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West Bromwich Albion 3 Dichio 23 (pen), 36 Haas 91
CITY 2 Joachim 7, Adebola 66
MATCH REPORT from the CET
City crash in League Cup First Round
The Sky Blues went out of England's secondary cup competition at the first time of asking at The Hawthorns last night but the Baggies needed extra time to finally book their own place in the Second Round.
The draw had not exactly been kind to them. They could have hardly faced a tougher assignment than a trip to their West Midlands rivals.
SBA made changes to the side which drew at Crystal Palace on Saturday.
Fit again Mo Konjic came into the line up and Craig Pead, who was substituted early on at Selhurst Park, was given the full 120 minutes and certainly put himself about by showing boundless energy in the midfield.
Gary McAllister was rested and replaced in the side by Claus Jorgensen but the Sky Blues found themselves lacking in creativity and so replaced the Dane with Andy Morrell and went for a more direct route to goal at half time.
Youssef Safri was also rested with Yazid Mansouri replacing him in the holding role in midfield - he impressed and SBA must be looking for a system which incorporates both in the same side.
It had looked so good for City when Julian JOACHIM opened the scoring on 7 minutes. There was a chance for the striker to add to his tally before Albion grabbed an equaliser courtesy of a somewhat dubious penalty award for an alleged push by Davenport.
Dichio made it 2-1 to the home side before half time.
Joachim was starting his first game of the season and had not had a full pre-season under his belt - he was substituted for Dele ADEBOLA who nodded in a Steve Staunton corner from the left midway through the second half to give the side renewed optimism.
The Sky Blues held on to get to extra time but were struck down at the start of the first period when Haas scored what turned out to be the winner despite an unrewarded Sky Blue surge towards the end of the 120 minutes.
Julian Joachim has today been placed on the transfer list by his manager SBA.
SBA said that he didn't want to be contemplating losing a player of the calibre of Joachim, but that the interests of the club had to come first and foremost.
He went on to say that he could have picked out any one of his more experienced performers in a bid to provide a much-needed financial boost.
However Joachim was the odd man out because of his proneness to injury, and the fact that he was one of the club's better paid players at £10,000 a week.
Joachim's current deal with the club is due to expire in June 2004 and so SBA will be looking to do business as soon as possible with an asking price of £425,000 being circulated.
Chesterfield, Brentford and Tranmere are reported to be interested in the former Aston Villa and Leicester marksman.
Manager SBA completed the run of three away games to kick off his first week in charge of his 03-04 City side with a hard-earned point at The New Den, although with a little more fortune in front of goal the Sky Blue Army could have been left rejoicing with all three.
Two points from a possible six is a reasonable start for the Sky Blues ... just how reasonable it is in reality will now be determined by the upcoming home games where the onus will be on the strikers to convert the kind of chances that went begging in South London on Saturday.
Having said this Millwall will point to Scott Shearer's excellent double save in the second half to thwart former City favourite Noel Whelan, but for City to leave with nothing would have been somewhat of an injustice.
The contest was keenly fought throughout with a total of seven yellow cards, the presence of Dennis Wise helping the cause in that department.
Youssef Safri was pushed on a little in midfield leaving Mansouri to protect the back four with City operating a narrow 4-1-3-2 formation.
Youngster Andrew Whing is a rarity in that he has completed all three of the Sky Blues' games so far and from his right back berth was encouraged to get forward at every opportunity, providing some much needed width to City's attacking play as manager SBA deployed the three central midfielders of Safri, Barrett and Pead with Mansouri just behind them.
Transfer listed Julian Joachim again did well but was substituted in the second half as he tired with Dele Adebola again the replacement.
Patrick Suffo failed to recover from injury in time but with a full week before their next fixture SBA will be hoping to be able to pick from a full strength squad as ahead of Cardiff City arriving in town for the Highfield Road curtain-raiser next Saturday.
