[retired_smitchell78]

Loan-signing Richie Partridge has been given squad number seven for the month he is with the Sky Blues.

The winger takes over David Thompson’s shirt and the similarities don’t end there….

Not only are both players products of Liverpool’s Academy system but both are exactly the same height – 5’7”. Even spookier is the fact that both share the same birthday – September 12. City fans will be hoping that the similarities are also shared on the pitch and that Partridge can emulate the achievements of former fans’ favourite Thompson.

[retired_smitchell78]

The Sky Blues take on Milwall tomorrow with a clean bill of health from Tueday’s game and Gary McAllister has indicated that his team need to get back to winning ways at home if they are to maintain their place in the top six.

At Wednesday night’s fans forum Macca said: “We need to start winning at home and if you add that to our away form, where we’ve done pretty well, we’ll have a chance. We’ll go and attack Millwall and look for three points.”

Richie Partridge should have signed on-loan from Liverpool in time for tomorrow’s match and the 22-year-old winger could go straight into the starting line-up against the Lions.

That gives the City boss some dilemmas in attack. McSheffrey and Bothroyd have started in the last two fixtures, although Lee Mills impressed in both games when he came off the bench.

McSheffrey moved out to left midfield in the second half on Tuesday night as Mills and Bothroyd led the attack. Macca said in yesterday’s press conference that he has not ruled out the prospect of playing three forwards although not all in attacking positions. However with Partridge’s favoured position the left wing, playing McSheffrey there again could be ruled out.

John Eustace took to the field again on Wednesday night in the reserves’ 2-0 defeat at Derby as he tries to rediscover his form. Richard Shaw also played but both will probably start on the bench tomorrow.

[retired_smitchell78]

New signing Dennis Wise makes his debut for The Lions in tomorrow’s game with the Sky Blues.

The midfielder signed on Tuesday and is expected to go straight into the starting eleven.

Millwall will be without influential trio Richard Sadlier, Tim Cahill and Republic of Ireland World Cup international Stephen Reid. Reid was recovering over an ankle injury but his progress has been hampered by tonsillitis.

That means that Mark McGhee may take the opportunity to let some young lions out of the den for the game at Highfield Road.

Last year’s clash between the two sides saw Millwall do the double over City with a 3-2 win in the game at the New Den and a 1-0 victory at Highfield in the last game of the season.

That loss capped a poor run of results for the Sky Blues at the end of the season and saw the departure of Roland Nilsson and Jim Smith. Coventry will be hoping to rectify these defeats when both teams meet tomorrow.

[retired_smitchell78]

Coventry were twice guilty of throwing away a lead at Highfield Road today against a Millwall side that started the game in the bottom three in Division One.

After a decent first half the Sky Blues capitulated in the second when they rarely threatened the Lions’ goal.

The Sky Blues started the game with the same line-up that took to the pitch for the second half at Bradford on Tuesday night.

Lee Mills impressed in that game and started up front alongside Jay Bothroyd with McSheffrey occupying the left midfield spot. Loan signing Richie Partridge began on the bench as did Robert Betts and Barry Quinn. There was no place in the squad for John Eustace who picked up an ankle injury in training on Friday.

All eyes were focussed on one man in particular at the start of the match. Dennis Wise arrived at Millwall after a particularly troublesome time at Leicester and Gary McAllister had said he was looking forward to lining up against the tenacious midfielder.

And in the third minute it was those two that provided the games’ first genuine action. McAllister had the ball in the centre of the field and after releasing it was clattered by a typical Wise challenge from behind. Macca understandably went down and the referee put Wise in his book giving him 87 minutes to make no further mistakes.

Shortly after the incident Macca shook Wise’s hand showing there were no hard feelings. On six minutes Fabien Debec collected a long-range effort that skimmed along the ground with great ease, which raised a massive cheer from the City fans who had seen him embarrassed by a similar attempt in midweek.

