Sky Blue, shooting to lose

[he_2]

Friday 7^th August 2020

Today was the day everything changed. For a short while, at least. Coventry City after dismissing Simon Grayson from the manager’s job after the Sky Blues’ 3-0 defeat to MK Dons on Wednesday evening – their second 3-goal defeat of the season – and have turned to myself, Bob Martin.

I won’t lie, it’s been an absolute whirwind of a day.

The press release went out at 9am this morning and that was followed by a press conference an hour later at the Ricoh Arena. That was tougher than I’d expected, I had intended to stay away from all of those empty and meaningless platitudes that you hear when a manager starts a new job – This club is a sleeping giant, I’m the man to succeed where many others have failed, this is a massive club that just needs some sort of direction – all that gubbins. But, the ladies and gentlemen of the press are wily foxes and manage to lead you into some back yards you don’t really want to find yourself in. That said, I think I did okay and didn’t come across as too conceited.

This is a huge job, when I was growing up Coventry City were a fixture in the old 1^st Division and then the Premier League. As with so many clubs, relegation from the top flight has set about a terminal decline and although this is their third season back in League 1 after dropping into the bottom tier, make no mistake, the expectation from fans and the board is ‘Project Championship’ by the end of my 2-year contract, that is the end of next season.

Last term the club finished a disappointing 15^th in the table having finished 8^th in 2018/9 and it’s fair to say a level of apathy and cynicism is rife throughout the fanbase as well as through part of the club staff.

Financially, the club were as well off as they’d been for years. There was a little money in the kitty available for transfers (about £450,000) but we were well overbudget on wages. That was a concern and left me little in the way of wriggle room for bringing new blood in if I felt that was what was needed. Of course, I could look at re-jigging the budgets a little, that was all for consideration next week though.

I’d signed the contract at 8am this morning and immediately had a quick chat with Adie Viveash, the man who had been assistant to Mark Robins and Simon Grayson before me. I wanted him to stay on board and, if that was okay for him, to lead training and the game tomorrow at home to Charlton Athletic. We talked for half an hour in my office at the ground, him filling me in on the squad – morale level, players who were chuntering a little and those that were much more ‘head down’. I had a mountain of paperwork already in my in-tray that I wanted to get through so I told him I might pop down to observe training and, of course, would be at the Charlton game, but that’d only be as a watching brief. I’d take charge properly on Monday morning at training, introduce myself to the players for the first time and then be in charge for the Carabao Cup tie at Exeter Tuesday night.

The chairman Steve Irving spent an hour showing me around the Ricoh at first, introducing me to the clerical and admin staff that did so much behind the scenes, the catering and hospitality staff and perhaps, most importantly of all, those that did the real hard work, the cleaners. I already knew how important it was to make these folk feel a part of the club, as though what they did mattered to the outcomes of the first-team which, let’s face it, is all the fans really care about. I had my notebook and was frantically making notes as to everyone’s names and I lost count of the number of hands I shook.

Next it was off to the Sky Blue Lodge, the club’s training complex just off the A45 some 20-minutes or so from the Ricoh. Again, I found myself being introduced to the catering staff that looked after the players food before and after training, the kit staff, the doorman, Jim – into his 6^th decade as a Sky Blues supporter. Steve kept an office here and I met his admin staff and PA, Lynne, as well as the Press Office led by Liz Jones and a guy named Ricky Unwin who would act as my de-facto PA. Although his main role was communications and overseeing social media, he would also help me should I need it at any point if Steve or Lynne were unavailable. I was shown the pool, the gym, the treatment room, the games room. All fitted out to a very high spec.

I didn’t really have time to get out on the training pitch and watch the lads at work and knowing they were downstairs having their lunch I chose to stay out of their way instead getting started on reading the reams of paperwork that I’d been given throughout the morning.

Liz Jones sent a couple of interesting press snippets my way. Dean Smith, the Aston Villa chief this afternoon played down suggestions that he was looking to make a move for Jack Hall, a striker currently in our Under-18s but marked out by Adie as one to keep a very close eye on. ‘He’s had Premier League scouts watching him a lot over the last six-months or so.’ I’d been told. He’s turning 17 in a month from now and it was the club’s intention to get him onto a pro contract the moment his yearometer ticks around. ‘If he’s still with us, that is.’ Adie added as a caveat.

The other interesting piece came from Lee Bowyer’s press conference ahead of travelling up to the West Midlands where when asked to comment on my appointment here at Coventry said ‘Bob’s clearly got a growing reputation within the game but I just wonder whether he’s going to find this job a bit too big for a guy of his experience.’

Cheeky git.

By the time I left for the hotel at 9:30pm I’d consumed plenty of information. I’d had a nose around the scouting hub even though everyone was out readying themselves for assignments over the weekend and was impressed by what I’d seen. The set-up at the club was impressive, certainly better than I’d expected for a League 1 side. If I were to fail, I certainly could not blame the facilities.

I finished my first day of employment having a read through Adie’s training report for the week. It made pretty grim viewing. He had been largely unimpressed with the effort of many of the players during the week, in particular Gervane Kastaneer, Matt Godden and Ben Wilson. I made a note to address that first thing on Monday morning.

It had been a long and exhausting day and yet one which I thought would pale into insignificance when compared with whatever tomorrow would bring. At 6pm tomorrow I would effectively assume command from Adie and he would revert back into his assistant role, before that I would spend my day observing and learning. Eyes open, mouth shut.

[he_2]

Saturday 8^th August 2020

Coventry City v Charlton Athletic

RICOH Arena

League 1

 

I got dressed, charcoal grey suit apparently – it looked black to me – club tie and a 20-minute drive to the RICOH Arena from the hotel. I had my suitcase in the car as I was going to shoot back to North London after the game to see my brother and his kids and also, since the Under-18s have a friendly at Haringey Borough tomorrow, I thought I’d go and take that in. Back to the West Midlands early Monday to really get down to business.

My arrival at midday, pulling into the manager’s parking space, was greeted with one or two supporters milling around to pick up season tickets belatedly. A few handshakes with them wishing me luck or gently telling me to get things sorted. ‘We’re all behind you, Bobby!’ I was interested to see what the matchday atmosphere would be like.

A fortnight before the end of the 2019/20 season the club was taken over by a consortium led by Steve Irving. The club’s debts were cleared and then the finances were helped by the sales of Fankaty Dabo to Luton Town for £1.1million and Wesley Jobello to Nashville in the US for £1.3million. That allowed for the money in the bank, although so far none had been reinvested in the squad. Four players had joined in the summer, three on free transfers and Mitch Clark on-loan from Leicester City.

I’d already made a conscious decision to steer clear of the dressing room before and during the game, I wanted this to be a purely watching brief. There were some ambassadorial duties to be undertaken, being introduced to sponsors whilst they were enjoying their pre-match fayre and spending a little time with the mascots and their families. 10-minutes before kick-off I was handed a Sky Blue scarf and introduced to the fans on the pitch, I walked out into the centre circle to take the applause and well-wishes of the supporters – almost 13,500 for a third tier match showed the level of potential at the club. Sure, it wasn’t on the level of Sunderland, for example, and 13,500 do rattle around a bit in a 32,500 seater stadium, but all that did was to stir the juices just a little more.

The game itself was disappointing, I could automatically see what I was up against. Defensively we weren’t too bad, certainly more organised than I was expecting given we’d conceded six goals in our two matches so far. In midfield we were nice and tidy and passed the ball well. Liam Kelly in particular was industrious in possession, he ended with a 96% pass completion. The issue was very much in the final third where, although we managed 21 efforts at goal, 7 of which were on target, Michael McGovern actually wasn’t especially stretched in the Charlton goal.

We had 63% of possession yet the front four, (Adie had gone with a 4-2-3-1 formation) were unbelievably ineffective. The two wide men, Jordy Hiwula and Jodi Jones put the miles in, I couldn’t fault that at all, but neither of them managed to find a blue shirt with a cross. Meanwhile, Jonny Ngandu in the attacking midfield role didn’t affect the game enough when he had the ball meaning that poor Matt Godden up front was feeding on absolute scraps.

Up until Joe Garner’s 38^th minute finish from close range for the visitors, we were in the game and the atmosphere was quite positive around the ground. The fans got behind the players and all was well. As soon as the ball hit the net and players started pointing fingers at each-other, the confidence drained away and it was only going to be through a mistake that we were going to score. Charlton, goal in the bank, were then happy to sit back and hit us on the break – credit to Ben Wilson in goal for us, he made two or three very good saves to keep us in the game.

I’d watched the defeats to Sunderland and MK Dons on video and the pattern was very much the same. Reasonable start, first goal goes in and then that’s curtains. It’s clear that confidence is low and there’s not much in the way of belief amongst the squad.

After the game it was back into the corporate lounges to speak to some of them, listen to what they had to say and shake plenty of hands once again for an hour before Adie had finished all of his media commitments and I was able to slip away for a chat and to finally begin to get my feet under the table.

We were in the manager’s office at the RICOH, I had a glass of sparkling water whilst he had a well-earned beer and we began the post-mortem from the game.

The boffins in the Analyst suite had worked like Trojans to get together something for us to have a little look at, numbers from the game and one or two little highlights. It was heartening to see that his feelings on the game were along the same lines as my own. The final third was the big problem that needed addressing very quickly, otherwise we were in for a very long campaign.

There are still three weeks remaining in the transfer window so there is time to get bodies in if we feel we need it. I want to see how we go in our next three matches before making any knee-jerk decisions but keeping things ticking over in terms of identifying targets to try and bring in. I’ve got a meeting on Wednesday with the scouting team to see who they’re tracking at the moment and to discuss other potential names to look at.

Adie and I finished at just after 8pm. He went home to his wife for dinner and a glass of wine whilst I hopped into the car and made my way down the M1 towards home, my mind swirling with thoughts, plans and ideas to try and begin to turn this thing around.

