| Super U's to ensure that City are feeling Blue at 4.50pm today 13:09 - Oct 21 with 1062 views | durham_exile |
JM takes his buoyant charges to the Ricoh Arena to play the Sky Blues managed by Mark Robins.
Now forget all the guff about Coventry City being a “big club” with a nice stadium and a large supporter base. They’re now in the basement league because they were not good enough to stay in league one last season.
After a decent start to the campaign they have found the going to be tougher than perhaps anticipated and this culminated in a defeat to basement team Forest Green on Tuesday night. The home support will be depleted by one after the lifetime ban rightly awarded to one of their clowns who attacked the Forest Green players after the game.
Colchester by contrast will have been buoyed by the result in South Wales after the disappointment of the home defeat to the Cumbrians. Yes, football is all about results and each result is disseminated and cogitated over by the club, the supporters, the media in an attempt to either justify a poor performance or bask in the reflected glory of a decent one.
Sadly, I can’t be at the Ricoh today to see Colchester win again on the road. Other engagements hold sway. In truth I loathe Coventry since the FA Cup tie at Highfield Road in 2004 when my younger son was hit by a metal object thrown by a Coventry yob when we took the lead. Colchester deservedly won the replay and I received on my son’s behalf a written apology from the then Coventry chairman but the incident could have been so much worse had it hit him directly instead of rebounding from the back of the seat he was occupying.
Returning to today, Mark Robins was a good professional footballer and he will be hoping to secure promotion for the Sky Blues this season. The pressure is on them and it is up to JM to ensure that Colchester play to their strengths to give Coventry a hard time today.
It is a shame that Kyel Reid cannot play this afternoon, the terms of his loan prevent it but he was treated shabbily by Coventry and many of the so-called Sky-Blue fans comments towards him have been vitriolic at best.
So, who does JM start with this afternoon. I suspect a 3, 5, 2 formation which should include the following:
Walker
Eastman Inniss Kent
Jackson Lapslie Murray Slater Wright
Mandron Hanlan
Subs:
Gilmartin Kpekawa James Kabamba Odelusi Kinsella O’Sullivan
A decent pitch, large stadium, perhaps a 7,000 crowd that will need to be quietened early doors and the U’s faithful in good voice. Safe journey to the travelling Colchester supporters, enjoy the game and three more points in an entertaining game.
Up the U’s
 |  |
| |  |
| Super U's to ensure that City are feeling Blue at 4.50pm today on 14:02 - Oct 21 with 1053 views | gerry_us |
Missing you already Peter. |  | | |
| Super U's to ensure that City are feeling Blue at 4.50pm today on 14:09 - Oct 21 with 1051 views | durham_exile |
| Super U's to ensure that City are feeling Blue at 4.50pm today on 14:02 - Oct 21 by gerry_us |
Missing you already Peter. |
Gerry, pity I can be there but I have a feeling you will enjoy the result.
The team is as suggested except Conley plays instead of Slater
Up the U's | |
| |
| Super U's to ensure that City are feeling Blue at 4.50pm today on 15:11 - Oct 21 with 1040 views | gerry_us |
| Super U's to ensure that City are feeling Blue at 4.50pm today on 14:09 - Oct 21 by durham_exile |
Gerry, pity I can be there but I have a feeling you will enjoy the result.
The team is as suggested except Conley plays instead of Slater
Up the U's |
Nothing to report. Absolutely nothing! | | | |
| Super U's to ensure that City are feeling Blue at 4.50pm today on 15:13 - Oct 21 with 1039 views | durham_exile |
| Super U's to ensure that City are feeling Blue at 4.50pm today on 15:11 - Oct 21 by gerry_us |
Nothing to report. Absolutely nothing! |
Steady start from the U's
Mandron and Comley early opportunities
Up the U's
Veteran Stuart Beavon is playing for City, is his Nurse in attendance | |
| |
| Super U's to ensure that City are feeling Blue at 4.50pm today on 15:35 - Oct 21 with 1037 views | gerry_us |
| Super U's to ensure that City are feeling Blue at 4.50pm today on 15:13 - Oct 21 by durham_exile |
Steady start from the U's
Mandron and Comley early opportunities
Up the U's
Veteran Stuart Beavon is playing for City, is his Nurse in attendance |
You are making it sound more exciting than it actually is Peter | | | |
| Super U's to ensure that City are feeling Blue at 4.50pm today on 15:44 - Oct 21 with 1033 views | durham_exile |
| Super U's to ensure that City are feeling Blue at 4.50pm today on 15:35 - Oct 21 by gerry_us |
You are making it sound more exciting than it actually is Peter |
Gerry 7 shots for the mighty Col U 2 on target.
