COVENTRY CITY 3-1 BARNSLEY BY KEV MONKS
Date 09/01/10 At The Ricoh Arena Championship
Coventry
Westwood, Wright, McPake, Barnett, Cranie, Bell (Baker 76), Clingan, Gunnarsson (Morrison 83), McIndoe (Deegan 70), Best, Eastwood SNU Madine, Konstantopolous, Hussey, Wood
Barnsley
Steele, Shotton (Butterfield 84), Moore, Foster, Dickinson, Hassell, Colace, Haffredsson, Bogdanovic (Hume 46), Macken, De Silva (Hammil 46) SNU Kozluk, Gray, Preece, Campbell-Ryce
HT CCFC 2-0 BFC FT CCFC 3-1 BFC ATT 15,031
Goals Freddy Eastwood (23), Sammy Clingan (26), Jon Macken (49), Clinton Morrison (92)
Referee Lee Mason
Booked Hassell, Shotton, Morrison
Man Of The Match James McPake took the votes with nominations for Sammy Clingan and Stephen Wright.
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Coventry City, for once took their chances and beat Barnsley 3-1 at the Ricoh Arena.
Groundsman John Ledwidge and his staff had done an excellent job to ensure that this match went ahead at the end of a week, where the nations thoughts had turned to the blanket of snow that covered the entire country.
Ledwidge and his staff worked on the pitch right until kick off whilst we filled the stands which been cleared off all snow and gritted to provide a safe enviroment for the City support which included support from South Wales, Poole, Cambridgeshire and London to name but a few places, to watch the game.
There were 15,031 officially in the ground by the time the match started. This included the usual number of schools tickets in the CT Stand and 600 Barnsley fans.
We saw a City team, that again had Martin Cranie at left back. Leon Barnett, whom Chris Coleman wants to sign on a permanent deal, partnered James McPake in defence. New midfielders Gary Deegan and Carl Baker were on the bench, meaning an unchanged midfield and up front Freddy Eastwood partnered Leon Best whose City future is still in the balance.
Barnsley had former City loanee Luke Steele in goal and he got a reasonable reception from the City fans when he made his way to the CT Stand end goal for the first half.
Straight from the kick off, Mark Robins side got into the Sky Blues. They won a corner with a good save from well again Keiren Westwood within twenty seconds and in the third minute, a header from Stephen Foster hit the bar.
With Wright tucked in very deep, Barnsley had the better of the play for the opening fifteen minutes of the match and it was not until the 17th minute that the Sky Blues had their first proper chance on goal. That came from an initial corner won by David Bell. Michael McIndoe who looked clearly out of sorts, swung in the flag kick, which went over to Eastwood on the far side. Martin Cranie swung in a cross which Steele one handedly punched away. The ball came down and with Michael McIndoe waiting for the ball to drop, Leon Best bounced and volleyed wide.
Westwood saved from Colace at the other end but in the 23rd minute, it was City against the run of play who scored the opening goal of the afternoon. Stephen Wright, still with his left arm bandaged, got down the right and delivered a floating cross to the left hand edge of the six-yard box. There was Freddy Eastwood to direct his header into the net and give the City support something to warm them up.
Then like the buses on Ball Hill, a second one arrived straight away. This time, it was from a 25th minute corner won by the sky blue glove wearing Leon Best. McIndoe took the kick, the ball ended up falling for Sammy Clingan, some twenty yards out and the Ulsterman hit a stunning volley, which flew into the net and left Steele helpless.
Normally, Barnsley come to Coventry and after going a couple of goals down, concede defeat. But today was different. With the well abused Iain Hume, who was sent off after getting wound up by the City support at Oakwell, a couple of seasons ago, and Adam Hammil coming on at the break, the favourite team of Arthur Scargill, pulled a goal back less than four minutes into the second half.
It was a copy of City's first goal and saw a cross from the right, sent over to the six yard box where Jon Macken headed home.
It was now the visitors who were having the better of the play. Leon Barnett did well to block a Hallfredsson shot on the hour mark before Hassall and Hammil fired over.
The City support has been waiting for a change and it came with twenty minutes left. Gary Deegan was given his debut, coming on to good applause and the same applause was received when Carl Baker who joined City from Stockport County came on in the 76th minute in place of David Bell.
Whilst Deegan or Pitbull as he is nicknamed, struggled a bit for a few minutes with the pace of Championship football which is miles faster than the League Of Ireland, Carl Baker, looked at home in City's midfield from the start.
More worrying than the fact that Hume was let clean through on goal in the 87th minute before thankfully firing wide, was the fact that Aron Gunnarsson had to be replaced. The Iceman took a knock and the referee initially signalled for a stretcher. Gunnarsson was helped to his feet by the City medical staff but it was no good and he had to be replaced by Clinton Morrison.
Six minutes of stoppage time was added, which was about right, although with City hanging on, if the final whistle had gone there and and then, there would not have been many complaints from the Sky Blues.
What the stoppage time did allow, was a caution for Morrison and for the striker who is out of contract at the end of the season, to wrap up a victory with a goal.
The goal in the second minute of stoppage time, came thanks to some excellent work by Carl Baker on the left, who got past a couple of players before cutting inside to find Morrison. The shot from Morrison was pushed away by Steele to Best who flicked it across for Clinton Morrison to head into the net and send the Sky Blue faithful home happy with another three points.