Coventry City 0

Charlton Athletic 1 (Joe Garner 38)

 

		P	W	D	L	F	A	Pts	GD
20	Doncaster Rovers	3	0	2	1	2	4	2	-2
21	Bristol Rovers	3	0	2	1	0	2	2	-2
22	Burton Albion	3	0	1	2	3	5	1	-2
23	Swindon Town	3	0	1	2	1	5	1	-4
24	Coventry City	3	0	0	3	0	7	0	-7

[he_2]

Sunday 9^th August 2020

Haringey Borough v Coventry City Under-18s

Coles Park

Friendly

 

After spending the morning at home and having lunch at Jack & Rachel’s, my brother and his wife’s, in Wood Green, it was a short hop up the road to Coles Park and Haringey Borough’s home ground to watch my Under-18s in action.

The Under-23s were also playing, but they were up at Holker Street to play Barrow’s Under-18s, I’ll be speaking with their boss, Luke Tisdale, tomorrow afternoon to see how they went and hopefully have a look at the video from the game.

Before the game I had a few minutes chatting with Karl Hooper, the Under-18s manager, as much to encourage and reassure him as anything else. I certainly had no intention of replacing him, I just wanted to find out what he was likely to do in terms of systems and see who he was going to field. As Adie had yesterday, Karl went with a 4-2-3-1 with Jake Hall on the right flank.

‘Not his best position, admittedly,’ Karl began by way of explanation, ‘he’ll end up playing down the middle, without question, but we’re just trying to build his awareness by playing him in an unusual position, one he might not be entirely comfortable with.’

That worked okay for me.

I went to find a quiet corner to stand with a cup of coffee and unobtrusively watch the game unfold. It was a fascinating contest, Haringey were a good footballing side and physically imposing. Gone are the days where you might have one or two Sunday League lumps playing at Non-League level, the emphasis is very much on the ‘professional’ in semi-pro nowadays. Technically, we were the better side but these kind of games are great tests for young footballers to see if they can live with the more physical demands of playing against men. Not quite a sink or swim scenario, but along those lines.

The first half an hour saw Haringey have the better chances, Keelan Fallows made a good save and the hosts had a goal chalked off for what must have been a very marginal offside. Then we got a free kick a couple of yards outside the penalty area to the left of the D, Jake Hall stepped up to wallop it around the 3-man wall and into the top corner of the net to open the scoring. If that’s what the young man has in his locker, it’s easy to see why he’s so highly thought of.

Before half-time Hayden Purves cushioned a header into the path of the skipper, Harrison Nee, one touch and then a low strike with little in the way of back-lift, but the ball came back off the upright and was hacked clear by a defender.

At the break I got a text through from Holker Street. The Under-23s were 3-0 up against Barrow’s youngsters, three goals in the opening quarter of an hour had done the damage there. I’d been quietly impressed with what I’d seen from our youngsters, we’d seemed to have had a little more of the ball and certainly grew into the half as it went on. I was invited into the Haringey boardroom at the break and had a good chat with their officials about their plans. Currently in the Isthmian League Premier Division they were very keen on continuing to build the club to try and get themselves into the National League South at some point. The club is hugely community focused – local residents get given free season tickets – and with the pitch being 3G, they’re able to make plenty of money out of using that with various stakeholders.

After the break Harrison Nee was denied by a fine save as the youngsters managed to largely control proceedings, there was little in the way of chances but I was pleased to see left-back Carl Durrant get 20 minutes or so in the second half too, he’s another one I’ve heard good things about.

With the game entering stoppage time, sub keeper Nikos Saltas made a decent save, tipping a fierce strike over the bar after some slack defending. I chose to stay to the end and asked Karl if he minded if I just poked my head in the dressing room.

‘Be my guest, gaffer.’

The first time I’d been called ‘gaffer’, quite a weird sensation.

‘Okay boys, I just wanted a quick word with you all. I’m Bob Martin, the new first team manager so I wanted to make myself known to you. Well done today, that was a good workout against good oppo, you acquitted yourselves well. I’ll be keeping an eye on your progress, there’ll be opportunities open for you to move up and get first team football if you show the right ethics. Work hard, listen to your gaffer here,’ I pointed to Karl, ‘and any issues at any time his and my door are always open. Okay?’

Shy nods and murmurs all round, never the most open of people, footballers.

‘Well done again lads, I’ll see you around the Lodge in the week, no doubt.’

‘All yours, gaffer.’ I said to Karl, shaking his hand and then leaving to have a quick cuppa in the boardroom before leaving, to say thank you for their hospitality and for having us down to North London.

News came through as I was getting into the car that the 23s had won 4-0 at Barrow, Jordan Young had netted twice and impressed. The text from Luke had marked him out.

Wanna talk about his next steps tomorrow if that’s ok

Sure thing

Was my reply.

Back at home I spent the evening looking at the scouting report on Exeter from Chris Badlan, my chief scout. The Grecians hadn’t had a great start to the season themselves, 18^th in the table with three points from their three games so far. They had at least scored, they beat Scunthorpe United 2-1 yesterday at St James Park to lift them up the standings somewhat, but they were unlikely to be in much better fettle than we were.

Chris had marked out their right-back area as a particular area of weakness, they’d had Jack Sparkes begin there against Scunthorpe out of position (Jack was left-footed for a start!) before he was replaced by a centre-half in Alex Hartridge, whilst Jake Taylor – nominally a midfielder – and Kevin Loko – nominally a centre-half – were other options that had been used there by Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink.

That was certainly enough to give me food for thought ahead of setting up training for tomorrow and thinking about our system for Tuesday night.

Just what I needed for a fitful night’s sleep, once again.

Haringey Borough 0

Coventry City Under-18s 1 (Jack Hall 30)

[he_2]

Monday 10^th August 2020

Up at 5am, on the road an hour later and at my desk at the Lodge with a coffee steaming away by 7:30am. My first full day of real football management, the past three days had felt like an age and I was absolutely raring to go.

From getting in right through to 2:30pm the focus was completely on the players and getting ready for Exeter tomorrow. Firstly to look at the training plan Adie had prepared and sign it off for the next couple of weeks then he arrived at 8am and we sat down to discuss team selection for tomorrow.

I was very keen to play with a second striker alongside Matt Godden to lighten his load and remove one of the two wide men.

‘Won’t that leave us a little lopsided?’ Adie asked.

‘Potentially,’ I replied. ‘But I really want us to probe down their left flank tomorrow, get Brandon up on the overlap and tuck Jordy inside a little, more of an inverted winger than asking him to get chalk on his boots.’

‘I get that,’ Adie responded, ‘and it makes a lot of sense. I’m just a little confused why you don’t want someone on the right flank?’

‘I do, but I want to give Mitch license to get forward and have one of the two central boys to drop in when he attacks. He was itching to get on Saturday, but never seemed to have the license to do so.’

I stood up and started moving the magnetic Sky Blue circles around the white board to illustrate my points. ‘When we don’t have the ball, their left back is the responsibility of one of the strikers or whoever plays here.’ I moved the attacking midfield circle out to close the oppo’s left-back.

‘Now then,’ I went on, sitting back down in my chair and taking a sip of coffee. ‘Who would you have partnering Godders tomorrow?’

Adie took a moment, looking pensively at me.

‘Go on.’

He took a breath. ‘Well,’ he began, ‘if it was down to me I would probably leave Godders out tomorrow.’

I felt my eyebrows rise. ‘Oh, why’s that?’

‘He’s really struggled so far this season, really not got going at all. If it was down to me, I’d go with Jordy and Gervane Kastaneer up front. Neither is an out and out striker, but they’re both mobile. I think they’d suit this fluid style you want to try out.’

‘That’s interesting,’ I said. ‘I hadn’t really given that solution any thought. I’d thought about going with either Jordan or young Hally out of the 18s.’ I stopped for a minute, thinking hard. Adie’s thoughts made a lot of sense and had certainly put a couple of cats amongst the pigeons already cooing around my head. ‘I’ll give that a lot of thought during the day, let’s have a look in training this morning at that for twenty minutes or so and see how it goes.’

Second stop just after 9am was at the medical centre where Adam Hearn, our head of Sports Science took me through the player’s fitness. Of those not already injured, most of the lads were in good shape in spite of tomorrow being their 4^th match inside ten days. Liam Kelly, our midfield chieftain was one that Adam recommended should be rested tomorrow, if at all possible, I knew already that I had a plethora of options in midfield and one or two boys champing at the bit, so I’d made a note to have a quick chat with Liam before training to let him know.

Of those that would be missing tomorrow:

Goalkeeper Marko Marosi’s broken hand was almost fine, he’d be hopefully getting the all-clear to resume full training tomorrow or Wednesday with a view to being back for the Colchester match next week.

Ryan Blair, whose tight thigh was easing and he should be back in full training around the same time.

Kyle MacFadzean was a good 3-4 weeks away from a return to training, he had picked up a hip injury during pre-season and we were looking at September to get him back in the side.

Midfielder Zain Westbrooke is entering the last few weeks of his rehabilitation from a cruciate ligament injury but probably won’t be back in full contact training until mid-September at the earliest.

Dexter Walters, a young winger also sidelined with a damaged hip could still be up to 3 months away from returning.

At 9:30am, it was into the dressing room where, already kitted out in my training gear, my initials BM emblazoned just next to the famous Coventry City badge and waiting to greet all of the players personally as they arrived.

By 10am, everyone was changed and ready for me to introduce myself. I kept things fairly short and concise knowing that ultimately the proof of my suitability for the role would be judged by my actions more than my words.

‘I’m not going to say too much,’ I started, concisely, ‘quite simply you know that we’re better than where we are in the league, I know we’re better than where we are in the league. There’s two things I want. First one is simple graft. Work hard, even when things aren’t going our way, work through it and keep pushing. Second one is bloody enjoy yourselves. I’ll empower you to enjoy your football. It’s a game, it should be fun, not a chore. Starting today, I want to see hard work and smiles.’

‘Okay, that’s enough from me, you’ll be hearing plenty more over the coming months, let’s go and get started.’