City 1 shot.
Should we be in front
Up the U's | |
| |
| Super U's to ensure that City are feeling Blue at 4.50pm today on 15:54 - Oct 21 with 1025 views | gerry_us |
| Super U's to ensure that City are feeling Blue at 4.50pm today on 15:44 - Oct 21 by durham_exile |
Gerry 7 shots for the mighty Col U 2 on target.
City 1 shot.
Should we be in front
Up the U's |
Nobody has looked remotely like scoring. I like the pairing of Innis and Eastman at the back. The defence look pretty sound but honestly Coventry look very poor. One goal could do it if we come out a bit more second half. U's support out singing home fans and almost outnumbering them!
Sky Blues there for the taking. | | | |
| Super U's to ensure that City are feeling Blue at 4.50pm today on 16:36 - Oct 21 with 1021 views | gerry_us |
Lapslie off, for absolutely nothing!!! | | | |
Login to get fewer ads
| Super U's to ensure that City are feeling Blue at 4.50pm today on 16:42 - Oct 21 with 1020 views | gerry_us |
| Super U's to ensure that City are feeling Blue at 4.50pm today on 16:36 - Oct 21 by gerry_us |
Lapslie off, for absolutely nothing!!! |
Under the cosh now | | | |
| Super U's to ensure that City are feeling Blue at 4.50pm today on 16:48 - Oct 21 with 1014 views | durham_exile |
| Super U's to ensure that City are feeling Blue at 4.50pm today on 16:42 - Oct 21 by gerry_us |
Under the cosh now |
Come on the U's
We can hold out | |
| |
| Super U's to ensure that City are feeling Blue at 4.50pm today on 16:53 - Oct 21 with 1010 views | gerry_us |
| Super U's to ensure that City are feeling Blue at 4.50pm today on 16:48 - Oct 21 by durham_exile |
Come on the U's
We can hold out |
We did 0-0
Going for a refund now. | | | |
| Super U's to ensure that City are feeling Blue at 4.50pm today on 16:56 - Oct 21 with 1005 views | durham_exile |
| Super U's to ensure that City are feeling Blue at 4.50pm today on 16:53 - Oct 21 by gerry_us |
We did 0-0
Going for a refund now. |
Gerry normally I would be delighted with a point but coventry are a poor team.
Up the U's | |
| |
| Super U's to ensure that City are feeling Blue at 4.50pm today on 17:02 - Oct 21 with 1004 views | durham_exile |
| Super U's to ensure that City are feeling Blue at 4.50pm today on 16:56 - Oct 21 by durham_exile |
Gerry normally I would be delighted with a point but coventry are a poor team.
Up the U's |
Great effort from the faithful 349 in a crowd of 7,149
Up the U's | |
| |
| Super U's to ensure that City are feeling Blue at 4.50pm today on 19:24 - Oct 21 with 954 views | wessex_exile |
Gerry, TS, or anyone else there - the Coventry board have mentioned trouble in the away end, sounds like a steward may have been hurt - any news? |  |
| |
| Super U's to ensure that City are feeling Blue at 4.50pm today on 19:39 - Oct 21 with 948 views | gerry_us |
| Super U's to ensure that City are feeling Blue at 4.50pm today on 19:24 - Oct 21 by wessex_exile |
Gerry, TS, or anyone else there - the Coventry board have mentioned trouble in the away end, sounds like a steward may have been hurt - any news? |
Unfortunately it appears that a few of our younger fans were being totally obnoxious late on and police were finally called. Soon after that medics arrived so I can only assume the report is true. Regrettably the problems with a few of our fans was not resolved even though there was a medical emergency amongst them. Certainly I saw two young fans ejected. This was late in the game when we should have been supporting the team, not causing trouble which I now assume caused the medical emergency.
