COVENTRY 2 (Hiwula 41, Bayliss 90) CHARLTON 1 (Pratley 58)
Attendance: 13,013 (800+ Charlton)Coventry Burge, Mason (Brown 74), Willis, Kelly (c), Chaplin, Hiwula, Hyam, Sterling, Bayliss, Thomas (Davies 101), Shipley (Clarke-Harris 64).Charlton Steer, Solly, Dijksteel, Bauer, Pearce (c), Bielik (Lapslie 87), Reeves (Marshall 57), Pratley, Fosu, Taylor, Ajose (Grant 46).
Summary
Disappointment for Charlton as the recent good form comes to an end. The Addicks didn't play at the level they have done of late and succumbed to a late winner by Cov at the Ricoh. Further disappointment came from George Lapslie sustaining another concussion.
Post Match comments
Bowyer:
“It was a scrappy game on a bad pitch. It just wasn’t happening for us today. I tried to change it at half-time and played two wingers, hoping maybe they could make things happen, but it just wasn’t our day today. We just conceded two poor goals and left with nothing. A draw would have been a fair result."
“We don’t have people to bring in and we’re down to bare bones. We’ve got kids on the bench, left, right and centre with just Mark Marshall as the only senior one. You could consider Karlan senior, but he’s still young himself. It’s hard. We’ve got to play again in three days’ time. Joe Aribo is a big loss. He’ll be out for a little while. We never pick up a week-long injury, they’re always longer term and Joe is looking no different.
“George Lapslie is looking like another concussion. He’s got a big cut on his head and it’s not looking good. I’d be amazed if he was fit for Saturday. To get to where we are, the lads have been unreal. We don’t have the luxury of what other teams have got. We’re all digging deep and it is tough, but we’ll put this behind us and go again against Barnsley.
“I know I’ll get a good reaction because I’ve got a great bunch of lads in there who are all fighting. And the one thing I can say is that they give me everything until the end – they always do. We’ll patch the squad together and whoever steps out there, I know they will give 100 per cent. That’s a given. They know that that’s what I expect and that’s what I want and they give it, to be fair.”
STATBANK Player Marks
Bielik = 6.70
Bauer = 6.39
Marshall = 6.35
Steer = 6.30
Taylor = 6.25
Solly = 5.98
Pearce = 5.95
Reeves = 5.86
Grant = 5.79
Dijksteel = 5.75
Pratley = 5.39
Fosu = 4.93
Ajose = 4.34
Team Average = 5.84
At the game...
@seth plum : Pretty poor, we missed Aribo. No complaints about the result which means Coventry City have done the double over us.
Coventry weren't cynical or rubbish, they were like a lot of the more honest teams in this division who work hard, maximise what they have, and there is always one or two who can hurt you.
Worried about their player who was carried off, and also for young George with two successive head injuries. can't see him playing for a couple of weeks at the very least.
Not much to say beyond a feeling of disappointment after the schlepp, and thinking we have to now win at Barnsley which is a big ask.
The positives for us were the introduction of Marshall and to an extent Grant which improved our second half performance. I am actually not that sure that either of Ajose's feet actually touched the ball in the first half. Belik was probably our best player in a team that looked pretty fatigued.
I wrote at half time about this, but we are having a series of away games, like Rochdale, Blackpool and now today where we were poor and to an extent not well prepared by the management.
Thinking we have good players and that should be enough only gets you so far, opponents should still garner respect when regarding their style, strengths and weaknesses, and the quality of any individual players they have. Thinking that maybe man for man you're better without added extras is a recipe for failure in this league, we are not playing mug footballers and against mug clubs with mug managers.
Yes today might have been a draw, a win even due to something or another, but it was Coventry who had the something, they who had the 'another' and they now have the three points.
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