The boys traipsed out to where Andy Young was waiting to take the warm-up, whilst I held Liam Kelly back for a moment just to let him know that I was going to leave him out tomorrow, but that he’d be back in contention for the Colchester game. ‘I just want to manage your fitness, Kells,’ I said. ‘I know you want to play but I can’t afford to lose you so you’ll miss tomorrow and be back next week. Okay?’

‘Well, not really,’ he replied understandably. ‘I feel fine, but I appreciate you letting me know now rather than finding out tomorrow.’

‘Alright mate, thanks for taking it as it was intended. Go on, get out there and join the others.’

The two morning sessions went well, I introduced quite a few new ideas in particular around shape, getting used to playing with two up front and working on the full-backs being given more licence to get forward and overlap, almost playing as auxiliary wingers. The boys had been told this was how I wanted them to play tomorrow at Exeter but not too worry if it didn’t sink in straight away. I was expected 3 or 4 months where the new shape would need to bed in and that I’d need to be flexible in that time, mindful of the need to pick up results, but I had belief that once it did stick, it would give them a feeling of freedom.

After lunch we piled the boys into one of the classrooms for a half-hour presentation on what to expect from tomorrow and Exeter. Adie took the session and kept it nicely succinct and to the point. There was a big focus on where we felt we could hurt them in their right-back area and the need for Brandon to overlap down the left flank with whoever got the nod ahead of him tucking inside a little to try and isolate and overload whoever was filling in there for the Grecians. Most of all, Adie and I wanted the boys to be able to enjoy themselves and express themselves without pressure.

I hadn’t named the team, although it was forming in my head. I had named 17 to travel, with Liam Kelly also choosing to travel down even though he wouldn’t be selected to support the boys. That was a small thing that I was delighted to see, something that told be a lot about the lad’s attitude. The team would be named once we got down to Exeter in the mid-afternoon for a couple of hours rest before the pre-match meal and short drive to the ground.

The afternoon wasn’t quite so busy. The players headed off home at about 2:30pm and with the 23s and 18s having a day off after their matches yesterday and the Lodge seemed suddenly very empty. I caught up with Luke Tisdale over a cuppa in the canteen to hear about how the 23s had gotten on and in particular, Jake Taylor.

The 21-year old winger had netted twice but been outstanding, even taking into account the opposition.

‘We need to get him out on loan,’ Luke stated emphatically. ‘Under-23s football isn’t going to do him any good at all this season, he needs to be playing men’s football week-in, week-out.’

‘So, what are you proposing?’

‘Well, I spoke to him after the game yesterday and he’s keen to get out and find some first-team football at either National League or League 2 level. So, if you’re happy then I was going to circulate his name around a few clubs and see if there were any takers.’

It felt like a sensible approach so I gave my consent with the proviso that there was a recall clause in any agreement in case of injuries biting.

‘Oh, that’d be a given,’ Luke replied.

My final act of the day was to make a quick phone call to fill out my 18-man squad for tomorrow. Young Jake Hall from the Under-18s would travel down with us and be on the bench. I was really keen to get him involved with the first-team now and again for a couple of reasons. Firstly to see how he adapted to the step up in quality and secondly to show him how keen we were to progress him and hopefully keep him at the club until he turns 17 next month and tie him down to a pro deal.

The kid was made up when I rang, couldn’t believe his ears – nor could his parents to whom I offered a couple of complimentary tickets if they were able to travel down. They lapped those up with gleeful greed. Understandably.

An early finish, I was out of the office by 4:30pm and back at the hotel for a quiet dinner, early night and to finalise my starting XI in my head.

[bigmattb28]

Good read this. Following.

[he_2]

1 hour ago, bigmattb28 said:

Good read this. Following.

Many thanks, Matt - much appreciated :)

[he_2]

Tuesday 11^th August 2020

Exeter City v Coventry City

St James Park

Carabao Cup 1^st Round

Pre-match

I was impressed, I’d stipulated a 10am departure from the Lodge, lo-and-behold everyone was there parked up and on the coach in time. Not a fine to be had, each player was immaculately turned out in their travel gear so the kitty remained empty.

It was going to be a long day, the earliest we’d be back in the West Midlands would be about 1:30 tomorrow morning so we’d made an early start on the road to get down to Exeter hopefully for about 1:30pm at which point we’d check into the Jury’s Inn hotel about a quarter of a mile from the ground, have a quick team meeting to announce the team and then let the guys have a couple of hours in rooms to chill out and rest. They were at liberty to read, listen to music, sleep – I had asked them to keep screen time to a minimum though before convening at 5:30 for the pre-match meal. At that point it’d be phones away for the duration. I wanted the boys to chat during mealtimes, get to know each-other, garner some sort of team spirit.

The journey down was uneventful, the boys in decent spirits behind me, some listening to music and dozing, others together playing cards and one or two further glued to their phones or iPads. I was glancing out of the window, taking in the scenery on the M5 on what was a glorious day, the fourth or fifth in a row. The greenery in fields and pastures was turning golden, being scorched by the sun, temperatures in the early 30s again. Thunderstorms were on their way, at some point, but there was no sign so far.

As I took in the vistas my mind was thinking about what lay ahead. I felt quietly confident that we’d come away with a first win of the season, with our first goals of the season and that we’d be able to move on from this, use this as a catalyst. We just needed to make sure we had the belief. I was absolutely desperate to get off to a positive start, as much to prove to myself that I could do the job as the fans who had, understandably, greeted my appointment in a fairly lukewarm manner.

Arrival at the hotel was achieved on time, we all filed in and whilst I sorted out the rooms for the boys at reception, Adie and Ian Miller took them through to one of the conference suites where there were a few snacks laid on for them and some juices, tea and coffee.

By the time I’d arrived, Adie and Mills had got them settled and I was able to speak.

‘Okay, boys. I know you’re all champing at the bit to get started but I can only pick 11 of you to start. The other 7 are on the bench. You’re all playing for places going forward, this 11 is based on the shape I want us to use today, fitness and to have a look at one or two of you as well. If you’re not selected, be patient. Your chance will come. Okay? It’s a long season, you will get a chance if you show patience and work hard.’

There was some nervous shuffling amongst the ranks in front of me. I had asked Adie to watch carefully for the boys’ body language as I read the team out, I wanted to see how they reacted either to being selected or finding themselves on the bench.

‘Soon as I’ve announced the team, you’re at leisure to do what you want until dinner time in your rooms.’ That elicited some sniggering. ‘Within reason, obviously, lads. No illicit visitors this afternoon!’

Once the laughter had died down I continued. ‘Have a sleep, have a read, listen to music, watch telly – whatever you need to chill before this evening. Just please, keep phones and laptops and tablets to a minimum.’

‘The team then.’ I noticed one or two bodies straighten up, as if suddenly finding themselves paying attention. ‘Ben Wilson in goal, Mitch Clark, Brandon Mason, Michael Rose and Josh Pask at the back, midfield two of Jordan Shipley and Jamie Allen – Jamie, you’ll be skippering today – Gervane Kastaneer on the left, Jonny Ngandu just behind the front two, Jordy Hiwula will be partnering Matt Godden up front.’ I looked up from my clipboard. ‘The rest of you except for Kells will be on the bench tonight. Questions?’

There were none. ‘Okay then boys, off you go. Dinner at 5:30 on the dot. Phones off then, don’t be late otherwise it’s a £20 fine. Do what you need to do.’

They filed out, picking up their key cards from me on the way out and as we had fifteen minutes left in the room I asked Adie and Millsy for their observations. ‘No-one seemed particularly surprised, I wouldn’t have said,’ Adie said. ‘No-one looked particularly pissed off or angry, I think Shippers (Jordan Shipley) and Josh were a little surprised to be starting, but that’s only a good thing.’

‘Agreed, at least they’ve got five hours to go and get themselves prepared and focused on this evening now. Okay, good.’

Knowing that it’d be a good 12-hours before I’d be able to go back to bed, I headed up to my room to grab a couple of hours rest as well. Making sure the air-con was on, the curtains were closed I was asleep within minutes of laying down.

My alarm had been set for 4:45pm, giving me 45-minutes to have a shower and get myself down to dinner. It was imperative that I was seen to set the example along with the rest of the coaching staff, so 10 minutes before we needed to be we were in the restaurant. The players arrived in dribs and drabs and once again, none were late which was another tick in the box. The hotel had laid on a decent buffet of pastas, omelettes and salads so the boys were able to heartily tuck in and make sure they were fully sustained for their evening’s exertions.

At 6:15 we left the hotel and arrived at St James Park only a few minutes later. Everyone disembarked and we were shown to the visiting dressing room by a helpful steward. Some Sky Blue fans were at the entrance to the ground wishing us all well, giving us encouragement which was a nice touch. Once inside the dressing room I sat the boys down.

‘Okay lads, go out and have a little look at the pitch and the surroundings, get used to them. Back in here in 20 minutes to get changed and out for the warm-up no later than 7.’ As they filed out I asked the kit man, Chris Marsh – formerly a player notably at Walsall – whether he needed any help with anything.

‘Nah, get out there yourself, gaffer, we’ve got this sorted.’ I went out with the staff whilst he, his assistant Amanda and the medical staff got themselves ready.

After we’d returned and the boys were getting themselves ready, I went around the room and had a brief chat with each player, just to give them a couple of individual pointers around what I wanted from them. I kept it simple, not wanting to over-clutter their minds. Once I’d done that and they began to file out for the warm-up, that was me done until five minutes before kick-off.

I stood just by half-way on the touchline in front of the tunnel watching the warm-up of both sides, trying to gauge the attitudes of both sets of players. Exeter sensed that they could upset the odds here, particularly given our sticky start to the campaign whilst I was more than happy with the focus shown by my own lads. Around me the pre-match atmosphere began to build, music playing and various announcements over the PA, supporters filing in and that excited pre-match hum slowly turning into a buzz as kick-off ticked ever closer. To my right I could see the smattering of Sky Blue in the uncovered terracing that made up the away end becoming more of a sprinkling, then a dusting and into a pretty sizeable cluster. Flags went up, scarves tied to the barriers and Ben Wilson warming up in front of them given a good reception.

