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May 2001 and at long last our fall from grace was cemented (at Villa Park of all places )
Two and a half seasons have passed by almost un-noticed as far as neutrals are concerned as Coventry City continue to strive to climb back to the promised land that is the Premiership.
This is new territory for me within my life time.
34 years of unbroken top flight football is a long time and is all I'd ever known.
So, here we are on 26 November 2003, sitting in Division mid-table obscurity.
Confined to where we belong as far as many are concerned.
There is a mountain of debt left over which the club are continually fighting against, which has involved drastic measures being taken such as players' contracts being terminated by 'mutual' consent.
Since being relegated all of the following have been moved on by the club:
Moustapha Hadji
Magnus Hedman
Chris Kirkland
Marc Edworthy
John Hartson
Craig Bellamy
Lee Carsley
John Eustace
Paul Williams
Paul Telfer
Gary Breen
Youssef Chippo
The battle to revive former glories (i.e. being famous for hovering just above the Premiership drop zone to the annoyance and disbelief of most) goes on ...
This CM Story is a story with a difference
The arrival of CM03/04 meant the availability of an option to watch every single match in full ...
... that is what I'll be doing ...
I'll be playing one CM match per day (may increase to 2 or 3 at weekends) and posting the details here ...
The thread will be updated with a match report per day (whenever humanly possible).
I won't bog it down with statistics and endless lists - the emphasis will be on match reporting (being as I have a ticket to every game ) ...
I'm two games into the season so far, details will appear here later ...
Readers to this thread are requested to not post any advice on player purchases, tactics etc. (bearing in mind that I will not complete my first season until the New Year ) as I will be steering well clear of any advice ... that's the point of the game - as is watching games and making changes as you see the game unfold - just like IRL
You confused me a little. Is this your first season or 3rd in the game?
A good idea is to post the matches for download in your reports. I may be interested in watching some of them.
Good luck!
PS. I play as Everon I've played 17 matches so far and I'm 6th which is quite good. I play in extended and if I'm not satisfied by 60 minute I change to full. I watch matches with big teams on full though.
It's often said that managers prefer to start off their new campaign with a home game.
In my case this was the opposite.
I could already feel the immense pressure having been thrust into the job of my dreams at the club I had supported since childhood. What I didn't need to see was an opening game against one of the Division's lesser likes at Highfield Road.
My wishes came true. In fact the fixture computer threw up 3 consecutive away games to kick off the new season.
A trip to The Hawthorns in the 1st Round of the League Cup was sandwiched between Division One away days in London - first at Selhurst Park to face Crystal Palace and a week later at The New Den to face Millwall. We would play Cardiff in our first home game of the season on 23 August.
It would pass as a personal accomplishment for myself to just avoid a disastrous start to the season and avoid further fuel to the fire that Chairman Mike McGinnity had done the wrong thing in appointing such a novice as myself in the summer.
I understand the supporters' concerns. But what I want them to understand is that I am a supporter as well, and will be doing everything within my power to make the club a success again.
The odds were stacked against me.
For example we have 4 coaches at the club - two of them earn less than £2,000 a week between them but the other two earn close to 10 times that amount between them (Steve Ogrizovic & Eric Black).
Immediately I looked into the option of terminating their contracts. However this would cost the club close to £1 million for each coach to be released - so the idea was quashed before it got moving ... it would not exactly have enhanced manager-chairman relations for me to incur such cost for the club within my first week!!
The club was being operated on a shoestring (compared to the Premiership days).
Transfer fees of £75,000 were available to me so I quickly got used to the idea that what I was seeing on the training ground would have to serve me for a good while into the season.
The club has a good reputation for youth player development and this may also have to be a key factor in my success or otherwise.
With this in mind I did manage to appoint Stuart Gibson as a coach to bring the total up to 5 - and £400 per week was thankfully not in the region to raise any eyebrows in the boardroom ...
The feeling around the club was that we could achieve a safe mid-table position, but sights had been lowered somewhat season by season since being relegated. I knew what the fans really wanted was a play-off place, something we had failed to achieve thus far. That was my personal aim, well, probably more like a dream actually.
In reality mid-table this season and more solid financial position would be something for me to build on, for I was in this for the long haul, I had no choice, there was to be no quick fix to the Sky Blues' predicament, one faced by many other clubs who have succumbed in the Premiership since its' inception in 1992.
We had a mixed pre-season - winning 2, drawing 1 and losing 2 of our games.
The real deal was about to begin, Crystal Palace away on 9 August, a game which had everyone full of nervous anticipation - the fear of the unknown ... and I was the one fronting the Sky Blue Story ...
SBA's eagerly anticipated first game in charge of the new-look Sky Blues saw them take what was, in the end, a useful point from their opening day trip to Selhurst Park.
No doubt many of the travelling City fans, lapping up the August sunshine, would have quietly settled for a draw whilst making their way to the capital and so although what they saw wasn't always pretty, the end reward was none the less satisfying.
Neil Shipperley fired Palace into a 7th minute lead and this prompted SBA into a rather public verbal assault on his side for he must be well aware that Sky Blue fans will want to see some proof of why the Board have elected a man with limited previous managerial experience.
City were looking to threaten on the break with Palace having the majority of posession and full value for their lead but it was Andy Morrell who freed himself down the inside right channel to intelligently square the ball to SUFFO who slid the ball in from ten yards out.
SBA used his full quota of three substitutions although it was Calum Davenport who excelled at the heart of the defence, playing alongside Dean Gordon who is not used to playing such a central role but this was enforced due to a training ground injury to Mo Konjic.
An away point to kick off with then, and West Bromwich Albion to follow in the League Cup before a trip to Millwall next Saturday ... SBA will no doubt be looking for a repeat of the spirit his team showed at Selhurst, although he will be hoping for an increase in the quality department.
BIG MATCH STATS
Crystal Palace 1 - 1 CITY
Goal Attempts
Crystal Palace 13
Coventry City 3
Corners
Crystal Palace 4
Coventry City 1
Don't miss SBA's Selhurst Park post match reaction ...
Football fans are so often described as fickle and the opening day of the season demonstrates this so clearly time and time again.
The first 90 minutes of any season can be a compacted box full of the widest variety of emotions ... and we will doubtless re-visit every single one of those we encountered on Saturday as we go through the season.
As a new manager to not only the club but to the game I must plead for your patience ... however just 10 minutes in on Saturday and we were already looking ahead with some angst as to the what the season might have in store.
That said I was pleased with how the lads battled their way back into the game and it would be nice to think that this was a reflection of my own character ... for there will be knocks this season ... but so long as I see the players react in the positive fashion they showed on Saturday then I'll be a happy manager.
Although I don't normally look to single players out I must say that Calum Davenport's performance was one extreme composure - showing maturity beyond his years and as I stated before Saturday, the performance and progression of the younger players will be paramount to our chances this season.
Coventry City in the 21st Century 
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