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Coventry 2 Norwich 0
By CovSid67
August 11 2008
Not a rip-roaring display to start the season with, but the three points will do very nicely anyway! The first half probably just belonged to Norwich, with Coventry edging the second half - though Norwich were still gifted too many opportunities to equalise in the second fourty-five minutes, which they thankfully failed to take.

The match was certainly far closer than the good people at Sky Sports would have you believe, writing: 'The result was harsh on Norwich, however, who had outplayed Coventry for most of the game and spurned several good opportunities.'

The six new signings in the Coventry side all did enough to suggest they will be worthy acquisitions, with Kieran Westwood's display earning him a place in the Football League's 'Team Of The Week'; Stephen Wright looking solid, and showed more than a couple of moments of class (And his experience will be invaluable in a very youthful defence); Beuzelin and Gunnarsson were an improvement on what we've had to put up with in recent seasons (With the young Norwegian doing a fine job of winding up the opposition!); while Eastwood and Morrison, starved of decent service, still managed to show some decent touches (With Morrison doing far more chasing down than I expected him to do).

Great play from Morrison early on saw him beat the Norwich left-back, but put his cross to close to Marshall, and soon after Gray's cross almost found Clinton Morrison in the area. A clash in the area between Gray and a Norwich defender left both players needing treatment, and it was after this that Gray seemed to 'disappear'. The Norwich midfield took control of the match, and Lupoli and Cureton were both denied by Ward, with Lupoli resorting to 'falling over' in a bid to help his side gain the upper hand (Much to the annoyance of the Coventry defence).

Morrison made a fine clearance in his own penalty area following a Norwich corner, while Westwood was forced to make his first save of the game after half-an-hour. It was around this time that the first moronic chants of 'Your Ground's To Big For You' were uttered, though it was noticeable that there were a fair few thousand empty seats in the away section....

The first major bottled decision of Coventry City's season came about around the 40th minutes (Still no clock!), as Jay Tabb was hacked down by Stefanovic as he was about to go clear on the Norwich goal. There was dis-belief amongst the home supporters, as the referee deemed the offence merely only warranted a yellow card. He required lengthy treatment, and it was no surprise when Tabb was replaced (By Simpson) at half-time.

A Fox free-kick which hit the wall was crossed back into the penalty area by Eastwood, but just went out of play, before a dodgy Norwich back-pass almost let Morrison in. Poor errors of judgement were made by both defences throughout the first half, though the scoreline remained 0-0 at half-time. 

Norwich gave away the first free-kick of the second half within three seconds, with Lupoli fouling Gunnarsson, and within the first minute they had conceded a penalty (A very soft one at that!), with Beuzelin fouled by Clingan. Once again spot-kick honours fell to Elliott Ward, and he blasted another excellent penalty past Marshall. Cue Fratelli's music, and reason for one or two Coventry City fans to start moaning about the game becoming to 'Americanised'....

Norwich then missed a couple of decent chances to equalise, and the referee seemingly missed the chance to level up the penalty count after Fox appeared to foul Hoolahan. Fotheringham was then booked at the third time of deserving (The first and second for hacks at Gunnarsson, before finally going into the referees note-book for whining). A hefty Gunnarsson challenge rightly went unpunished.

Wright showed two real moments of class: the first seeing an excellent cross fail to find Morrison (Mainly due to the fact he was being strong-armed away from making a challenge); and the second seeing him superbly take the ball away from the Coventry six yard area, out-pace anybody that had thoughts of catching him, then put a decent ball down the line to try and set up an attack.

In between, Eastwood was let-off after making a face-high challenge on a Norwich defender(!), while Ward's only error of the game, a real howler where he totally misjudged the flight of the ball, saw Westwood make a top quality save from Koroma. He was forced to make another smart save soon after when the Coventry defence appeared to go to sleep.

Gray was replaced by McKenzie on 69 minutes, while Eastwood was replaced by Thornton after 83 minutes.

McKenzie was almost on the score-sheet seconds after coming on following a Simpson cross, while a Simpson header landed just over the bar on the roof of the net. Gunnarsson's long-throws were causing the Norwich defence some trouble, though the goal that killed the game came about from a Morrison effort from an acute angle that bounced off the bar, and landed nicely at the feet of McKenzie. He removed his shirt to reveal a t-shirt with a message to celebrate his 100th league goal, and was booked for doing so! (Such celebrations didn't result in cards during the European Championships).

Six minutes of injury time were played, with the game stopped a fair number of times, including Gunnarsson going down with cramp minutes from the end, and Dann also being treated just before 90 minutes was up.

Team: Westwood, Wright, Fox, Dann, Ward, Tabb (Simpson 46), Beuzelin, Gunnarsson, Gray (McKenzie 69), Eastwood (Thornton 83), Morrison. SNU: Ireland, Turner.

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