[themaclad]

Preston North End v Coventry City

Deepdale 4/11/2023 1500 hrs

Travelling home in the dark for an afternoon kick off, roll on the end of January

https://www.ccfc.co.uk/

https://www.skybluestalk.co.uk/forums/co...al-chat.7/

Manager

Mark Gordon Robins (born 22 December 1969) is an English football manager and former player, who is the current manager of Coventry City in the EFL Championship. As a player, he was a striker and is best known for his time in the Premier League with Norwich City and Leicester City.

Robins began his career with Manchester United. During this period, he scored a goal against Nottingham Forest in a 1990 FA Cup tie that has subsequently been credited with "saving" manager Alex Ferguson's job at Old Trafford. After spending time with Norwich and Leicester, Robins went on to play for Reading, Manchester City, Walsall, Rotherham United, Bristol City and Sheffield Wednesday in the Football League. Robins also played across Europe during spells with FC Copenhagen, Ourense and Panionios before finishing his career with Burton Albion in the Conference National.

In 2007, he became manager of Rotherham United, and joined Barnsley in the same capacity in 2009, before leaving in 2011, following differences between him and the board. In 2012, he became manager of Coventry City until 2013 when he joined Huddersfield Town. Robins left Huddersfield in 2014 by mutual agreement. A few months later he became manager of Scunthorpe United before leaving in 2016.

In March 2017, Robins rejoined Coventry City and a few months later won the EFL Trophy. In the 2017–18 season , Robins won the EFL League Two play-offs with the Sky Blues and were promoted to League One. After a solid eighth placed finish in League One in the 2018–19 season, Robins led Coventry to promotion to the EFL Championship as League One Champions in the 2019–20 season. He followed that up by guiding Coventry to a respectable 16th placed finish in the Championship in the 2020–21 season, and further improved upon this with a 12th placed finish in the 2021–22 season.

After last season maybe he's approaching the end of his time at the Ricoh or whatever it is called these days, new owner new pressure

LAST TIME OUT





FORM GUIDE

PNE 2 COVENTRY 4

Gone are those heady days of being top, mid table anonymity starting to kick in (tradition)

WHO'S HOT



IN AND OUT



Danger Man

Hard to say impressed with Sakamoto on Monday against the Albion.

WE'VE MET BEFORE



Last time we lost to them this bellend was in charge

[themaclad]

Who’s Available?

Ryan Lowe is hoping to be able to call upon Andrew Hughes, who has been missing since the end of September, and Will Keane who limped off last weekend against Hull City.

Calvin Ramsay is now back with North End after completing his rehabilitation with parent club Liverpool, however the right back will need time to get back up to match speed.

Ali McCann, Greg Cunningham and Jack Whatmough aren’t expected to be back until after the international break.

Opposition Focus

After coming ever so close to sealing Premier League football last season – losing in the Play-Off final on penalties – things haven’t quite followed on in the same vein for Coventry City.

The Sky Blues lost a few of their star men throughout the summer and currently sit 20th in the table. However, with Mark Robins in charge, who has achieved two promotions at the helm, there will be confidence fortunes will turn.

Coventry will arrive at Deepdale on Saturday looking for just a second away victory of the campaign, which would mark their first win over PNE in 20 matches.

Match Officials


Referee: Anthony Taylor
Assistant Referees: Gary Beswick and Adam Nunn
Fourth Official: Sam Allison

Anthony Taylor – an experienced official in the Premier League, European competitions and international tournaments – will take charge of this fixture.

He and his two assistants officiated this year's Europa League and FIFA Club World Cup finals. Taylor last took charge of a PNE match in December 2008.

After last weeks pretend referee, we get one who has been to the World Cup, won't get a penalty as they won't get the chance to use VAR. How will they cope?

MACS VIEW

Could do with a win, maybe if Mr Fantastic went for broke and actually played two up front we may absolutely do something. He's been bigging up Stewart in the last couple of days, two minute cameo then
Coventry not in the greatest run of form, it's winnable but will we?

