FAN’S VIEW: 24/25 – No.6: CARABAO CUP ROUND TWO

Ticket talk

The draw for this round was made on Wednesday 14 August. Six days later and a week before the match, ticket details were announced, arrangements and prices no doubt having to be agreed between the two clubs. “This match is ALL TICKET with no sales available on the day”.

Back in the day games were only ever made all ticket when it was clear that demand was going to outstrip supply or there needed to be strict control to prevent likely trouble between two sets of fans with history. Never for a game like this.

What’s wrong with rocking up on the day and either handing cash over or paying by card to enter? The only reason I can think why they need to know numbers is that the hosts roughly know how many stewards to employ and pies to order. That doesn’t wash with me though. Surely a reasonably accurate guess would suffice.

With no pay on the day the only ways to purchase a ticket would be by going to our ticket office, which wouldn’t have been practical for most, ordering online or ringing the club. The latter two methods incur an admin charge of £2. On the face of it £15 for all adults (no oap reduction here) is reasonable but that’s a 13% mark up. Perhaps a few also paid postage bringing the mark up to 27%.

The amount of a booking fee and the postal charges are set by each football club. A friend posted this: “I checked on the Coventry City site before the Friday game. Their booking fee is only £1 through Ticketmaster and £1.50 postage.” So we’re being charged double the admin/booking fee and a third extra for postage for exactly the same service.

I didn’t think I’d be going to the ticket office so paid online the £15 plus £2 and opted for collection thus saving the £2 postage and also not necessarily trusting Royal Mail. Collection would be at the away end on the day but that had not been made clear on the club website so I rang the ticket office anyway. Very helpful as usual.

As it happened I was passing down the A34 on Tuesday just after midday and thought it sensible as an “away member” to pop to the Kassam and get my Bristol City ticket. Comment on the away membership scheme and cost of our trip to Ashton Gate is for another day.

Whilst there it made sense to me to pick up my Coventry ticket if it was still there. It was and it was handed over. Initially the lad behind the window thought I wanted to buy a ticket for the game and was about to sell me one. So, tickets were on sale on the day contrary to the statement on the website. If this only applied to sales at the Coventry Building Society Arena then this should have been made clear. How many times though have we heard “all ticket” and “no sales on the day” to see tickets being sold to walk-ups? I wonder if anyone got in by this method here.

At times fans do get pissed about and ripped off.

Every year I vow to cut down on the number of words I spew out. Never happens. The issue of tickets and prices has got under my skin. I suspect I’ll come back to it time and again. There’s lots to discuss.

I’ve just discovered that Coventry categorise league games A, B and C. We were deemed to be a B. Adult prices £30. Cat A is £37 and Cat C £24. This Saturday Norwich visit. That’s a Cat A. On Tues 1 Oct the Blackburn game is a Cat C. This Wednesday OUFC announced that in future the ticket office will be closed on Wednesdays. I wonder how many other Championship clubs have a similar approach. It doesn’t seem very progressive to me. More National League than Championship.

COVENTRY CITY 1 OXFORD UNITED 0

Back to Byatt’s as always intended and this time I’d argue it was even better than for the League game. Although they still did a steady trade it was nowhere near as crowded, this being a reflection of the match attendance. As driver I stuck to halves and sampled each of the four ales they had on. Four different styles, bitter, golden, IPA and stout. Each exemplary. And as the others were drinking pints I was able to take my time to saviour the uniqueness of each in a way that I perhaps would not normally have done.

Away fans fit in here in exactly the same way as the local support. It’s such a welcoming place. We had quite a chat with a couple of Cov fans, father and son (that’s usually how it is) over the beers. It was they who initiated the conversation. The lad was raving about that Mark Harris strike. They were interested about the departure of Josh Murphy. We covered Highfield Road, Sisu, our meeting at Wembley etc.

They left a little earlier than I was expecting in order to get in on time, explaining that, for home fans at least, it’s a slow process to get in. I can’t remember any issues for us 10 days earlier. Naturally we shook hands and wished each other well as we went our separate ways.

There was no delay entering the stadium but as on the previous visit a full mobile body scan was required before being let in. Last time it was done very quickly and in a friendly manner. The chap who did mine this time could do with going on a customer relations course. Firstly I wasn’t holding my arms out quite wide enough. My phone was sticking out of one of my top pockets. He enquired, “What’s that.”  I said one of the following. Was it a) “It’s obviously a phone you bloody moron”, b) “it’s an elephant” or c) “It’s a phone”. Clue, I didn’t upset him and was allowed to proceed – but not until after I had to empty my pocket and turn round so he could scan my back. Too much for him to just put his arm behind me. Hey, ho!

Only 11,808 bothered to turn up. Or is that a good gate given it was only round two of the CC and we’d already done it all 10 days earlier with the first teams?

440 Oxford fans were there. Again good or bad support? Not great but there’s no train back and there’s street parking restrictions within a radius of approx. a mile and a half of the ground. Official parking is prohibitive and they’re not easy to get away from afterwards. Oh, and it was live on Sky like every other game in the Carabao.

I picked up our away attendance from the Coventry match report on their official site. At the time of writing this OUFC.co.uk shows it as TBC. Only a tiny matter but a reflection of efficiency and professionalism behind the scenes perhaps? Or the club not employing enough admin staff?