It seems that U's visiting crowd trouble seems to be the norm now and even though it may be a very small percentage it is unacceptable and "if" today it was the cause of the medical emergency then it is also an embarrassment to the club and its travelling support.
Hopefully the club will investigate this claim and if found to be correct them make every effort to identify those responsible. This reflects badly on us all. | | | |
| Super U's to ensure that City are feeling Blue at 4.50pm today on 21:05 - Oct 21 with 926 views | noah4x4 |
Need to keep this in perspective.
I don't condone any misbehaviour, but this was about ridiculous stewarding. It was filmed by multiple fans and interestingly the fan ejected was seen soon after the game, hence I suspect that he was freed by the police without any charges.
Stewards objected to a young fan standing on a seat. Was wrong, but it was hardly crime of the century behaviour. They then over reacted and other young U's fans encircled the fan to prevent his removal in what was then merely a peaceful protest by the others at the over vigorous stewarding in comical "I'm Spartacus" fashion. By now, the lad was no longer stood on the seat and the matter might have ended then with a bit of common sense.
But an army of heavy handed stewards then moved in and acted violently towards fans by dragging them aside to get to the original culprit (who was about sixteen!). Utterly unnecessarily heavy handed.
During this process one steward ran across some empty seats (e.g. doing what the fan was supposedly wrong doing!). He stumbled and fell, apparently, breaking his ankle. But he was NOT touched by any fan. It was entirely his own stupidity.
Other stewards just piled in with significant aggression towards the youngsters. There was a little unfortunate physical resistance by the kids, but the violence dished out by the stewards was appalling. As I said, this was captured by many on mobile phone camera. The police then arrived and some sanity restored, but the young lad was ejected.
As I said, one can't condone any failure to meet ground regulations and 'standing' (let alone on a seat) is wrong. But the stewarding was just bonkers. The kids were causing no great harm. Could have been handled more sensibly. |  | | |
| Super U's to ensure that City are feeling Blue at 4.50pm today on 21:33 - Oct 21 with 913 views | gerry_us |
I cant agree with you Noah that we shouldn't make too much of this. Over the past two season where I have attended away games there have been too many instances where some of our younger "exuberant" fans have squared up to stewards. It is so easy to blame over exuberant stewarding but is is getting too regular to always blame the stewards. I was a steward for many years and it was always impressed on us not to be goaded and only in times where people's personal safety was at risk would we intervene. I assume the same philosophy applies today? | | | |
| Super U's to ensure that City are feeling Blue at 4.50pm today on 22:31 - Oct 21 with 894 views | noah4x4 |
I have attended 95% of away games in the last five seasons and agree that there are perhaps two or three individuals that on occasion have shamed us. But it's wrong to tarnish the reputation of all of our youngsters with the irresponsibility of the few, and wrong to suggest it is a frequent occurrence. Our travelling fans are generally well behaved.
However, whenever I have witnessed a rare incident (and I don't ever condone it) it has almost always been escalated by over vigorous stewarding. Today was no exception. Unless there has been violence, offensive language or similar why is there need for spectator ejection?
The lad 's misdemeanour today was merely standing on a seat whilst chanting. On other occassions I have seen stewards physically remove our drum hence vigorously enforcing a no musical instruments policy, yet the national team encourage a travelling band.Today, it didn't require ten stewards to act aggressively, and inflame the situation. As I said, the steward that was injured was running over seats to get involved and he fell, completely untouched by any U's fans. That seemed to be the cue for other stewards to pile in, but it was entirely his own aggression that resulted in him stumbling. A calmer approach would have avoided his injury.