[themaclad]

Preston North End 3 Holmes, Browne pen, Osmajic Coventry City 2 Wright 2

PNE line-up: Woodman; Potts, Storey, Lindsay, Best (Brady, 77); Whiteman, Browne; Whiteman, Browne; Holmes (Woodburn, 85)Frøkjær (Evans, 68), Millar; Osmajić (Keane, 85). Subs not used: Cornell, Bauer, Stewart, Ledson, Mawene.

Coventry City line-up: Wilson; Thomas, McFadzean (Eccles, 45), Kitching; Latibeaudiere, Allen (O’Hare, 60), Sheaf, Ayari (Simms, 45), Dasilva (Bidwell, 60); Godden (Van Ewijk, 83), Wright. Subs not used: Collins, Binks, Sakamoto, Stretton.

Attendance: 16,716 (2,982 Coventry fans).

Referee: Mr A Taylor.

A cracking match ended up with a narrow win for North End, this was a good a game as seen on home turf for a good while. Helps when you have a visiting team who attack and not sit back. To be fair to City they were probably unlucky not to take a point butcan see why they went so close to the promised land last season, they were excellent in the second half.
Yellow ball has returned being a sad anorak I actually know who the first player to score a hat trick when the yellow ball was first used(Answer at the end of the blog)
A murky old afternoon super following from the Midlands who were in the main very vocal they were still singing after I'd left the stadium after the game.
Coventry in charge in the early stages without looking dangerous, once we got into our stride, we actually played some good stuff, Millar with pace to burn give the City backline a torrid time although doesn't seem to want to get into the area, e had chances Browne had a shot parried by Wilson in the City goal, he was lucky it didn't go in. Osmajic was possibly a bit greedy following a speedy break following a City attack. Godden fired wide for City but only looked a matter of time until North End scored, or so I thought.
Some great defensive work by City led to a counter attack, Godden fired the ball across the face of goal, Wright looking offside simple task of tapping the ball home. Within 6 minutes we would be ahead, level three minutes after City goal poor defensive header Holmes about 15 yards out picked his spot. Then glory be we are given a penalty Osmajic clean through clearly pushed when shooting by McFadzean. After a bit of thought Mr Taylor gave it, Browne did the rest from the spot although Wilson went the right way.
Second period we were on the backfoot for most of the half City substitutions made them better , they forced us back although never got that close to scoring, mainly thanks to sterling defence by Lindsay and Storey. We had bits of play but were under siege, next goal vital and we got it, Millar down the left ball into the box and Osmajic between defenders headed home, gave us breathing space.
Looked odds on to extend the undefeated run against Coventry to 20 plus game then a shot from outside the box deflected, Woodman good save however ball ran to Wright who tapped in his second. Storey great header to clear a dangerous cross then deep into injury time neat play on the edge of the box, Sheaf in on goal about to pull the trigger, Browne steals the ball from him to cap an outstanding performance by the skipper.
Hard fought, three big points

Preston boss Ryan Lowe told BBC Radio Lancashire:

"It was like a basketball match at one point, but we ended up taking three points off a very good team, which has got to be pleasing.

"Coventry are a well coached team with a fantastic manager and some quality players. We know they're in a false position. I said that to Mark Robins at the end.

"I said to the lads if you want to beat a quality side like Coventry you have to outrun them and out perform them and they've worked their socks off."

Coventry City boss Mark Robins told BBC CWR:

"Stupid mistakes have crept in as we're a little bit nervy, having now lost four on the bounce. But in the second half we looked a bit more like us.

"We were livelier, more in control and looked a threat and Haji Wright has got two goals for us, which is obviously a plus. And Ellis Simms looked powerful when he came on.

"You know it's close to happening for us and the fans are staying with us. Hopefully this is just our poor period of the season. We still have a really good chance of turning this round."


Answer Chris Greenacre for Mansfield scored the first hattrick with a yellow ball, the game was played on a Friday night

[themaclad]