Just before 7:30 I wondered back down the tunnel and was caught by Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, my opposite number this evening. We wished each-other well for the game and then it was into the brief sanctuary of the dressing room.

The players filed back in, clatter of moulded studs on the tiled floor. ‘Seven minutes to get your final bits and pieces sorted boys, nice and quick, come on.’ I called.

Training kits were discarded, sock tape grabbed at, deodorant on, hair combed into place and eventually the Sky Blue shirts.

‘Settle down, boys,’ I said, voice raised to get over the hubbub. The five-minute buzzer had been sounded, I knew the knock on the door from the officials would come in a couple of minutes. ‘Okay, now listen. They reckon we’re there for the taking tonight, we’re not. You know the game plan. Get the ball down and pass it. Get the ball wide and get crosses into the box. Brandon and Clarky, don’t be afraid to get on down the flanks, Shippers and Jamie, if you need to sit in and cover when they push on then do it, don’t leave the two centre-halves isolated two-on-two. Okay? They’ll play with one up but look to break quickly, that’s when we need to be aware. Otherwise, dictate the play, play with confidence and belief, okay? Do that, stick to the game plan, don’t just go aimlessly long and we’ll be okay. Right?’

Shouts of agreement, encouragement, motivation.

‘Good good.’ Then came the knock on the door. ‘Okay boys, go and get them! Give it all, leave it all out there!’

I opened the door and gave each player a pat of encouragement as they filed out to line-up in the tunnel and then into the arena. I picked my suit jacket off the peg, looked in the mirror to make sure my tie was nicely straight, put the jacket on and for the first time in my life, strode out of the tunnel as manager of Coventry City Football Club. I could do no more.

[he_2]

Tuesday 11^th August 2020

Exeter City v Coventry City

St James Park

Carabao Cup 1^st Round

The Match

After shaking hands once again with Jimmy Floyd I took my place, arms folded and resting my back on the visitor’s dugout -Flybe motifs adorning the back of the plexiglass cover. The pre-match handshakes took place, as did the toss and within moments, the action had begun.

We began positively launching straight into an attack down the left flank with Brandon Mason getting forward in support of Gervane Kastaneer, his first cross into the box was headed away though and within a minute, Exeter’s Jake Taylor had lined up a free-kick from fully 35-yards and driven his effort into our Sky Blue wall which stood firm.

The game wasn’t three minutes old when we got our first sight of goal, the ball was worked forward to Kastaneer who had drifted in off the line, he slipped it in for Godden who worked himself some space for a shot at goal from just outside the penalty area, but he was unable to hit the target.

Ben Wilson then made a comfortable save from a Randell Williams header after a spell of decent possession for us before he released Jonny Ngandu with a quick through. The young attacking midfielder galloped over halfway and found Jordy Hiwula, unfortunately he effort from 25-yards ended up in amongst the Sky Blue faithful behind the goal.

As early as the 9^th minute midfielder Jordan Shipley found his name taken by the referee after committing what must have been at least his 4^th infringement of the evening leaving him walking a significant tightrope for the remaining 80-odd minutes of the tie.

Three minutes later Mitch Clark made significant progress down the right flank and shifted it inside for Ngandu, the youngster turned inside and then sent a lovely ball into the heart of the penalty area. Godden got up well in between two centre-halves but planted his header straight at Jared Thompson who held on well.

The way in which Clark had gotten forward was highly encouraging and I gave him a clap of encouragement. ‘Great stuff Clarky, more of that son.’

We were beginning to settle into a nice rhythm, passing the ball well and forcing Exeter to defend their 18-yard box. Every time they gained possession it went forward to their lone striker Jerry Yates who was not only extremely isolated, but had a tough time getting the better of either Michael Rose or Josh Pask.

Nearing the quarter hour mark another neat move down the right ended with the ball being moved into the path of Kastaneer by Shipley, but his curled effort from just outside the area was well gathered by Thompson by his right-hand post.

Shipley was involved once again as he carved a lovely lofted ball across the pitch to the right edge of the Grecians’ penalty area where Clark was up to win the header. His header found Hiwula in a great position, he took one touch to control and then fired goalwards from 12-yards out, Thompson though was once again behind it and our clearest chance of the evening so far had gone begging.

Our stranglehold on proceedings only grew as time went on. Hiwula’s first touch deserted him when played clear by Godden, Clark had an effort blocked by a defender’s legs and Hiwula also had a header from a Clark cross once again well saved by Thompson.

‘For all the saves he’s made so far,’ I confided to Adie, ‘his distribution is a weak point.’

And it was, every time Thompson had kicked clear, he’d either found touch or a Sky Blue shirt. We really needed to capitalise on that. I made a note in my little book as one of my points for the break.

In the 18^th minute we were hit by an absolute sucker punch. A cheap free-kick was conceded some 35-yards from goal once again and once again Jake Taylor stepped up to take it. He got plenty of power and curl on the ball yet it ended up fairly centre of goal. Wilson, who seemed to see the ball late didn’t react and could only palm the ball into the roof of the net.

Absolute delight for the hosts and for us, despite having controlled most of the opening stages, we had a real test of character ahead of us now. I was up off the bench encouraging, cajoling – hammering anyone at this point would have been futile. We had to maintain our belief that we were going to be doing things the right way.

To the players’ credit, that’s what they did. Rather than fold or panic, they kept doing things the way we wanted them to. Pass the ball, get the ball wide, move off the ball. Exeter were outstanding defensively and made a couple of outstanding blocks before Ngandu found half a yard of space but fired his effort a yard wide of the far post on 25 minutes.

I could sense the players were beginning to get a bit angsty with things not coming off, they started taking the wrong options or simply panicking, I was on my feet constantly encouraging them to keep going. On 34 minutes a cross in from Hiwula saw Godden beat his man to the header, unfortunately he directed it wide of the post as he looked to go back across goal.

‘They can’t keep us out forever,’ I said to Aide, ‘at some point we have to make our pressure pay.’

‘Let’s hope so, gaffer,’ came the reply from my number 2.

Three minutes later and a cross in from the left from Mason was headed partially clear as far as Clark, who was lingering on the right corner of the penalty area. With a couple of yards of space ahead of him he struck a shot but Thompson again did well to block and push the ball behind for a corner.

Five minutes before the break another ball in from the right wing, again from Clark found Godden. Again the striker got up well but this time he could only direct his header over the top of the bar. Then, a couple of minutes Clark fed the ball inside for Hiwula to run onto and strike, his effort went harmlessly wide of the near post.

On the stroke of half-time, Clark misjudged Taylor’s cross into the box and allowed Williams in behind him. The Exeter winger had a clear sight of goal, albeit on the angle, thankfully Wilson got his angles right and made a good save to keep the deficit down to 1.

HALF TIME: Exeter City 1-0 Coventry City

‘I don’t know how you haven’t scored out there today.’ I began my pep talk. ‘We’ve been caught out by a cheap and needless foul and a freak strike. Credit to you all for sticking with our principles after going behind. You have to keep believing, you have to stay patient. Your rewards will come, boys. Aside from inside their penalty area you’ve been great, absolutely perfect. When you get a sight of goal just relax, don’t try and do too much, the goals will come. Stick with it boys. Okay?’

A few murmurs of assent.

‘Anything to add Adie?’

Viveash made a couple of observations, particularly about closing down Jared Thompson when he had the ball at his feet, before we left them to it, in my mind I was already considering when to make changes and which ones to make, I had a couple of ideas in mind but a lot depended on how we started the second period and whether we could get on the scoresheet or not. What the first half had shown me was more to suggest that we needed reinforcements in the final third. Would the second half change that opinion?

Two and a half minutes after the restart we went oh so close to getting back on terms. Mason sent the cross in from the left and at the far post Hiwula got above his marker to send a header destined towards the top corner – or at least it would have been had the goal been placed six inches further left. Instead the ball came back off the top of the post and was hacked clear to the relative safety of the main stand for the throw-in.

The next 6 or 7 minutes we found ourselves under the cosh somewhat, it was as if Exeter had sensed blood at the break and were going in for the kill. The back four protected Wilson well and he wasn’t required to make a save – indeed the next opening came at the other end when Clark volleyed Mason’s cross over the bar.

At that point I summonsed a couple of replacements over to change things about a bit. Jodi Jones came on for Jonny Ngandu and moved out further towards the right flank, with licence to cut inside whilst young Jake Hall also got the call as well to replace Kastaneer and then allow Jordy Hiwula to move out to the left whilst he partnered Godden up front.

‘Relax, son, go and enjoy it. Make a name for yourself.’ I said to him as he had his boots checked by the assistant. ‘Good luck, kid!’

A couple of minutes after the changes, Godden did extremely well to recover a ball down by the left corner flag and get a cross into the near post. Hiwula got up well to meet the teasing ball in but headed over the top.

We then went through a little stage all of a sudden of trying to go long, something I was immediately off my seat about, imploring us to get the ball down again. In the 63^rd minute Hiwula got a ball in from the left towards the far post where it was met by Jones. His header cannoned back off the woodwork and as he stretched to direct the rebound goalwards, he found his effort blocked on the line.

‘Flipping heck! How have we still not scored?!’ I exclaimed. ‘Much better boys, much better. Keep at it, come on, that goal’s coming. Believe!’

A minute later our task became infinitely harder. Shipley went in late and from behind, needlessly, it has to be said, the second yellow and then red card was absolutely inevitable. Down to ten men, a goal down. I couldn’t believe it.

I immediately got Josh Eccles ready and was going to replace Hiwula, shifting Eccles in alongside Jamie Allen in midfield and still asking Mason to get forward down the left. Whether or not it’d work, I had no idea, but I wouldn’t leave Jamie on his own in the middle of the park.

In the 67^th minute Yates got in a header at the far post unchallenged from Jake Taylor’s corner kick, but Wilson did well to get across and smother. The game was becoming ever more stretched as Exeter suddenly came out of their shells in pursuit of a second goal and we looked to counter in numbers, despite being a man light.