On 10 minutes Milwall’s left midfielder Chris Kinet was given time to turn in the box but his effort went well over. Shortly after Livermore produced a good 30-yard effort that Debec got his fingertips to and put over the bar.

The Sky Blues then broke upfield quickly and when the ball was played to Bothroyd on the halfway line he turned his man superbly and ran for goal. McSheffrey made a good run alongside Bothroyd but he opted to shoot himself and Warner saved well, although the square ball would have been the better option.

With 20 minutes on the clock Fabein Debec nearly made a worse mistake than his howler against Bradford. Gary Caldwell played a simple backpass to the Frenchman and with Kevin Davies hovering a punt up the pitch would have been the sensible choice.

He attempted to pass it back to Caldwell though but the Millwall man easily cut it out.
Davies took too long on the ball and it was eventually cleared for a corner when things could have been much worse. Two minutes after McSheffrey was put through on goal but Warner came 30 yards out from goal to challenge for the ball and he clattered the City striker at the same time as he tried to knock it past him.

Appeals went up for a free-kick that would have seen the Millwall keeper in trouble but the referee deemed the challenge to be a fair one.

Both teams had worked tirelessly throughout the opening half an hour but it was the Sky Blues who took the lead following their first corner of the game on 30 minutes. Macca put it deep and for some reason Nethercott shot towards his own goal. That was cleared off the line but McSheffrey was on hand to tuck the ball home from six yards.

Milwall rallied and put in a series of tough tackles in midfield and eight minutes later were level with a very similar effort. Coventry failed to deal with a Lions’ corner and when Kinet’s effort came back off the post Davies put the rebound away.

The remainder of the half moved at a frenetic pace with both teams looking to take a lead into half time. Neil Harris went close for Millwall after cutting in from the right and there were appeals for handball after Davenport’s shot brushed off Ward.

With six minutes of stoppage time signalled Coventry rallied and retook the lead thanks to a fantastic Lee Mills strike. The ball was played to the big hitman who held it up well. With nobody available to pass to Mills turned and larupped the ball from nearly 35 yards into the back of the net, giving Warner no chance.

It was a terrific end to a good half of football that was never low on entertainment. The second half did not start as well as the first had ended and it did not take long for Millwall to equalise again.

On the whole City have been extremely assured in the air at the back and when a cross was put over towards Konjic it was the sort of ball he would normally clear with ease. His header was weak on this occasion and fell to Kinet 15 yards from goal who made no mistake and powered a volley past Debec.

Millwall continued to put City under pressure as the Sky Blues struggled to get a grip on the game and with 53 minutes on the clock Chippo made way for loan-sighing Richie Partridge – making his first appearance in a Sky Blue shirt. He sat at right midfield with McSheffrey sticking on the left.

On 63 the Lions could have taken the lead for the first time in the game as they broke quickly and caught City short on numbers at the back. Harris appeared to have put the ball on a plate for Davis ten yards out but he dithered and failed to get a shot away, enabling Davenport to clear.

Three minutes later and Partridge showed the first sign that he likes to run at defenders as he sped down the left and won a corner. From that there was a brief game of head pinball in the box and it was Partridge who got the final header in but it went well over the bar.

On 73 minutes he was put away again and demonstrated he has a lot of pace but was unable to get a final ball in. Two minutes later Millwall had another fantastic opportunity as Paul Ifill was put through on goal. One-on-one with Debec the Frenchman came out on top, making a good save with his legs.

Coventry were rarely threatening and did not look the same side who had twice taken the lead in the first half and on 81 minutes Debec kept his team in the game again. Harris looked offside but the decision was not given although the City keeper was quick off his line and blocked well.

There was nothing Debec could do when Millwall finally took the lead five minutes from time. Coventry were guilty of giving their opponents too much time on a number of occasions in the second period and that was the case when Harris turned inside the box and hit a good effort into the far corner.

