ledson for Whiteman, still no Keane and Fang stilk suspended. The bench looked a bit threadbare.
12.30 kick off plays havoc with the routine, look forward to teh next Saturday match at home which actually does kick off at three. Good support from the Midlands, loud as well.

FIRST HALF

Really entertaining after the initial sparing, only surprise there were no goals at half time. The visitors probably shaded the first half Sheaf missed a header which he should have converted and Bassette missed an equally scoreable chance, they played some good football as did we Frokjaer and Bready were causing Coventry all sorts of problems down our left side. Only issue Riis looked short of confidence missed a simple header from a inch perfect Ledson cross and when he did get one on target he was denied by a good Dovin save.
Rudoni caused us iissues especially with dead balls but scoreless at the break it was.

SECOND HALF

City started the better should really have scored very early on in the half after some pap defending by us, however the hapless Bassette failed to get his shot on target, he was too miss an easier chance later when about 10 yards out screwed his shot horribly wide.
Riis in a great position for us again lacked confidence for a shot instead passed to Frokjaer who couldn't get his shot away, then Frokjaer who was outstanding all game went down the left, got to the byline, peach of a cross Riis seemed to not overly exert himself to go for itand again cleared, Frokjaer slightly bemused by his countryman's retinence.
Greenwood came on as a Substitute, corner to the back stick, Brady six yards out solved the Riis conundrum by blasting the ball towards goal think it Riis's head rather than him heading and in it went.
Audible groan from the Coventry end but to be fair to them they didn't give up, Sheaf hit one into the ground and it bounced over from close range, Wright had one disallowed for hand ball, picture seems to suggest it was a the right decision and then deep into injury time a Thomas header was going in but a wonderful one handed save by Woodman meant we kept the points.
Coventry are decent and good news for them we only play them once more this season

Hecky


Paul Heckingbottom felt getting the opening goal in the victory against Coventry City was always going to be important.

North End and the Sky Blues went toe-to-toe in the first hour of the game as both sides created chances, before Emil Riis broke the deadlock in the 72nd minute.

PNE had to then defend well at the other end to hold on to their victory which saw the unbeaten league run against Coventry extend to 22 matches.



Hecky said: “There were lots of things in the performance which were good, even at the end when we stood strong. I think they only had one shot on target but Freddie pulled off a really good save, so everyone contributed to that which is really pleasing.

“I think the first goal in a game like that is really important, especially as it wears on and on.

“Luckily, we had our own attacking players on the bench so if we needed to change we could have but luckily we didn’t.

“We were the ones who got the goal and got in front. It was a case of them just continuing to do the things we did well to see the game out.”

Not only did PNE extend their extraordinary run against the Sky Blues, striker Riis also has an impressive record against Mark Robins’ side.


The Dane has now scored four goals in his last five against Coventry, having headed home on the end of a vicious ball across goal from Robbie Brady.

Hecky said: “He got one last time out didn’t he and that got chalked off through no one’s fault. He should have two in two now and two really good performances.

“That’s why I’m glad he’s scored because it changes the narrative because people say he’s not scored. Well, he did because he scored in the last game as well and put in a good performance.

“Today, he probably got more chances and the pleasing thing was how we played to get him them chances, but where he was on the pitch, in the six-yard box and in the middle of the goal, is where we want him and where he’ll get most chances.”

ROBINS

Coventry City manager Mark Robins says that results will turn around if his players continue to work as hard as they have been, despite today's defeat on the road against Preston North End.

Emil Riis's late goal was the difference between the two sides in a game that saw Norman Bassette, Bobby Thomas and Ben Sheaf all have chances to score for the Sky Blues.

Speaking after the game, the manager discussed the defeat and the comes still to come in October for City.

On the defeat against Preston:

I think that if you take the game in isolation we'd done very little wrong. We spoke at half time about how we have got to win challenges and win tackles a little bit more, and be on the front foot.

There wasn't a great deal in it but we probably cancelled each other a little bit. But we had opportunities to score. It was just one of those games where we ended up losing with a goal at the one time that we didn't do our jobs properly.

I'm also disappointed with our goal that was dissallowed. I am going to see the referee in a minute. I don't know why that goal was disallowed.

I'm disappointed, really disappointed. I am disappointed for the players because they've given everything.



They've played some good football. We've been in decent positions to take the game to them. And a place obviously where we, we struggle to win them. And today was just one of those games where we, you know, in the moment you just scratch your head because there are fine margins and we're losing out on those fine margins.

So, as you say, on to the next. We had some nearly moments and some decent moments but we have to take our changes as we shoot ourselves in the foot too often.

Sometimes you can put your finger on things and we know what we've done right and wrong but it wasn't a bad performance, we've just come out on the wrong side of the result.

We have to keep going and plugging away. Things will turn around.

On the upcoming games:

The players have to deal with this. It's my responsibility.

I think that they've been doing a lot of good things and they're still showing that commitment but at the moment it's just failing us a little bit.

We can look forward to the next game now. There is no hiding. We will face this head on and keep playing football.

On Ben Wilson's absence:

He's injured. He's picked up an injury in the last game and will be out for a few weeks.

[themaclad]

[themaclad]