Yates had a shot well blocked by Pask out for a corner and was then withdrawn in favour of Ryan Bowman up front. Tom Parkes headed well over from the corner kick.

We’d totally lost control of the game, rather the measured approach that had served us well in the first half, everything had become completely harum-scarum. Taylor put another free-kick narrowly wide of the post after a silly foul by Clark with fifteen minutes left, a goal would have killed us.

Time ebbed away, Exeter managing the game really well and not allowing us to get settled again. We had to believe there was at least one more chance in this for us, but it was looking more and more unlikely, if anything the hosts looked more likely. Randell Williams sent one wide from 20 yards and from the restart we just gave it back to them.

As we entered the 86^th minute we won a free kick in a great position after a break from Jodi Jones. Allen lifted the ball in towards the far post where it was met by Josh Pask, his header though was straight at Thompson who held on well.

Into the 88^th minute and Jones tried a Hollywood ball to find Godden rather than play the simple ball down the link for Clark. Time continued to tick. Goal-kick.

4 minutes of stoppage time…. I was patrolling the technical area like a bad-tempered Ibex. A ball forward, Godden won it, but he’d been flagged offside. I shook my head in despair.

The final minute, Allen found Hall down the right, he managed to get a lovely ball in but Godden was beaten to it. The ball cleared downfield and Exeter win a throw-in, then a free kick. That was it, no more. The final whistle went and a huge cheer went up around three sides of the ground. We had come up short and had lost our fourth game of the season without scoring.

FULL TIME:

Exeter City 1 (Jake Taylor 18)

Coventry City 0

Team: Wilson, Clark, Rose, Pask, Mason, Allen, Shipley (s/o), Kastaneer (Hall), Ngandu (Jones), Godden, Hiwula (Eccles)

[he_2]

Tuesday 11^th August 2020

Exeter City 1-0 Coventry City

St James Park

Carabao Cup 1^st Round

Post-Match

The moment the final whistle went, I took my hands out of my pockets, lifted my head, puffed out my chest and strode across the tunnel entrance to shake hands with Jimmy Floyd and offer my congratulations. ‘You deserved that tonight, Jimmy, well done, mate.’

‘Thanks, Bobby. Eh, keep the faith, you played some lovely stuff first half. It’ll come.’

I thanked him for his magnanimous words yet having taken the scalp of a higher division club and progressed into round 2 with the chance to meet a Premier League club, he could rather afford to be gracious in victory. Before heading down the tunnel I briefly looked towards the end where the visiting supporters were, some filing out, some releasing their frustration towards myself and the players. I could absolutely understand their feelings, that was a game we should not have lost.

The moment I disappeared from public view my hands returned to my pockets and I fell back into a pensive mood as I made my way towards the visitor’s dressing room.

How best to describe the mood? Sombre perhaps? No, it was a lot more febrile than that. Disappointment with a simmering level of anger. I was pacing around the physio’s table that was in the centre of the dressing room, one hand in my pocket and the other one stroking my chin (there was no piano available to play). I was looking at the floor as I paced, trying to choose my words with some level of care. The one thing I had resolved not to do was to publicly dig out Jordan Shipley for his dismissal – instead I took care of that in private before we boarded the coach to go home.

‘Listen, Shippers,’ I said to him. ‘You probably don’t need me to tell you how disappointed I am in you for getting sent off, I’m not going to lay the blame for the defeat at your door because you weren’t singularly culpable, but that second yellow certainly didn’t help. I admired your enthusiasm, but after nibbling the ankles of four players inside the first ten minutes you’re on a tightrope with that first yellow. You have to learn to temper that exuberance, you don’t have to keep snapping at ankles every time someone receives the ball with their back to you, you can just stand them up and make them play the way they’re facing and then be aware of their movement.’

‘I know, gaffer, I’m gutted about the red card,’ he replied. ‘I knew as soon as I clipped the fella I should have just done exactly that.’

‘Well, you’ll obviously have to sit out a game now and I’ll be fining you a week’s wages.’

His face dropped with surprise.

‘You’re fining me as well?’ He exclaimed.

‘I have to, son, I can’t be having that level of indiscipline. A week’s wages.’

His response to that isn’t for print but suffice to say, he was extremely unhappy with my decision. So be it, as far as I was concerned, the matter has been dealt with. He won’t be hearing any more about it from me, when he gets back to training on Thursday morning as far as I’m concerned it’ll be water under the bridge. If he chooses to dwell on it then there’s not much I can do about that.

Re-wind to the dressing room and no-one dared to speak aside from one or two exasperated exclamations full of frustration. One or two boots skidded across the floor, one or two shin-pads crashed into it, forcefully thrown from a height. After a couple of minutes I stopped pacing.

‘Two things, chaps.’ I held up two fingers. ‘First up, I hope you’ve seen taken the lesson on board of taking your chances when they fall your way. We had enough openings in that first-half alone to have won the game comfortably but our finishing was simply lamentable.’ I resumed my pacing to make my second point. ‘Secondly, that last 25 minutes was not acceptable at all. We lost our belief, we lost our shape, all of a sudden balls are being going from back to front long more in hope than expectation and that made it so easy for them to defend. When you were passing the ball, when you were getting it wide they were finding it really hard to hang on. You two,’ I pointed at Brandon Mason and Mitch Clark, ‘well done. You defended well and gave us the outlets going forward that I was looking for. The rest of you,’ I looked around the room, ‘a big improvement is needed before Colchester next week. Adie,’ I glanced up at Viveash. ‘Anything to add?’

‘Not from me, gaffer, it can wait until Thursday.’

‘Alright then boys. Get changed, get showered, get a bite to eat and on the coach by 10:45.’

Then it was outside to speak to the local pressmen of the Coventry Observer, Coventry Telegraph and BBC CWR (Coventry & Warwickshire) Sport where I expressed my disappointment with the result, the lack of goals and in particular our second half showing. ‘Even though we were behind at the break I wasn’t too unhappy,’ I said. ‘I thought our passing was good, we were opening them up plenty, we just need to be more efficient, more clinical in that final third.’

‘Are you looking to bring in new blood to address that?’ I was asked by BBC CWR’s Geoff Foster.

‘I am meeting the recruitment team tomorrow and what I’ve seen this evening will give our conversations perhaps a little more urgency than I might have hoped.’ I replied.

A quick bite to eat, a chat with a very disappointed chairman and then back onto the coach for the 3-hour drive back to the Lodge. It was a very sombre mood, I put on my headphones and hit my Post Rock playlist before opening up my tablet, getting out my notebook and pen and using the internet to search squad listings for potential targets to discuss tomorrow.

It was a little after 2am when we finally pulled into the car park at the Lodge, I exited the coach as quickly as I could and stood at the bottom of the stairs to shake the hands of each player – including Shippers – wish them a good day off and that I’d see them Thursday morning. I knew one or two would be in tomorrow for a rub-down and little bit of recovery work, but most of them could look forward to a Wednesday off.

With a week to go until we can dust ourselves down and go again against Colchester – for some reason we have a blank weekend on Saturday – it’s going to be a long hard five days on the training pitch they have ahead so they’ll need to make the most of tomorrow.

Back to the hotel, a nightcap at the bar and into bed by 3am. Sleep was hard to come by, the events of the evening swirling around in my mind. Thankfully, I didn’t need to be back in the lodge particularly early so I could have a bit of a lay-in tomorrow.

[he_2]

Wednesday 12^th August 2020

‘That were disappointing last night, gaffer.’ The greeting from Jim upon arrival just before 11 at the Lodge.

‘Oh, Jim, tell me about it, mate. I wasn’t happy at all.’

‘Nay bother, gaffer, keep your chin up, it’ll turn round, son.’ He shook my hand and I went upstairs to find my office, saying good morning to those I saw in corridors. At my desk I had a quick sift through the in-tray, there were a few bits in there regarding the staff and a couple of potential vacancies that Adie had been kind enough to organise for me, some press clippings that Liz had provided from yesterday evening and other bits and pieces of paperwork.

First things first, I popped down to the canteen to grab myself a coffee and sandwich, lovingly crafted by Janice in the kitchen. I went in to thank her and her apprentice, William, spent a couple of minutes chatting about last night and the menu for the next few days before I headed off down to the medical centre to chat to Adam and the chief physio Paul Godfrey.

Paul was hard at work on Marko Marosi, taking him through an unbelievably strenuous looking finger exercise, whilst Ryan Blair was having some treatment on his thigh injury and Matt Godden was in for a rub-down on a stiff back.

After having a quick word with the three players Adam sat me down. Marko would be back in full training tomorrow, he’d be able to go into full goalkeeping work with goalkeeping coach Aled Williams and Ben Wilson and be available for selection at Colchester. ‘You might want to give him a run out with the 23s on Monday night and leave him on the bench at Colchester the following night, that’s your call though, gaffer.’

Ryan Blair would be signed off and back in full training by the end of the week. He was going into the gym after his treatment for a little more strengthening work but by the weekend he’d be able to undergo full contact training. Godders was just feeling a little bit of tension in his lower back, something he often had and was a regular in for a massage after matches, nothing to worry about. We’d not picked up any other knocks last night, which was good news, so by the end of the week we’d be a little closer to having a full squad available.

Paul caught me before we left and asked where we were with finding a second pair of hands for the physio team, this was something that was in hand when Simon Grayson got the boot. ‘I think there’s a couple of people I’m following up on today, Paul,’ I told him. ‘I think Adie’s been working on it in the interim. Leave it with me, mate, and I’ll keep you up to date.’

After that, a couple of hours back at the desk – another stifling day but there were at least thunderstorms around, the oppressive heat finally threatening to break. Although the air-con in the hotel room was an absolute godsend, there was a limit to how much dry cold air you could stomach.

There was a couple of conversations with Luke Tisdale around giving Jordan Young the green light to have a chat with Solihull Moors, a local club in the National League, see if he fancied a loan-move there for the rest of the season to get him some first-team football under his belt. I was more than happy to let him go if that’s what he felt was the right move for him. By the end of the day the deal had been signed. I’ll monitor his progress closely.