It was all that City deserved after they had failed to build on a decent first half showing, rarely threatening the Millwall goal in the second. All credit to Mark McGhee’s team who fought hard but considering this was a match Coventry were expected to win a loss was almost unimaginable.


Coventry: Debec; Gordon; Konjic; McAllister; Chippo (Partridge,53); Mills; Safri; McSheffrey; Caldwell; Bothroyd (Quinn, 86); Davenport.

Subs not used: Hyldgaard; Shaw; Betts.

Millwall: Warner; Lawrence; Nethercott; Ifill; Livermore; Harris; Ward; Kinet (Roberts, 87); Davis (Claridge, 68) ; Wise; Bull (Ryan, 31).

Subs not used: Gueret; Phillips.

Booked: Wise

Referee: Mr Frazer Stretton

Attendance: 13,562

[retired_smitchell78]

Apparently CCFC have been regularly sending scouts to Moor Green to watch their striker Nathan Lamey who has also been linked with Nationwide Conference side Nuneaton Borough.

NameNATHAN LAMEY
DOB14.10.1980
BirthplaceLeeds
Current Team Moor Green
PositionForward

Pen Pic
Signed for Moor Green in the summer of 2001 from Hitchin Town.
Former Wolves and Aston Villa trainee before signing for Cambridge United. Joined Hitchin in 2000, but wanted a move nearer his
Birmingham home.

Previous Clubs
Hitchin T - 7.01, Cambridge Utd, Wolverhampton Wanderers

[retired_russ10120]

[IMG]/infopop/emoticons/icon_frown.gif" alt="frown[/IMG] Abysmal defence

[retired_smitchell78]

Gary McAllister was extremely disappointed at Coventry’s defeat today and found very few positives from the performance.

“Obviously I’m disappointed to have been 2-1 up at home and lost the game. I’m even more disappointed that the keeper’s had to make three good saves in the second half as well. As we were trying to get back into the game we left ourselves exposed at the back and on the whole it was very disappointing.”

Coventry again had numerous opportunities to go into half time with a more substantial lead and Macca has already raised this with his strikers.

“We’ve spoken to them about the chances they missed in the first half but there’s not a lot you can say apart from we have to put those away. I think some of them were just above half chances.

“I don’t know what’s going through their mind when they go through on goal and of course as a striker you’ve got to be selfish and want to score yourself, but if there’s a team-mate in a better position it’s advantageous to use them.”

Despite the poor result Macca is looking forward to training next weak and trying to put things right.

“The main thing is that we remain positive – we’ve got the game on Wednesday. I’ll have the same players available then because we haven’t got a massive squad so we’ll have to get back into training on Monday and get ready for the game against Rushden.

“Because I’m part of it I have to give myself time to reflect. It’s a good thing though because over the years the managers that walk away rather than lose it straight away seem to have done well. Throwing things around the dressing room and shouting your mouth off is the easy way to go. That’s not what I’m here to do. I’m here to try and make players better, make the team better and take the club forward.”

[retired_smitchell78]

What went wrong ?

[retired_smitchell78]

what's your best sky blue memory then ?

Beating Villa 1~0 at Villa Park (Moldavan) in 1998, excellent day (as well as 1987 of course)

When we beat Man Utd 3-2

Drawing 3-3 with wimbledon with 9 men

Beating blackburn 5-0 on a frosty pitch

Beating spurs 3-2 in league cup after being 2-0 down at H/T

[retired_kpr]

I went to the game. It was pretty strange really, we were good in the first half and deserved our lead (great goal by Mills). Second half we were terrible defensively, and although we had a lot of the ball, we couldn't create any chances. Their keeper, Warner, caught everything. It wasn't too much of a surprise when they took the lead.

Partridge wasn't too bad. He got a few crosses in from the right wing, but more often than not he was just muscled off the ball.

I think the 3-5-2 formation lost us this game, in fact I hope it did. Because we play like this over and over again, you can forget the playoffs, promotion etc.