FAN’S VIEW: 24/25 – No.4: COVENTRY AWAY

Our opponents

The nightmare Sisu years are now behind the Sky Blues. Doug King, a local businessman, took full control of the club in 2022 and is now Chairman. He is the CEO of Yelo Enterprises, a Stratford-upon-Avon based company which specialises in UK food and the agricultural industry. King also co-founded and majority owns, RCMA Capital LLP, which oversees investments of over $400m.

After the acquisition existing debt was converted to equity meaning the negative equity figure shown on the balance sheet of the latest accounts (to y/e May 2023) had dropped from £34.6m to £5.6m.

Exceptional income of £3m was booked relating to the write back of a withholding tax provision no longer required against loans to the previous overseas parent company (Otium Entertainment Group Limited, Sisu’s parent company).

Turnover increased by a couple of million to £20m largely due to reaching the play-off final. They lost 6-5 on penalties to Luton.

Admin expenses went up by £3m to £23.6m mostly down to higher player wages.

They made a profit on player sales of £2.4m with £1.5m of that coming from Blackburn for Dom Hyam.

Loss after tax was down from £6.7m the previous year to £4.7m.

They don’t own the ground. Mike Ashley does but a mutually acceptable arrangement seems to have been reached although when he initially gained control of the asset that wasn’t the case. He’s a businessman. Pragmatism ruled.

CCFC’s average league home gate last season was 25,468, the ninth highest in the division. And ninth was their finishing position in the final table, nine points shy of sixth place. Looking through the Coventry squad I only know about a couple of their players. One being Ellis Simms (Blackpool at the Kassam in the Covid restricted play-off semi-final) who happens to wear no.9.

That number has spookily cropped up a lot here. Are Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith somehow involved. Will we see a nine goal thriller?

Probably not based on Cov’s start to this campaign. A 1-0 defeat at Stoke on the opening day and a 1-0 win at Bristol City in the Carabao.

The bookies have them as massive favourites – 4/6. We’re 4/1 with the draw being 3/1. The odds on us being relegated have now lengthened though after our start. We’re now 7/4. As are Plymouth.

CHAMPIONSHIP: COVENTRY CITY 3 OXFORD UNITED 2

I suppose there was an element of “welcome to the Championship” about this. The message being forget last week at home against a Norwich side that has issues; this is what you’ll be facing on quite a few away days. Possibly, but perhaps there’s a case for arguing that Coventry are going to be one of the best teams in this league and particularly attacking wise there won’t be many to match them. It was all played out in an absolutely cracking atmosphere in front of 28,000 passionate fans with belted out noise for the entirety of the game. The stadium is an impressive one, designed to stop the noise emanating from the stands spilling from the environs. From the back row the view was an excellent one too. It was quite a long way to get there and a trip or two to the toilets threatened knackeredness. If our new, albeit smaller, ground can produce similar I’ll be well happy.

The physical structure alone doesn’t work without the fans inside and seemingly almost everyone present contributed to making the place rock. We were of course well outnumbered. 1,868 of us up against 26,183 wearing sky blue.

Was our turnout disappointing? We didn’t sell all of our allocation but it was a Friday night 8 o’clock kick-off and the game was live on Sky. However, it was our first away game back at this level for 25 years and there is nothing like being there in my eyes. Sat in front of the TV you can’t smell the pies, you can’t engage in conversation with a stranger stood next to you and you won’t have mingled with home fans in the pub beforehand. For me that’s all part of the match day experience.

So yes I was disappointed that we didn’t crack, at a bare minimum, the two thousand mark. I know many will have legitimate and logical reasons for not going but we had 35k at Wembley yet couldn’t do better than this for a fixture 50ish miles from Oxford.  

This was the first time we’d lost since Lincoln at home on 16 April and it was something I felt very unaccustomed to.

No-one can disagree that the best team won. Over the ninety plus minutes they were much better than us. It could even be argued that they were a whole division better than us but towards the end of proceedings I thought they had run out of ideas. We have to take great credit for that and our never say die approach when facing opponents such as this is admirable. 

I really thought we’d made it but then one mistake and that’s it. Gutting at the best of times but in the 96th minute double gutting. It was debatable whether referee David Coote got a little carried away when he added seven minutes to the 90 but if that’s the decision then thems the minutes we have to negotiate.

Cock ups at this level will be punished. As soon as Will Vaulks misplaced his pass I knew that was it. I just don’t know what he was doing. It didn’t make much sense. Tired legs and a tired mind perhaps. It happened so we have to get over it. Other teams will have given goals away in fairly similar situations this weekend.