Working my way down the review Adie had provided, he’d given me a couple of leads to follow up with regards to the physio job, as well as one to speak to about assisting Andy in the Sports Science department – I made phone calls to each of the individuals involved and ended up inviting a lady named Natasha Doyle down on Friday to meet Paul and Andy with a view to joining as a first-team physio. The other two individuals won’t go any further given the numbers they were talking about wanting for wages.

That felt like a little bit of progress, the other bit of work I managed to do was to receive the green light from Steve Irving to put Ian Miller through a UEFA Pro Licence course. Although in his early 60s, Ian was still keen to learn and develop and Adie had asked me to see if the chairman would be happy for the club to pay for Millsy to go through the course. Anything that helps him to help us seems like a sensible approach. I must have caught the chairman in a good mood as he rubber stamped it immediately.

‘Ah, magic!’ Millsy exclaimed when I told him. ‘I’ve been after this for a few years. Thanks, Bob.’

A happy camper, excellent.

The rest of the afternoon was spent deep in conversation with Chris Badlan, the chief scout, to look at targets. In the scouting room there was a huge whiteboard with a number of names scrawled on in various coloured ink. ‘Are these who we were tracking under Simon?’ I asked.

‘Yeah, that’s right.’ Chris replied. He went on to tell me what each colour ink meant, who we’d been tracking and why. I looked over the names, one or two were those I’d come up with too, a number of them weren’t.

‘Have you got reports on all of these?’

‘Of course, yeah. If you want to see them I’ll get them sent across to you.’

‘Please,’ I said. I’d much rather have too many names under consideration than not enough.

‘These ones here,’ he handed me a foolscap folder, ‘are the reports we’ve managed to compile since the weekend.

‘Who’s in here?’ I asked, briefly flicking through and having a glance at the five stapled pieces of paper.

‘Joe Dodoo, striker at Bolton. Looks a good player, unlikely to come to us and potentially pretty costly wage-wise.’ Chris began. ‘Brandon Thomas-Asante, a midfielder at Salford. More likely to come, but only 21 and more one for the future than right now. Mark Shelton, another midfielder at Salford. He’s 23, inexpensive but probably no better than what we already have, James Brown, a full-back from Millwall. 22 years-old, not really in their first-team plans so could be a loan-option and Matt Smith also at Millwall.’

I looked up at this point. ‘The striker? Ex-QPR?’

Chris nodded. ‘That’s right, and Leeds and Fulham. He’s not been involved in their first team yet, is on the transfer list. Has pedigree, would be gettable for about £100k but wages could be prohibitive. He’d want top-end League 1 wages, I’d imagine.’

That was interesting. Food for thought, he’d be the kind of player I’d love to try and get in to give Matt Godden some support up top, lighten the burden. He was proven at the level above, his goal record wasn’t the worst and he had buckets of experience – more than 300 league games to his name. The wages would probably be an issue though. Definitely one to ponder.

I brought my thoughts back to the room. ‘Last night showed up our lack of quality in the final third.’ I said. ‘Godders can’t do it all himself, Jonny Ngandu is only 18. We lack numbers, we lack quality.’ I produced a sheet of paper with twenty-seven names on it, each one a centre-forward or attacking midfielder. ‘These are guys I’d like us to focus on quickly – just start by having a few conversations with people. If they’re likely to be unavailable or too expensive, put them on the backburner. If any of them show a chink of light in terms of getting them here on-loan or permanently, get them out there and get them watched.’

Chris took the list and had a look through it, compared it with the whiteboard and noted the overlaps. ‘Don’t give me any gut feels right now, spend today and tomorrow having a look and come back at the end of the week with some preliminary ideas.’ I said. ‘We probably won’t get anyone in for Colchester, but I’d really like one, maybe two in before Shrewsbury a week on Saturday.’

‘Sure thing,’ he replied. ‘Leave it with us and we’ll get onto it for you, gaffer.’

Before I left he gave me the detailed report on Colchester, that’ll provide my evening reading for tonight. I was still feeling pretty tired from yesterday so made an early-ish getaway from the Lodge back to the hotel where I’d get some dinner, have a bath and settle in to work out just how we were going to get the better of Essex’s premier football club next Tuesday night.

[he_2]

Thursday 13^th August

The Colchester report I’d been given yesterday had ended up with all sorts of annotations, highlights and squiggles upon it ahead of my morning catch-up with Adie before training began. I wanted him to have a good read through before we sat down properly over the weekend to work out how we wanted to approach that one on Tuesday evening. Once again, Chris had done an excellent job in covering Colchester’s strengths and weaknesses and I was really keen to get the boys as well prepared as possible for the game.

I was at my desk at 8am and Ricky Unwin had dropped me a note letting me know that our intended home match against Bristol Rovers that was originally scheduled for 26^th August had been moved back a fortnight owing to their League Cup commitments. They’d drawn Exeter at home so had we progressed the likelihood was that we’d have met as planned, just in a different competition.

The other document that I took a little time to have a look at was a summary from Chris around the current squad, their contract statuses and his thoughts on what we should be looking at doing.

He felt that Jordan Shipley, who although not yet receiving much in the way of attention from clubs at higher levels, might want to begin discussions on a new deal but that we should hold off for the time being. He’s 22-years old, his contract is up in the summer and he’s earning considerably less than some others – Jamie Allen and Liam Kelly, for example. Although he’s not yet at their standard, it’d probably be worth having a chat with him at some point to see what he’d be after and seeing what we might be able to do. I’ll be holding off for a few weeks, just so he can simmer down a little after being fined the other night.

He also suggested that three of the younger lads be made available for loan to try and help them along, like we’re doing with Jordan Young. I’m watching the 23s on Monday evening at Birmingham, so I’ll have a look at them then and make a decision early next week.

The final points he had to make were around the performances recently of Jamie Allen and Brandon Mason and that as two of the higher earning members of the squad, their efforts on the pitch hadn’t matched their wage packets. I’m going to reserve judgement once again on that since I thought Jamie was excellent for an hour at Exeter before losing his midfield partner whilst, as I pointed out after the game, Brandon did exactly what I wanted from him at full-back and showed a lot of promise. Still, it’s always useful to have a second opinion available on players and I made a diary note to come back to this on Wednesday next week.

Adie popped his head in at about 9:45 to say that he was heading out to set up, I went out to join him shortly afterwards as Andy Young and Jason Farndon took the boys through a 45-minute physical conditioning session. Marko Marosi, I was delighted to see was back out there but Ryan Blair hadn’t quite made it. He was doing some light jogging on his own to one side under the watchful eye of Adam and Paul, before stepping it up to do a few shuttles and testing his thigh under a little more duress.

Our second session between 11am and lunchtime was led by Adie, Jason and Millsy, I watched on from the sideline, continuing to observe and make notes as the boys worked on some patterns of play and positioning whilst the goalkeepers were off with Aled Williams undergoing an intense workout. Marko, when I looked on, certainly didn’t look as though he was struggling with his finger too badly. He definitely needed to regain some match sharpness and that question around whether he should be having 45-minutes for the 23s on Monday evening before making a decision for Tuesday.

Focus during the sessions was good, I was pleased to see Jordan put in a shift and not be dwelling on events from Tuesday night. One worry came when Mitch Clark limped out of the second session, but after lunch Paul let me know that it was only precautionary after he felt some tightness in his groin. He won’t train tomorrow, he might also miss Saturday but should be okay for the pre-match preparation ahead of Colchester. That provoked a sigh of relief.

After lunch Adie and I spent a good couple of hours along with Dan Bolas, our Head of Youth Development, Luke Tisdale and Karl Hooper to go through the Under-23 and Under-18 squads in greater deal and understand who they’d marked out as potentially being able to make the step up to the first-team in time and given the right guidance. There is a real plethora of talent available to me, I’m very keen on bringing players through. Of course, my initial concern is to drag the side out of the predicament we seem to be getting ourselves into, but I had plenty of names with asterisks to keep a very close eye on.

I had a couple of house viewings set up for the early evening in nearby Tile Hill, about 7 or 8 miles from the training ground and the same distance from the Ricoh – I was keen to find a long-term for a couple of years, optimistically looking for somewhere for the duration of my 2-year deal. I left the Lodge at about 5:30pm and drove the 20 minutes or so westwards.

The first property was a nice 4-bed semi-detached place on Tile Hill Lane, nice garden that was well enclosed, a gated driveway and nice open plan kitchen-diner. The second was a detached 4-bed extended bungalow that was also nice and airy, the attic had been converted into either a bedroom or good workspace whilst the garden was a nice mix of grass and decking. The only issue with it was that it wasn’t as private as the first property.

I had an interest in both properties and asked the agency to find out what the prospects of getting a 2-year lease would be on both whilst still keeping my eyes open for other places.

All-in-all, today’s been a productive day. I would have liked to have been preparing for action at the weekend, but that’s not to be. Only five days until we can get back to proper work, it can’t come soon enough.

[he_2]

Friday 14^th August 2020

A quieter Friday than I’d usually expect without a game to prepare for tomorrow. Also today was my one-week anniversary of getting the job. It’s felt rather longer in some ways and much quicker in others.

It meant that we were about to spend three quality hours on the training ground fully focused on some tactical and technical bits in smaller units. One session was fully focused on ball retention and beginning to drill the players in being comfortable keeping the ball, even when being pressed and the second session was focused more around distribution of the ball, so less on how to receive the ball and movement without and more on when to select the killer pass, when to stay simple, when going long would might pay dividends on balance rather than just concede easy possession.

I knew that a lot of this would be quite new to the boys so I wasn’t going to be too demanding, but each and every ball-based session moving forward would incorporate things we’d worked on today. Tomorrow, for example, Adie’s planned a session on defending aerial balls into our box, which is all good, but rather just focusing on positioning and heading them clear or being aware of where the attackers were, it’d look at how we can best look to retain possession from any headed clearance or claim from the goalkeeper rather than it just being a temporary and momentary respite.

We had Ryan Blair back in full training for the first time, which was a positive thing, Mitch Clark was inside getting a little treatment on his niggle from yesterday but was expected to be back out tomorrow.

