 Tuesday, 4th Mar 2008 20:50 QPR head up to the Ricoh Arena on Wednesday night to face relegation haunted Coventry City. Coventry City (20th) v Queens Park Rangers (15th) Following our awesome display on Sunday against Stoke City, we’re now left wondering as to which side will be turning up for our next game at Coventry – the Tuesday night side from last week at Oakwell in which none of the players really fancied their chances on a cold and windy night in South Yorkshire, or the side from Sunday against second from top Stoke which blew the opposition apart with the quick, precise and flowing football on display. That win on Sunday pushed us eight points clear of the drop. It also pushed us eight points away from a current play off place which means it still gives us an outside (albeit slim) chance to make a final push for that elusive fifth/sixth spot in the table. This is why I disagree with our esteemed editor’s comments in his last preview when he spoke about potential boredom effecting midtable teams in this league playing each other (though the point about the lack of quality was spot on) because the beauty of the Championship is that one week you can be eyeing the team below you, when suddenly, a couple of weeks later, you suddenly find yourself interested in what’s going on at the top end. It is so wide open and for that reason alone makes it the best league to play in in this country. I’m going to miss the Championship if and when we achieve the aim of promotion because of its wide open aspect. In fact, every single team in the division is currently involved one way or another in either fancying their chances of making the play off’s, or by way of sweating it out in worrying about what is going on below them in the table. Coventry for example at this moment in time are not safe from the drop. Sheffield Wednesday who we play on Saturday are a team involved in the relegation dogfight, and our next opponents at home, Blackpool, have done tremendously well to pull themselves out of the mire, and if they carry on their recent good form, are another team that have an outside chance of making the play off’s. It’s a fantastic league (forget about the quality for now) which makes it exciting for every fan that supports a team in it and long live the Championship I say. Five minutes on Coventry City Oh, and then I think of a certain game at Highfield Road in 1996 which left us all heartbroken as we knew deep down following ‘that’ defeat that we were down. The thing is, Coventry had been involved, and continued to be involved in relegation dogfights so many times in the past that I think many of us had assumed that they would be one of those teams that would never go down, despite the odds against them. So when, after spending 32 continuous years in the top flight, they were eventually relegated at the end of the 2003/04 season, it was a devastating blow to the club. Mind you since then you could hardly have called things boring for the Sky Blues. They’ve had a succession of different managers; they’ve moved to a new ground; they almost entered administration twice; and they now have a new consortium, headed by Ray Ranson, as new owners of the club. They are though by no stretch of the imagination out of danger either on or off the pitch, a fact the new owners will be more than aware of, and I would imagine that their main aim is to steer clear of the danger zone for the remainder of the season, and then look to start afresh on the pitch next season. Just a quick word about their new ground. It’s called the Ricoh Arena, and whilst it’s a decent enough stadium, the biggest problem for fans is the lack of parking near to it due to the green plan thingy. To me, it seems ridiculous that one of the factors involved when building a new ‘out of town’ type stadium, is the one that includes the lack of parking within at least a mile or so of said stadium (hear bloody hear – ed). There is some parking available in a couple of fields just off the M6 (junction 3) which is around a 15/20 minute walk to the stadium, so if those planning on driving get there early enough, then I suggest trying there first. Near the ground is a retail/supermarket type park, but whether you’re likely to get a ticket if you chance your luck there is anyone’s guess. Our first visit to the Ricoh was in August 2005, which coincided with it being their first game there which we went on to lose 3-0. Poor old Rangers, we’ll always be mentioned in their history books for that now. The Sky Blues haven’t been doing too well on the pitch this season, having been flirting with the wrong end of the table. The new owners decided that Iain Dowie (who had steered the club to safety last season) was not the man to take them forward and dispensed with his services last month. The thing is they did the deed just days before their FA Cup fifth round game against West Brom and they ended up getting thrashed off the park 0-5 at home. Ranson though was pursuing his man in the meantime, and a couple of weeks ago it was Chris Coleman who was announced as the man they feel is the right person to take them forward. The appointment may have raised a few eyebrows but personally I think if they give him time, he could prove to be a good signing for them. Chris of course as a player was a cracking defender; starting his career in his native Swansea, he worked his way up playing for Crystal Palace and Blackburn before making a move to Fulham who at the time were in the old First Division. He captained the side managed by Kevin Keegan that gained them promotion to the Premier League but in 2001 his playing career was cut short when at the age of 31 he had to retire