BARNSLEY 1-0 COVENTRY CITY
City: Burge, Stokes, Pennington, Martin, Phillips, Fleck, O'Brien, Barton (Turgott 76), Odelusi (Nouble 62) Samuel, Tudgay (Proschwitz 59), Subs Charles-Cook, Webster, Finch, G.Thomas.
Barnsley
Davies, Holgate, Nyatanga, Cranie, Smith, O'Sullivan (Bailey 83), Pearson, Scowen, Hourihane, Laikovic (Berry 83), Waring (Winnall 88), Subs: Dibble, Mivoto, Jennings, Coates.
HT BFC 0-0 CCFC
FT BFC 1-0 CCFC
ATT 9567
Goals George Waring 57
Referee T.Harrington
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Typical Coventry City. You go to a game full hope of but return thinking that Tony Mowbray is going to need to be a miracle worker if he is going to turn Coventry City in a team that will challenge anything after a poor 1-0 defeat at Barnsley.
On a day when Coventry City appointed Tony Mowbray as their manager until the end of the season, the Sky Blues travelled to Barnsley for a vital League One fixture.
Neil MacFarlane, the last of the Scottish mafia who have worked hard for the club but ultimately failed to get the amount of wins that one would expect from the squad of players that has been available to them and Dave Hockaday took the team with Mowbray, who was quite inspirational in his press conference, not taking charge of the team until Saturday's game, taking a watching brief but ready to step in with words to gee up the players if required.
City, who have lost twenty out of twenty six matches in Yorkshire in March, and took on a Barnsley side also under new management.
In front of a 349 strong City support which saw supporters from Southampton, Newcastle, London, Kent and one who had driven up from Portsmouth, the Sky Blues fielded a changed team with Odelusi back in and Andy Webster on the bench.
City were nearly ahead in the fourth minute when an audacious shot from Samuel went wide. Lee Johnson's side went up the other end and won a corner which former Sky Blue Martin Cranie headed wide on a bitterly cold night.
In the 13th minute, Cranie again was getting in a header from another but this time it was at Burge who had conceded the flag kick.
Tudgay raced on to a ball from Jim O'Brien, who apparently left because Barnsley are not a good side, according to the City, and stroked Davies' left hand post.
A good move on the half hour mark saw Davies having to push over but the flag of the assistant on the main stand side was up.
Barnsley had two free kicks which came to nothing and a corner against a City side which had Samuel struggling against the offside trap and Arron Martin in the book.
Tony Mowbray was in the dressing room at half time but whatever he said did not seem to have an affect as Barnsley came out on the attack winning an early corner.
Jim O'Brien fired wide and Odelusi headed at Davies in the 54th minute bur three minutes later, an attack down the left and there was George Waring to head home unmarked.
Nick Proschwitz was immediately sent on for Marcus Tudgay and Frank Nouble came on for Samni Odelusi.
However, City were still not threatening the Tykes goal and when they were, the City players were either offside or over-hitting balls with Proschwitz winning nothing in the air
The frustration among the City support was clearly evident and so MacFarlane cutting a loan figure in the dugout, sent on Blair Turgott for the last thirteen minutes, with the rain now coming down.
Turgott, who was soon showing why he was released by West Ham, fired across the goal as the cries of "One More Striker" came from the City support, who were less than happy about the lack of a midfield which had Barton and Fleck virtually invisible and no width at all.
James Bailey came on for the last seven minutes which saw Frank Nouble go down in the area and be denied a penalty and a Pennington header kicked off the line, yet again, City had been too lightweight in front of goal and not good enough in midfield and they went down to another defeat, which leaves you thinking if this was the City players giving their all then the club has real problems.