We have a full weekend of training in the absence of any first-team fixture, so an unusually busy time ahead at The Lodge. On a normal weekend come Friday afternoon the place would be pretty empty with the first-team either travelling to a long-distance away fixture and overnight stay, or giving the lads an evening off ahead of convening the next day for a home game or local-ish away match, then Sunday would be a day-off for most, perhaps one or two might pop in for a little treatment if they felt it was needed.

Away from the training pitch and the regular heavy showers – last night had seen some pretty impressive thunderstorms to clear the heatwave – I spent the afternoon looking at a couple of reports from the analysts on Joe Dodoo and James Brown, neither one had persuaded me to make a phone call but the one name that had been discussed the other day that kept coming back to me was Matt Smith.

I knew that Millwall were on the way to Cardiff for a Championship match tomorrow but I gave the club a ring and left a message for Steve McClaren to give me a call back when he got a moment. I wasn’t expecting a response before Monday, but he returned my call after dinner this evening. I wanted to pick his brains a little about Smith. ‘Great lad, just surplus to requirements at The Den,’ the former England manager told me. I asked whether there might be potential for a loan deal and although McClaren didn’t rule it out, I got the distinct impression that their strong preference was for a permanent deal, getting him off their wage bill. Having a rough idea of what Smith was on, that would be a no go.

He gave up a good half an hour of his time to talk to me after that initial discussion, asking how I was getting on, how things were at Coventry. I told him a little about my need to get a couple of bodies in, especially in the final third, ‘why don’t you have a look at who’s available as a free agent?’ he asked. ‘I know of a couple of lads who have a bit of pedigree – Rudi Gestede, for example, he was released by Middlesbrough in the summer and hasn’t found a new club yet. There’s a few others as well.’ He told me where to look and I spent a good couple of hours scouring lists of players not currently anywhere and there were a couple that caught the eye, a couple who could surely do a job at League 1 level at least in the short-term. So, I made a little shortlist and picked up some phone numbers to ring tomorrow afternoon, after I’ve watched the 18s against Hull to see if I can maybe get one or two in to have a look at with a view to offering them a short-term deal.

I thanked Steve and wished him well for tomorrow, it was very generous of him to give up so much of his time the night before a match, something that had been absolutely invaluable in terms of advice. I can’t think why I hadn’t thought to have a look at the free agent listings. I’d run my list past Adie and Chris tomorrow to see what they thought as well and hopefully begin to get the wheels turning a little on improving the squad.

[he_2]

Saturday 15th^th August 2020

Coventry City Under-18s v Hull City Under-18s

The Alan Higgs Centre

Under-18 Division 2 North

For some around the club it was game day, for those of us involved with the first-team it was not. I got the boys in nice and early for training so that they could have the afternoon off and I could work solidly with Final Score on in the background in the office, keeping an eye on results in League 1. As they were all getting prepped for training, I welcomed Natasha to the club. She’d agreed a 2-year deal to join the medical team and so I took her down to the changing room first of all – making sure all were decent – to introduce her, then left her in the capable hands of Paul and Adam to show her the ropes.

As the boys were warming up, I had a quick chat with Adie to discuss in a little more detail whether or not it was worth looking at these free agents that I’d come up with. We’d had a brief chat about it last night over the phone. ‘I don’t see any harm in getting them in for a week or two, see how they train, get them involved with the 23s perhaps on Monday and Thursday to help assess them.’

That would form most of my afternoon work then, getting in touch with agents and seeing if we could get a couple of bodies into training for Monday morning.

I stuck around for the first session of training before jumping in the car and driving the 10-minutes to the Alan Higgs Centre where the Academy is based for their 11am kick-off against Hull City. Dan Bolas was waiting for me with a cup of coffee as we stood and watched Chay Thompson, their coach, taking the boys through their warm-up.

It was an awful lot cooler than it had been the week before, with low cloud largely blotting out any hint of blue sky and sunshine. Indeed, rain showers regularly got in the way during the morning leaving me raising and folding my club brolly at very regular intervals.

We began pretty well – I’d asked Karl Hooper to try and emulate the first-team’s shape to try and get a fabric working through the club. I realise this sounds a little pretentious since we’re not exactly Barcelona or Ajax and that the idea of producing some kind of philosophy working at a club where the average lifespan of a manager wasn’t exactly Wenger-like - but I felt it was important nonetheless.

Carl Durrant got down the left well early on and his cutback for Hayden Purves saw the winger’s effort well saved by the visiting goalkeeper before Jake Hall played Moussa Bagayoko in with a sumptuous through ball, the French striker shot well wide of the target though.

On 10 minutes a slightly dubious looking penalty kick was awarded when it looked as though the blue-shirt had won the ball, Jake Bayram stepped up and smashed the spot kick beyond Keelan Fallows to give the Tigers the lead.

The goal knocked our youngsters off their stride a little, Adam Taylor did well midway through the first-half to get forward from right-back and get a shot off at goal that was tipped over the top by Harvey Cartwright, and although we were passing the ball well, there wasn’t much in the way of cutting edge or penetration about our efforts.

Two minutes before the break, Durrant sent in a ball from the left again which saw Bagayoko finally free of his marker. As he planted his header beyond Cartwright and into the net, the Assistant’s flag was raised for offside and the goal was quickly chalked off.

A quarter of an hour after the restart, Hull went close to extending their lead when Bayram got up above his marker at the far post to send his header from a free-kick into the side netting before Josh Hinds sent a fizzing drive narrowly over the top from 20-yards.

We still had the majority of the ball, we’d had more efforts at goal, more corner kicks, our pass completion was higher than theirs but as with the first-team, we were struggling to create clear-cut chances or score goals.

The points were sealed with 20-minutes remaining when Hinds was released in behind Taylor, he cut inside and fired a low drive across Fallows and into the far corner of the net, showing that ruthless cutting edge that we were so badly lacking.

That was summed up a minute after falling 2-0 behind when Harrison Nee found himself on a poor headed clearance and with a clear sight of goal. His effort lacked conviction, though, and Cartwright was able to make another decent save when he should have been given no chance at all.

11-minutes from time, Thai Duggan, who had come on as a substitute shortly before, rose to head home a cross from Hall and make things interesting in the final 10-minutes, a proper centre-forward’s header, but Hinds restored the visitor’s 2-goal advantage 3-minutes later when he was left unmarked at the far post to volley home a free kick.

A touch disappointing to lose a game so comprehensively that statistically we’d been in control of. That said, results were less important than getting players ready for the first-team. Jake Hall had done well up-front without really having a sight of goal whilst the way in which Thai Duggan took his goal had been impressive as well. I left the Higgs centre to head back to the Lodge with plenty running through my head and a promise to give Karl a ring later on to have a chat.

Back at the Lodge the players were just finishing up their lunches before heading home when I sat down with Adie, Millsy and Jason. The second session had gone well and there’d been no injuries of particular issues to worry about. The boys had worked hard, taken on board what we were trying to do and seemed ready to take on the tactical bits and pieces that we’ll be focusing on tomorrow ahead of Colchester.

After I’d gorged myself on a chicken wrap with salad, it was up to the office for three hours of solid graft, keeping an eye on results coming in and hoping we wouldn’t find ourselves suddenly cut loose at the bottom of the table come 5pm.

As I made phone call after phone call to enquire about the possibility of getting a couple more bodies in, albeit temporarily, Barnsley were going down 2-1 at Wimbledon, Burton got hammered 4-1 at Ipswich (even though it was 1-1 going into the 89^th minute!) and Swindon were beaten 3-1 at home to Oxford. All of which meant that we were within no more than 2 points of all three clubs, plus Bristol Rovers who are also on 2 points and who we will finally play in September.

By the time I switched off the TV, relieved that we were still in touch with the sides immediately above us, I had managed to offer trials to five players.

Mark Duffy, an attacking midfielder just released by Sheffield United and who had been with ADO Den Haag on-loan last season, and Northern Irish international Ben Reeves, who had been released by MK Dons.

Up front I’d made approaches to Rudy Gestede, recently released by Middlesbrough, Conor Sammon who had scored 16 times for Falkirk last season and 23-year old George Thomas, a Welsh International who had also been on-loan at Den Haag last season, but from Leicester who had chosen to release him. The interesting one about Thomas is that he had come through the ranks here at the RICOH and made 42 league appearances before clinching a move three years ago to the King Power. He failed to make an appearance for the Foxes but spent two good seasons on-loan at Scunthorpe and in Holland before his release.

It was simply a case now of waiting and seeing what their responses would be. I was hoping of getting at least two of the lads through the door and if not in the Under-23s on Monday at Birmingham, then definitely in time for their Thursday home game with Newcastle.

I headed back to the hotel at about 6pm, dinner, shower and sitting down with EFL on Quest, with particular interest on what little there was to observe of Colchester’s 1-0 defeat at Fleetwood Town. I would have a video of the full match with me by tomorrow lunchtime so I could have a proper look at things, but the fact that they had been and had now lost their last 3 matches, albeit all away from home and one of which was at Bristol City in the Carabao Cup, gave me a little confidence. They hadn’t scored in those three defeats either, something else that provided me with a little succour. It’ll be a brave man to bet on there being a goal-fest on Tuesday night.

Late on I spoke to Karl on the phone, he was disappointed with the result which I could understand. Even though focus at that level is more on development than results, you still want to win games and instil a winning habit in the players that they can take on with them.

‘I understand, Karl,’ I sympathised. ‘That said, I was impressed with the way the ball was passed, you bossed possession, you created twice as many openings as they did, it came down to the quality of finishing and in the lad Hinds, they had the class act on the pitch. What’s next?’

‘Stoke away next Saturday.’

‘Oh yes, of course I won’t be at that one because of the Shrews game at the RICOH. I think Barnsley is the next one I can have a look at in a few weeks.’

I don’t know whether my words helped or hindered, it was good to touch base though.

