A WAY THROUGH THIS
COVENTRY CITY v MIDDLESBROUGH
Jonathan Way, 26 Sep 2009
Where did that come from?
Is what every Boro fan was saying after our embarrassing 5-0 defeat to West Brom put a huge dent in our promotion hopes. Middlesbrough went into the game with high expectations but were simply outclassed on the afternoon. This leaves the team with a big job of turning things around straight away, starting at the Ricoh Arena against Coventry.
Since taking charge in early 2008, Chris Coleman is slowly turning things around for the Sky Blues after they narrowly avoided relegation to League 1 in the 07/08 season. Currently inside the top half of the table, Coventry fans will be hoping they can keep up their great start and better last campaign's finish of 17th.
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Jack Cork v Tony McMahon
The highly rated defender signed on loan from Chelsea until the end of December and has already carved his way into Coleman's starting eleven. Being one of Coventry's better players on Saturday, Cork is keen to make an impact at Stamford Bridge in the coming years.
The 23 year old definitely had one of his lesser performances against the Baggies as he was run ragged by their strikers. McMahon, who will have been bitterly disappointed by not stopping their fifth goal, will be looking for a much better display at the Ricoh Arena.
Martin Cranie v Sean St Ledger
Joining from Portsmouth last month, Cranie scored his first goal for his new club against Sheffield United, which also turned out to be the match winner. The England under-21 international will be hoping to help the Sky Blues record their first clean sheet for five games.
Surprisingly, our new number 12 was probably our best player at the weekend despite conceding five goals. Sean certainly impressed quite a few people from his performance and looked quite dangerous going forward, having had possibly our best shot on target testing Scott Carson.
Sammy Clingan v Didier Digard
Clingan has started every match this season for Coventry and it's not hard to see why after his man of the match display at the weekend. Having put City ahead against Preston on Saturday, the Irish midfielder will be hoping to be on the winning side in this fixture.
Coming on as a substitute half way through the second half saw Digard making his first appearance since the opening day of the campaign. We really need the 23 year old to be at his best and command the midfield at the weekend as we look to make our defeat to West Brom only a blip and not a major turn for the worse.
Clinton Morrison v Leroy Lita
The former Crystal Palace star has had a brilliant start to the season, scoring five goals in his opening eight league games. Already half way to equalling his goal tally for the last campaign, Morrison will be the one player Boro will have to watch out for at the weekend.
Hopefully Southgate will start the quick forward in this game, having started him on the bench for the previous two fixtures. Lita, who should have been introduced sooner against West Brom, certainly has more to come from what we have already seen.
This is a huge game following the humiliating result at the weekend. This game will show how good the managerial staff and the players are as we need to get back to winning ways, and now.
We need to make sure that the outcome against the Baggies was just a one off and I think we will against Coventry by beating them 1-0 to get our promotion hopes back on track.