due to a broken leg sustained in a nasty car crash in which looking at the damage to his car, he was certainly lucky to escape with a mere broken limb. So, after four years as a player at Craven Cottage, he went on to take a coaching role there, learning the trade under Jean Tigana before he went on to take temporary charge in the spring of 2003. He steered them to safety and was given the job on a permanent basis making him the youngest Premier League manager and to be fair to him he did a decent job there, I mean surely consolidation should have been the aim for at least a couple of years, and that’s exactly what Coleman achieved. At the tail end of last season he was surprisingly to some (including yours truly) sacked by Mohamed Al Fayed, though I still maintain it was more to do with his personal life (remember the comedy headlines in The Sun newspaper about his wife hiring a private detective to spy on him as she suspected him of cheating on her?) than with how he was doing at the club. Coleman took himself off to manage in the second division of the La Liga at Real Sociedad in the summer, and by all accounts was doing a good job, but then confusion set in due to a new president being elected at the club, and in January of this year, Coleman decided that it was time to leave, explaining on the Sky Sports couch how the mechanics of his backroom staff were being changed without him being consulted etc. Still, he left the Spanish club in good shape, just a couple of spots off an automatic promotion place. He cited his Spanish experience as being very educational and this perhaps was one of the reasons as to why Ranson decided to swoop for him, Chris of course also has experience of playing international football, after having been capped 30 odd times for his native Wales. His first game in charge brought about a win for the Sky Blues, but since then he has been brought back down to Championship earth following two consecutive away defeats so he will be aware more than anyone else of the work he needs to do there. Who to watch out for In defence they have Marcus Hall, a centre half they describe as Mr Dependable. Daniel Fox is likely to play at left back up against Buz (assuming he plays on our wide right), he is a new signing from Walsall, a former Everton trainee, and another youngster that joined the sky blues at the same time as him from his former club is Scott Dann. Coleman picked him to partner Hall in central defence at the weekend and I’m sure Saddlers fans will be interesting to see how he and his ex team mate get on after making the step up to a club a division higher than them. In the midfield Stephen Hughes is what you would call a useful player, having made over 100 appearances for the Sky Blues now, he is a product of the Arsenal youth set up and has gained plenty of experience in having played for Everton in the Premier League. Jay Tabb is a left sided midfielder who joined Coventry from Brentford a couple of seasons ago. He of course was instrumental in showing his team mates the way to Loftus Road on the tube when their team bus got stuck in the West London traffic, and they went on to beat us that afternoon. Aside from his London Underground navigational skills, he’s not a bad player on the pitch and Mancienne will need to watch him, though he has also been known to play more centrally too. Partnering Mifsud up front will be Leon Best. He joined Coventry in the summer from Southampton, and we of course will remember him from the couple of games he played for us on loan under Ian Holloway as an 18 year old. Still only 21 now, he’s got a powerful strike on him, and whilst has just six goals under his belt so far this campaign, I can only see him improving. Wayne Andrews is the fool who wound us up a few years ago so hopefully he’ll stay on the bench as he hasn’t been featuring much for Coventry this season, and I have to say, the Sky Blues look a bit thin on the ground when it comes to a bit of quality up front. *Tracy’s star man Past Meetings Coventry City: Marshall 7, Virgo 7, Hawkins 7 (Page, 63, 6), Ward 8, Hall 7; Whing 6 (McKenzie, 54, 7), Hughes 6, Doyle 6, Fadiga 7; Adebola 5, Mifsud 6 (Kyle, 69, 5) QPR: Camp 8, Timoska 7 (Bignot 57, 7), Cullip 8, Stewart 8, Kanyuka 7, Smith 7, Bolder 8 (Lomas, 72, 7), Ainsworth 6, Moore 6, Furlong 6 (Nygaard, 63, 6), Blackstock 6 This is the second meeting of the two sides this season, Coventry took all three points away from Loftus Road thanks to a last second header from Kevin Kyle who has since moved on to Wolves. Earlier QPR had taken the lead with a great strike from Akos Buzsaky but lost Cranie, Leigertwood and Nygaard to injury before half time and struggled against a physical Coventry side in the second half. Mifsud got the equaliser for the visitors. QPR: Camp 6, Mancienne 5, Stewart 7, Cranie 6 (Timoska 20, 6), Barker 6, Rowlands 5, Leigertwood 6 (Bolder 39, 6), Buzsaky 6, Sinclair 5, Vine 5, Nygaard 5 (Nardiello 44, 5) Coventry: Konstantopoulos 6, McNamee 6 (Stephen Hughes 90, -),De Zeeuw 7, Turner 7, Hall 7, Osbourne 7, Doyle 7, Tabb 7, Mifsud 8, Adebola 8,Best 7 (Kyle 75, 7) Head to Head Previous Coventry – QPR Results Team News Referee What’s going on elsewhere? Form Our February form on the road saw us undefeated! One win at Southampton and a draw at Barnsley leads us nicely with confidence going into this one away from Loftus Road. In fact, we are currently undefeated in three, sounds good doesn’t it? Again, dependent on results tonight, we sit currently in 15th spot and have 44 points, meaning we are now eight away from that magical 52 points safety reckoner. Prediction
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