Coventry City Under-18s 1 (Thai Duggan 79)

Hull City Under-18s 3 (Jake Bayram 10p, Josh Hinds 71, 83)

[he_2]

Sunday 16^th August 2020

Success!

Not one, not two, not three, not four but five new faces are joining the club, albeit on two-week trial deals. All five guys that I’d been in contact with – or at least with their agents – had agreed to head down to the Lodge for a fortnight. George Thomas, Ben Reeves and Mark Duffy all arrived just after lunch to be introduced to the other boys, get kit sorted and for me to have a little chat with them.

‘I’ve not brought you here for the sake of it,’ I told them in one-to-one chats. ‘I need numbers in the attacking third and I need quality in the attacking third. There’s contracts there to be won if you want them, if you show the right ethics and qualities. I’ll be trying to get you some game time with the Under-23s this week if I can – it’s good to have you aboard for the next couple of weeks. Thanks for coming down.’

Rudy Gestede and Conor Sammon would arrive tomorrow given that they had rather further to travel than the other three lads, each of them would have their trials run out at the end of the month which, I hoped, would firstly give me plenty of time to assess them and secondly be in a position to have a squad settled by the time we took on Oldham on September 1^st in the EFL Trophy.

The day was relatively quiet on the whole, training came and went without incident and after lunch all I had to do was finalise the training plan for the next fortnight with Adie and then let Luke Tisdale know that he would have his pick of the trialists for tomorrow’s Under-23 match with Birmingham.

I wasn’t going to interfere with his team selection, but he did have a number of first-teamers available that needed to get minutes under their belts including, the one I hoped he would definitely use, Marko Marosi, who I had given the green light to play for 45-minutes ahead of Tuesday’s visit to Colchester.

Packed up and back at the hotel by 3:30, in time to catch the tail end of Man City’s 3-1 win at Palace and then Wolves’ win by the same score-line at Villa Park in the Prem.

Good to have a quiet day ahead of a busy week which would see me take charge of two matches, attend two others in an observational capacity and, hopefully, finally pick up some points and score some goals. Without that, we were going to be in a world of trouble.

[he_2]

Monday 17^th August 2020

Birmingham City Under-23s v Coventry City Under-23s

Damson Park

Under-23 Division 3

A desperately busy day today, yet one that will probably pale a bit by comparison tomorrow when I finally get back from Colchester.

Things began with an early arrival into the Lodge, Adie was already there and we spent a couple of hours prior to the players’ filing into the place to go through various bits ahead of tomorrow’s game. Looking at tactical bits and pieces, talking about selection and making sure we were both on the same page ahead of training where we were going to go through a couple of bits and pieces focused on countering Colchester’s strengths and looking to exploit their weaknesses.

I still had one or two things to consider with regards to team selection, if Marko played for the 23s tonight and came through unscathed he’d take the gloves, and I was likely to return Dom Hyam and Liam Kelly to the side as well. Although I didn’t have many options in the more attacking positions, I was considering mixing things up a little but was largely undecided. There was also a spot available on the bench for a youngster to take to provide some cover up front. Jake Hall would have been used again had I not received some pretty wretched news about him just before 2pm.

The Under-18s physio, Samantha Milner rang to say that Jake had been taken to hospital this morning after falling awkwardly and jarring his back badly when challenging for an aerial ball during a set-piece drill.

‘How is he?’ I asked.

‘He’s with Doc. Foyle at the moment,’ she replied, Josh Foyle being the club doctor. ‘He’s hoping it’s nothing more serious than heavy bruising but fears it may be a stress fracture. Jake couldn’t feel his hands at first, we got him away by ambulance.’

I asked Sammy to keep me informed and to ask the doc to call me when he could, I was gutted for the young kid, he’d started the season really brightly and, as I said, he would have travelled to Colchester again tomorrow and been part of things.

If there was a positive side to this, it was that his absence would create a chance for someone else, I had a couple of guys in mind but wanted to wait until after the Under-23s before making my decision and calling someone up.

Away from the horror of the world of injuries, Conor Sammon and Rudy Gestede were able to take part in training today along with the other three trialists, each of whom performed well. I’d asked every member of the coaching team to assess them closely between now and the end of the week by which point I’d be starting to make some decisions and have some conversations to gauge their interest in staying and see what we could do financially.

I’ve organised a chat with the chairman on Wednesday which will take in whatever happens tomorrow at Colchester and then move onto finances, I know there’s going to have to be some juggling with the wage budget to be able to hopefully get one of them over the line, if it could stretch to a couple then even better. Having had time to reflect on things, getting a couple of new bodies on-board on a deal – even short-term – was preferable to having to rely on kids from the Premier League on-loan. Those moves could be a real gamble, especially in a struggling side.

Early signs were promising, though, considering none of them had really trained much in the past couple of months, I was impressed with the quality on show by and large. Each player would bring a different skillset to the table and was different to what I already had available to me – which, as we know, is fairly limited.

I had a bite to eat late on in the canteen before heading off to Solihull and Damson Park to see the Under-23s. Disappointingly Luke hadn’t chosen any of the trialists to be part of things, although Marko did start in goal, and there were also places for Morgan Williams, Dec Drysdale and Ryan Blair in the starting XI.

I caught a word with Luke before the game very quickly.

‘Didn’t fancy any of the trialist lads?’ I asked.

‘I didn’t think it too wise since they’ve been inactive for so long, gaffer, and then training today. I’ll take a couple of them to have a look at Thursday though.’

That made sense, to be fair to him, and it’d also give me a chance to get a feel for some of the other boys tonight instead.

Sat right at the top of the main stand at Damson Park, home of National League side Solihull Moors, I was able to spot a small gaggle of scouts just along from me, each one identifiable by the notepad on their knee and the camaraderie between them, knowing that they were all in the same boat plodding up and down thousands of miles of motorway every season in the hope that they might unearth a gem that’d make it all worthwhile.

Inside 2 minutes we went behind, Odin Bailey picked up a ricochet about 10-yards inside his own half, surged past Morgan Williams and then fired an excellent low strike across Marosi into the far corner of the net. All that came from giving away possession cheaply from a throw-in in our attacking third.

11 minutes later and experienced winger Jacques Maghoma rose unchallenged at the far post to head towards goal. It should have been a routine save for Marosi but as the goalkeeper dived, the ball squirmed underneath him and into the net. Better tonight than tomorrow!

The third goal came on 24 minutes, Nick Kinina sending a ball in behind Drysdale where Bailey collected, waiting and then lashed a superb strike high beyond Marosi and into the net off the underside of the crossbar.

We were absolutely sinking without trace and the young striker was leading us a merry dance.

Two minutes later, Ryan Blair clipped a free kick into the box from a central position, about 15-yards inside Birmingham territory. It was very well delivered and Morgan Williams rose highest to head powerfully home form about 10-yards out, the ball kissing the post on its way in.

That saw us settle down a little and play some better football, begin to win some of the 50/50s and put up a bit more of a showing. One or two half-chances came and went before 2-minutes before the break, a cross in from the left saw the two Birmingham centre-halves get in a mess, one heading the ball against his partner and when the ball fell, David Bremang, a 20-year old, swept home the loose ball beyond Lee Camp to make it 3-2.

The opening 25 minutes had been utterly hopeless, but the boys had shown very impressive levels of character to get themselves back into the game. Ryan Blair had been dictating nicely in midfield as the game had gone on whilst it felt like once again we’d had more of the ball than they had. It would be nice, one day, to have more of the ball and also more goals than the oppo to show for that possession.

10-minutes after the break, Blair pinged the ball out for Joe Nightingale wide on the left, he got to the by-line and cut the ball back for Jordan Ponticelli to swivel and fire the ball beyond Camp for the equaliser that forty minutes before had looked very unlikely.

Luke had come to me at the break and asked if he could give Marko a little more time in goal, the keeper was unhappy with his efforts and wanted to be able to be given time to prove himself, something he did three minutes later by denying Bailey his hat-trick with an excellent save.

He ended up playing the full ninety and visibly grew in confidence as the evening went on. Meanwhile both sides went for the winner and had chances to do so, Nightingale going closest for us but forcing a fine save from Camp, Bailey doing the same from Marosi at the other end but there was to be no winner.

A superbly entertaining evening came to an end with the goals and the points shared. I waited around in the boardroom for Luke to come out so we could hold a quick debrief.

‘What did you think?’ I asked him.

‘I was so angry at that first twenty-five,’ he replied. ‘We weren’t at the races, sloppy in possession, awful defensively. But, they deserve credit for the last hour or so.’

‘Anyone stand out for you?’

‘I thought Ryan Blair was very good, once he got hold of the ball he began to make us tick really nicely. I really think Dec could do with first-team minutes as well somewhere. He got caught out a couple of times tonight but he doesn’t want to be playing 23s football. We’ve got cover at centre-half haven’t we?’

I nodded.

‘Then I’d be getting his name out there to try and help the kid develop.’

He then called Declan over for a chat where I was able to find out whether or not he would be up for going out on loan. ‘Anything that helps me get to play for Cov, I’ll do it,’ he replied. Fine, I’ll circulate his name first thing in the morning and see if we get any takers, ideally at League 2.

Thanking them for their time, I got in the car and drove back to the hotel. A call came in from Doc Josh who said that Jake Hall had got a stress fracture at the top of his spine but that he hoped he could mitigate any absence to between 6 and 7 weeks. That was much better news than feared and when I got back into my room I sent the kid a text wishing him a speedy recovery.

I also dropped a text to Chris Badlan asking him to add Odin Bailey to the list of players to monitor. I’d done a little digging and found out that last season he’d helped Forest Green Rovers gain promotion to League 1 on-loan and his performance tonight was exactly the sort of thing I wanted to get from one of my players. Lively, on the shoulder of the last defender all the time, hard working and perhaps most importantly, just lethal in front of goal.

It was into bed by 11:30pm, another very long day lay ahead tomorrow.

Birmingham City Under-23s 3 (Odin Bailey 2, 24; Jacques Maghoma 13)

Coventry City Under-23s 3 (Morgan Williams 27, David Bremang 43, Jordan Ponticelli 54)