No matter how many are inside the CBS Arena the design still makes for a noisy atmosphere at times. Not that our fans had much to cheer about.

I left feeling very disappointed. The positive being it wasn’t three points lost but I would very much like to have been in round three away to a top Premier League side. Not done that for ages. Highbury in 2003 is the last I can remember.

Walking away afterwards I was behind two Sky Blue fans, a father and young son (the most natural of footballing combinations). “We were all over them”, the kid was informed as a matter of fact.

I could have quickened my pace and confirmed that from our perspective too but wasn’t in much of a mood to talk.

We lost by just one goal, quite a lucky deflection at that, but we could have gone down by two or three.

They had 17 shots, eight of which were on target. We had just five with none on target. They had nine corners whilst we had just two. Strangely though we had more touches in their box than they had in ours. 20-18. If I’d been asked to estimate the possession stats I would have put us much lower than the 47.4% which has been recorded. But as we know it’s what a team does with the ball when they’ve got it that counts. Plus what they do without it, obviously.

Each team made wholesale changes to the XIs they started with the previous weekend. Us eight. Coventry nine. The way the game went informed me that the hosts have a much stronger squad than we do. Ours is perhaps weaker than I thought it was with none of the reserves doing anything to demand they be put in the first team. Some players looked anything but and not even up to a slot in the squad.

This might seem harsh and they’ve hardly played together before but that’s how I saw it. Form can come and go. Well mostly. We’ve seen some players arrive and show no form at all only to disappear one way or another.

Coventry seemed to do everything quicker than we did. They had players who looked more comfortable on the ball than ours and who could beat a man with much more ease than those in yellow. Did we have any player who caused his marker genuine problems?

Also when City lost the ball they instantly got into shape to give us no way through, particularly with our lack of wherewithal.

The three players that remained from the Blackburn game were all in the back four. That unit was our best on the night. Peter Kioso improved on his previous showing and the two in the middle, Sam Long and Ciaron Brown, were solid and reliable enough. The former was one of our best players on the night bringing the ball out from the back on a number of occasions. Unfortunately such was the way Coventry had us bottled up and our lack of movement and inventiveness he had few or no options when he did so.

The only change in the back line was Greg Leigh coming in for Joe Bennett. He let no-one down.

My mate argued that we basically defended well preventing the opposition playing through the lines. Maybe, maybe not. I’d need to spend time on deeper analysis to have an opinion but would say for all Coventry’s superiority we weren’t getting cut to ribbons.

An issue for me – and it’s not a new one – is giving space out wide to get bodies more centrally. If crosses keep coming in no matter how good a team is at heading them away a goal will likely come eventually.

If we did have reasonable overall defensive shape then the players other than those labelled defenders deserve some of the credit for that, but looking at things from an attacking perspective and also that of winning midfield battles, we were sadly lacking.

Malcolm Ebiowei had a very very poor game. No point pretending otherwise. Everyone I heard comment on the game had the same opinion. He didn’t seem to be able to do anything and gave the impression that he wasn’t interested. There was an instance in the second half when Coventry thought they should have had a free kick and just about stopped playing but it immediately became obvious that referee Will Finnie wasn’t going to give anything. We had the ball. Ebiowei just stood. If he’d been switched on he would have sprinted away demanding the ball because there was acres of space ahead. A rare opportunity ignored or perhaps he just doesn’t have awareness. He’ll be 21 in a few days. He has to kick on if he’s to make it. Palace must have seen something in him when they paid compensation to Derby for his services in 2022.

I made the mistake of saying that Louie Sibley was playing quite well, or at least that he was showing better than Will Vaulks had done, only for him then to start giving the ball away. Silly me.

Josh McEachran was everything we know he is but the returning Cameron Brannagan was noticeably not himself. Hope the illness has been fully shaken off for Preston on Saturday.

Idris El Mizouni was neither good nor bad but Owen Dale didn’t look to be at this level. He has been injured so we need to give him time but my mate questioned whether he is up to Championship football. We shall find this out and many other things too as the season progresses into unknown territory.

That leaves Dane Scarlett. It’s difficult to fairly assess his performance. He was hardly involved. There are two incidents I remember from the first half though. In one he made a really intelligent run which was seen and a precision pass was played to him. He hit it wildly over the bar. In the other he had the ball in the penalty area and kept it with good control. I thought something might come of this it but it didn’t.   

The way we play, if anyone is asked to play the lone forward role and they’re not Mark Harris, a Mark Harris type or a big tall old fashioned centre-forward, then I feel sorry for them. Scarlett is none of these. He’s 20. He was on loan at Ipswich for the first half of last season making no starts but coming on 12 times.

He was replaced by Harris in the 83^rd minute and from then on I thought our pressing and harrying was quicker and more intense. Coventry didn’t look so settled on the ball. Sparky, in the short time he was on, had our best chance of the game but instead of connecting went down on his knees and made no contact. Hard to be critical of him at the moment. Probably our player of August.

Another first teamer, Tyler Goodrham, who came on for McEachran after an hour, shone a bit too. If he keeps progressing as he has he will go far in the game.

Man of the match though has to be Matt Ingram. He pulled off a few exceptional saves just in front of us.