COVENTRY CITY 1-2 CARDIFF CITY BY KEV MONKS
Date 16/03/10 At The Ricoh Arena Championship
Coventry
Westwood, Cranie, Wright, McPake, Wood, Gunnarsson, Deegan, McIndoe (Bell 46), Baker, Morrison (Sears 83), Stead (Eastwood 71) SNU Konstantopolous, Hall, Barnett, Grandison
Cardiff
Marshall, McNaughton (Rae 46), Kennedy, Gerrard, Blake, Matthews (Quinn 81), McPhail, Burke, McCormack, Bothroyd.
HT CCFC 1-1 CCFC FT CCFC 1-2 CCFC ATT 16,038
Goals Clinton Morrison (31), Chris Burke (40), Peter Whittingham (90+1 pen)
Referee S.Hooper
Booked Wood, Eastwood, Westwood
Man Of The Match Gary Deegan and James McPake took the votes with nominations for Westwood, Morrison and Wood.
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The P-Off word does not stand for Play-Offs tonight as Coventry City dropped to tenth in the table by going down to a late home defeat to Cardiff City.
For Coventry, this was a massive game and by rights the ground should have been packed but no, there was only 16,038 to see the Sky Blues field a team that was without Sammy Clingan who had not recovered from a calf injury.
City, attacked the Jewson Stand where the 674 Cardiff fans were busy waving Malaysian flags and taunting Chris Coleman for being born in Swansea, in the first half.
It was a lively affair played in a good atmosphere and saw City old boy Jay Bothroyd well booed by the City support after he dived in the area.
When the Cardiff skipper did stay on his feet, he had a good game. He was either heading away Aron Gunnarsson’s long throws or involved in attacks like the one in the 14th minute which saw him centre to Nuneaton born Peter Whittingham who thankfully only got a poor touch on it.
Clinton Morrison on his 450th league appearance, again worked hard. He fired into the side netting and in the 18th minute, he headed just wide from a great cross by Martin Cranie.
In the 31st minute, Clinton Morrison got to celebrate his feat by giving the Sky Blues the lead. Aron Gunnarsson’s long throw was missed by the Cardiff defence and this time, Richard Wood headed on for Morrison to nod the ball past the man in pink – David Marshall.
Bothroyd headed over straight from the restart and in the 39th minute, they had the ball in the City net through Peter Whittingham but the flag for offside had long gone up in the air.
The next Cardiff attack proved too much for the City defence and one failure to clear saw the ball for Chris Burke who thumped it high into the net. Burke gave the City fans in the CT Stand the biggie before kicking over the corner flag.
Those who weren’t up for trying to fight Burke were booing him and when the former Rangers man shoved Gary Deegan and squared up to him, the City support was baying for blood.
Burke got a ticking off from referee Mr Hooper who was making his debut at the Ricoh Arena.
Michael McIndoe had taken a knock after another foul by Burke and he had to be replaced at the break by David Bell. Cardiff manager and City old boy David Jones also made a change taking off McNaughton and bringing on Gavin Rae for his 400th club appearance.
It was a frustrating second half. Too often, City relied on the long ball to Stead in the air when the likes of Baker and Bell were causing more problems by getting round the back of Cardiff’s back four.
Cardiff who were quick on the break and twice in the 60th and 64th minutes, Keiren Westwood had to make good saves to keep City in the game.
With Stead not having the best of games, he was replaced by Freddy Eastwood in the 71st minute. The Southend player of the last decade, fired over straight after coming on and then should have had a penalty in 77th minute when his shot appeared to be handled by Anthony Gerrard.
The Cardiff fans appealed loudly for a handball five minutes later and just as the game was going into stoppage, they were going mental when they were awarded a handball by Martin Cranie.
Keiren Westwood was booked for asking if the ball was on the penalty spot but the delay did not affect Peter Whittingham who buried the resulting penalty kick.
Some of the Sky Blue Army started to walk out as City attacked. David Bell rose and directed a header onto the bar. The ball came down and made contact with a Cardiff defender who appeared to be using his arm to shield the ball away.
Nothing apart from a corner was given as the City support went absolutely ballistic at the referee, the match ended with a defeat for the Sky Blues.