It is unlikely that we will be involved in a busier week this season than the one we have just experienced ... the FIRST one!!
Three games in seven days ... nothing out of the ordinary there ... but with all three of them being away from Highfield Road it is a relief to get it out of the way and now we can look to our first home game on Saturday when Cardiff City will provide the opposition.
We could have taken all three points against Millwall but it was encouraging to have at least made the chances to miss at The New Den.
Every effort will now be made on the training ground to provide strikers such as Andy Morrell, Patrick Suffo and Dele Adebola with that all important ingredient for any striker - confidence.
Talking of strikers it was not the most pleasant of duties for myself to have to inform Julian Joachim that he had been placed on the transfer list last Thursday.
Whilst he does not want to leave the club, he does understand that due to circumstances we will be unable to offer him a new contract when his current deal expires next June. It would be good for Julian if we could get him fixed up with a new club as soon as possible.
In the meantime Julian will remain in my first team plans as he is a quality player and adds a new dimension to our attacking play.
I look forward to seeing you all at Highfield Road on Saturday.
Don't miss the Match Report of the Sky Blues v Millwall ... to appear here soon ...
Coventry City gained a most welcome first three points of the season as Patrick Suffo's late strike added to Calum Davenport's fourth minute opener to give manager SBA the outcome he was looking for.
City stuck with the narrow formation that had served them well at Millwall a week ago. Youssef Safri produced a dominant display in his more advanced role in the middle of the park and was just edged out for the Man Of The Match Award by the improving Davenport.
The home fans had barely found their way to their new seats for this first home game of the season when Steve Staunton drilled in a corner from the left which was met on the near post by the towering DAVENPORT who glanced in much to the delight of the new manager.
Cardiff could have been level almost immediately but a superb reflex save by Scott Shearer meant that the early celebrations were not to be short-lived.
Andrew Whing covered a huge amount of ground down the right flank for City and, even at such an early age, is clearly one of SBA's more cherished pieces in the Sky Blue Jigsaw.
There were chances for Andy Morrell to increase City's lead later on in the first half. The striker clearly much in need of a confidence boost which a goal would doubtless bring.
City continued to have the upper hand into the second half with Cardiff becoming ever more desperate in throwing men forward as there plight became more and more obvious.
Transfer listed Julian Joachim probably didn't do enough for the watching scouts to enduce a bid from the clubs concerned in the near future and was replaced by Patrick Suffo.
Cardiff had long since run out of ideas with Safri successfully keeping tabs on the on-loan Cheyrou in the midfield.
David Pipe, who had replaced Morrell, went bursting down the right hand side as the game entered injury time and picked out the perfect pass to enable SUFFO to quash any lingering doubt amongst the Sky Blue faithful.
Three games in then and SBA has done nothing to intensify the thoughts of the pre-season doubters.
Stoke City, who have drawn their opening three games of the season, are next Saturday's opponents at Highfield Road.
- Three more players have been transfer-listed by manager SBA as the club's off the field problems show no immediate sign of subsiding.
- Gavin Ward, the goalkeeper brought in to provide experienced cover alongside Pegguy Arphexad to current No. 1 Scott Shearer, has made been available for £80,000.
- Long time club man Richard Shaw has been made available on a free. But with Shaw considering retirement at the end of the season and apparently not in the manager's first team plans, it seems unlikely that any doors are going to be knocked down regarding the player's availability.
- Dean Gordon, who has started one game so far this season and failed to impress, has also been put up for sale at £170,000 as SBA pushing his belief that investment in youth is the only investment the Sky Blues should even consider making at the current time.
- SBA has signed central defender Paul Robinson on a three-month loan from Millwall. City will be contributing half of the player's weekly age, amounting to just £100 per week. It is thought that manager SBA will be keeping a keen eye on the youngster as he makes his reserve team debut later in the week.
Don't miss SBA's weekly column as he reflects on the Sky Blues' victory over Cardiff City
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