As soon as the game started I feared for our full-backs. Coventry were getting the ball wide to men stood almost on the touch line and we were not tight on them. It wasn’t a case of a flying winger then getting to the by-line. The men out wide had support in close proximity. If we’d sent more players out to engage we’d likely have been exposed down the middle. The hosts had pacey players and our back line isn’t noted for its speed. Quite a conundrum and one I can’t think of an answer to. That’s for Des to work out of course.

When we did try and build, Coventry were much more able at taking the ball off our players who were trying to do something with it than we were off theirs. Truthfully they were slicker and quicker in almost everything they did.

We had players who didn’t show their best and some had little impact on the game. We know that Cameron Brannagan can be better than this and I can’t recall Ruben Rodrigues being that involved. But when one team has the ball for most of the match and is dangerous with it then it is very difficult.

The stats tell it as it is. They had 26 shots with 10 on target. We had 10 with two on target. They had 46 touches in our box, we had 12 in theirs. They had 14 corners to our one.  Oliver Dovin starting only his second game in their goal didn’t make a save. Jamie Cumming in ours made seven. He played out of his skin particularly at the end of the game when at one time it looked like he was going to almost single-handedly get us a point. If any Oxford player deserved something out of this it was him.

Not one Oxford player can be faulted on the effort put in for the cause but Mark Harris deserves a special mention. If ever a player ran himself into the ground he did so here. His legs had absolutely gone when he left the pitch. By then he’d come deep with getting the ball away all he had left to give. He was so tired he could hardly find touch.

We went behind after a quarter of an hour after having given the ball away. The goal looked a very easy one. They had us outnumbered 2 to 1 down the right and the over-lapper, Milan van Ewijk, got a cross over that was met by the head of Haji Wright on the edge of the six yard box. He had the run on the ball and powered it down and in. Was Sam Long a bit slow? Should he have been a bit more alert and tried to attack the ball?

It was only seven minutes later that we got ourselves back into it. A Vaulks free kick from the right just seemed an ordinary delivery into the area but Josh Eccles could only get under the ball and failed to get it away very far. RR then got a good header back into the area. We were outnumbered 7 to 5 but with battlers something materialised. Ciaron Brown won the next header well. When Harris and Simms went for the ball it came off the Coventry no.9 and Brown, showing the sharp instinct of a striker, lashed in a low left footer. It felt good. “We are top of the league” sang our fans. Please don’t, I thought. Just tempting fate.

Sure enough nine minutes further on we were behind again. Two City players were out wide left and with Long diving in he was easily turned. We had plenty of players surrounding the man with the ball but although we dispossessed him we didn’t do it effectively, sending the ball square across our own penalty area. Tatsuhiro Sakamoto allowed it to run on to van Ewijk who came rushing in to score.

We had not struggled defensively for a long time but we were now.

But back we came again ten minutes into the second period. This time it was our turn to work the ball down the wings. Tyler Goodrham fed Brannagan who made good steady forward progress before getting a chipped cross, which Jake Bidwell stretched for but couldn’t reach, to Rodrigues just outside the six yard box. Strangely he opted for a diving header with the ball an inch or two above the turf. Luis Binks couldn’t cut it out and Harris was able to turn the ball in with the top of his thigh from very close distance.

It was a strange goal and from our vantage point the consensus was that it must have been an own goal. When I got back my wife who had watched the game on Sky said “no way, no question of an o.g. it was Harris’s all the way”. There are clearly many advantages of watching a game from the comfort of one’s own home with the aid of numerous cameras and angles. Like actually being able to clearly see what has happened.

Although I rated Coventry I don’t think they looked the best defensively. Teams that get the ball in and play the percentage game against them might reap dividends. Keep it live and see what happens. Don’t need to be fancy.  

Much as it pains me to say so we’ve got to get used to defeats now that we will be playing better opposition week in week out but I was very proud of our lads on the day. They left everything out on the pitch.   

Having had three games in seven days we now don’t play again for another eight. That should give time for Matt Phillips, Idris El Mizouni, Dane Scarlett and others a chance to get fitter and more up to speed in the ways of OUFC. When the first two came on with over half an hour remaining there was a minute or two when I thought our quality might have gone up a notch to be able to match our opponents. It didn’t happen though and it was sheer guts that so very nearly got us a point.

One league game before we return to the Coventry Building Society Arena. I intend to get back in Byatt’s Brewhouse Bar beforehand again. It’s our go to drinking place when we visit and away fans are welcome. The ales brewed on the premises are very good and reasonably priced and if you buy nine pints the tenth one is free. What’s not to like?