COVENTRY CITY 1-1 ESPANYOL BY KEV MONKS
Team
Konstantopoulos,McNamee (Tabb 27),Borrowdale, Osbourne,Ward (Page 79),Hall,Birchall,Doyle (Sent Off 59),Kyle (M.Hughes 65),McKenzie (Mifsud 79),Gray (Best 65) SNU Adebola,Marshall,Hawkins, Thornton,S,Hughes
Espanyol
Casilla,Chica Torres ,Sanchez Ortega ,Clemente Rodriquez,Torrejon Moya, Valdo Rocha,Albert Serran,Riera Ortega,Jaoquin Perez Rufete (Sent off 59),Lola, Jonatas Domingos
Subs Used David Garcia, Jesus Lacruz Gomez, Zabaleta Girod, L Garcia Fernandez, Angel Cevera, Moha,Coro Telechea,Jarque Gonzalez,Moises Perez,Casas
ATT 7,545
Referee Mike Riley
Booked M.Hughes,Chica Torres
Goals Luiz Fernandez Torrejon (27), Jay Tabb (44)
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WEATHER
For once a warm pleasant night.
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CITY SUPPORT
Not quite the crowd that would have been at the Arena had we been playing Juventus but a good turn-out of 7,540 (Five Spaniards spotted in the East Stand). Reasonably noisy support from the back of the CT Stand.
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Coventry City gave as good as they got in a very lively 1-1 draw with Espanyol.
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STARTING FORMATION
With Ellery Cairo injured,Iain Dowie shuffled his pack from the side which had won 6-0 at Ballymena United on Saturday.
DIMI
McNamee Ward Hall Borrowdale
Birchall Osbourne Doyle Gray
Kyle McKenzie
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FIRST HALF
The first home game of the 2007/08 pre-season came on the day where City supporters became deeply concerned that they might not have a club to support if plans for the takeover are delayed much longer by any of the various parties involved in the complex talks.
On a warm evening, many season ticket holders were still getting into the ground after not having their season ticket/flexicard accepted at the turnstiles as Espanyol took the field in pink and black hooped shirts with gold numbering, missing the playing of Bryan Ferry's "Let's Stick Together" which seemed highly appropriate considering that City are now £34m in debt and need a full house every home game.
City attacked the old away end first and had three early attacks against a side which were beaten on penalties in the UEFA Cup Final last season.
Julian Gray who impressed with two goals from the Northern Irish trip was one player who had an early effort saved by the Catalan side's keeper whilst Kevin Kyle and Leon McKenzie missed with headers.
You could sense this was going to be a niggley game and in the 17th minute,Michael Doyle got his foot in on Rufete who dived round in a manner familiar to those who watch La Liga.
Dimi Konstantopoulos had just pushed a shot from Sergio Sanchez Ortega for a corner in a rare attack from the visitors who were struggling to cope with some slick passing from the Sky Blues and some good midfield and defensive play, when David McNamee limped off in the 27th minute.
With Iain Dowie restricted in his plans to bring in a right back, Chris Birchall again assumed the role with Jay Tabb taking over on the right flank.
As we all know, Tabby is not the tallest player in the City squad and he went on the goal-line for the incoming corner. The ball in was met by the head of Marc Torrejon Moya around twelve yards out. The ball bounced down and back up over the head of Tabb and into the net.
The goal for Ernie Valverde's side did not deter the Sky Blues from the endeavours and a shot on the turn on the half hour mark by Leon McKenzie forced Casilla into a good low save.
City's keeper also was busy and handled himself well dealing with a couple of efforts but on the stroke of half-time, the Sky Blues were level. Julian Gray was involved as Jay Tabb created some space for himself in the penalty area and nipped through the defence before rounding the keeper and firing into the net.
HT CCFC 1-1 RCDE
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SECOND HALF
Espanyol made plenty of changes at the break, who it was hard to tell as the gold numbers on the back of the shirts of the team based in Barcelona made it highly difficult to read.
Marcus Hall had a header cleared off the line whilst City's Greek keeper saved at the other end but in the 57th minute, things started to get really nasty.
Michael Doyle was involved in a contratant and received what looked like a smack from Francisco Joaquin Perez Rufete. Referee Mike Riley summoned his assistant on the Main Stand side and both players were sent off.
Although this was violent conduct,Doyle is only likely to miss the opening reserve game of the season at Stoke City which he would not have played in anyway.
Espanyol who play Bolton Wanderers tomorrow night, decided that this was the time for changes and promptly made what we thought was six whilst Iain Dowie introduced Michael Hughes and Leon Best.
The Northern Irishman took over the role of "midfield hatchet man" and made some crunching tackles as did the hard working Osbourne and Tabb.
Having had a 66th minute free kick saved by the keeper diving to his left, the former Palace player was cautioned ten minutes later.
During this ten minutes,Espanyol had missed a great chance to stop the score from being the same as the game at Highfield Road in August 1998, when a player missed from four yards.
Michael Mifsud and Robert Page came on with eleven to go to loud applause as City controlled the game which was played out for a draw.
FT CCFC 1-1 RCDE
Man Of The Match Julian Gray just pipped Jay Tabb
Supporters View
Kev from Wellesbourne said after the game; "This was a hard fought game and a good test for both sides. "Overall,we did ourselves proud with this performance."