I would like to contrast the awful stewarding at Coventry today with the more sensible welcoming approach of clubs like Grimsby. The stewards there actively get involved with the banter, and even joke with away fans. It was refreshing to observe how they handled a number of over enthusiastic (alcohol fueled) fans by applying psychology rather than brute force. Making a fan look like a prat amongst his mates by a bit of sarcasm and humour is far more disarming of the situation than acting like a private army and seeking his violent removal. A request to "get the idiot off the seat before he hurts himself" would probably have sufficed as enough responsible U's fans might have seen to that outcome. But after last week's pitch invasion by a Coventry fan, it appeared that a strict 'no nonsense' approach was being enforced and IMHO far too aggressively. The properly trained Police then applied more common sense. [Post edited 21 Oct 2017 22:34]
| | | |
| Super U's to ensure that City are feeling Blue at 4.50pm today on 11:21 - Oct 22 with 832 views | burnsieespana |
Is that not the real problem at some clubs because stewarding is sub contracted to security firms and the individuals consider themselves as some sort of "private army" ? |  | | |
| Super U's to ensure that City are feeling Blue at 4.50pm today on 14:01 - Oct 22 with 802 views | noah4x4 |
| Super U's to ensure that City are feeling Blue at 4.50pm today on 11:21 - Oct 22 by burnsieespana |
Is that not the real problem at some clubs because stewarding is sub contracted to security firms and the individuals consider themselves as some sort of "private army" ? |
The stewards involved at Coventry did look like night-club bouncers and acted accordingly against mere teenage kids. The response was totally out of proportion to the original incident. They were evidently a strong arm response team as the usual older generation of stewards just looked on.
At 63 years of age I would inevitably prefer that our kids were better behaved, but also recall the 'high jinks' that we got up to at the same age in a football crowd. It doesn't need a 'riot squad' approach to manage this. If fans chant "we'll do what we want" it isn't a signal for some 'private army' to muscle in.. Simply ignore them for five minutes and the kids will get bored and move on to sing something else. But respond to their provocation with strong arm tactics and things may unnecessarily escalate. Hence, a bit more brain could be employed by by the powers that be, and I again cite Grimsby as a good role model where the stewards talked the same language as the kids, sat/stood amongst them and admirably managed them with the demeanor and authority of a 1950's copper, who didn't ever need a truncheon to manage a football crowd.
Kids today have been brought up in a world where they can't be punished by violence, so why respond with violence unless the culprit is being violent? Any resistance yesterday only arose once a number of thugs attempted to manhandled this admittedly stupid young man. But standing upon a seat not obstructing the view of others doesn't warrant ejection, and if it did, why not subtly seek to 'arrest him' at the exit rather than involve more youths and risk escalation? Properly trained Police defuse these incidents so much better, but it appears that some football clubs prefer to employ thugs rather than pay the invoice for proper policing. | | | |
| Super U's to ensure that City are feeling Blue at 4.50pm today on 12:22 - Oct 23 with 747 views | thrillseeker |
I was sat about 6 rows behind Noah, so only 2 rows in front of incident with my 9 year old so had a good view.
A minor incident escalated due the stewards seriously poor attitude.
A 15, maybe 16 year old was standing on seat, wrong I know but if steward had had a quiet word instead of instantly grabbing him around neck I think this incident would not have occurred.
What then happened was that as steward dragged boy away his friends held him tight. He looked like Stretch Armstrong. The steward gave up so I thought the incident over but NO, the Coventry stewards returned in numbers and waded in with even more force including one who punched a supporter in stomach clearly witnessed by my daughter as she was very upset.
The steward that was hurt shouldn't try hurdling seats to eagerly get involved. He wanted to throw his weight around but alas lost his balance. Not touched by any supporter
As soon as the police arrived and in a diplomatically fashion communicated without intent on using violence the situation calmed down.
One of 2 boys that were removed was on the coach I travelled on. He was visibly shaken by situation and said he was now put off going to games. He said he was instantly released after police reviewed video and said no crime had taken place - I beg to differ as stewards clearly assaulted some fans
Alcohol was not a factor in incident as we were on a dry coach.
The problem is the incident has resulted in people forgetting there was a game.
I was actually disappointed we didn't get 3 points. Just as we were getting more into game Marmite was sent off so it was 'backs to wall' for final 15 minutes .
Another point is that is so sad to see Coventry City is such a bad state. If I heard correctly this is their last year at the Ricoh and at this moment don't have a ground/ venue for next season although they are currently in discussion regarding a groundshare with Coventry Rugby and Coventry Sphinx FC
Lets all be friends again |  | | |
| |
By continuing to use the site, you agree to our use of cookies and to abide by our Terms and Conditions.
