Watford 1 Coventry City 1 (14/09/2024)
09/15/2024 11:47 AM
1- Silence is weird. Not… “peace and quiet”, everybody needs a bit of that from time to time to various degrees. But the absence of noise where you’re used to having noise, is weird. Disconcerting. Wrong.
Daughter 2 is missing today. She’s not the rowdiest of the Rookery’s regular occupants by any means, but the sarcastic running commentary in my left ear is a big miss. It’s Izzy’s birthday, so fair enough… she’ll be back in a fortnight. Added to this though, “technical issues” at the ground mean no pre-match music, no teams being read out, no “Z-Cars”, no “Your Song”. No warming up to “Chariots of Fire”, either… or did that stop being a thing in 1987? I couldn’t tell you but… the silence makes more of a difference than you’d credit.
It’s not strictly silent, of course. There’s “hubbub”, but even that seems toned down; there’s no music to talk over, or to provide a veil of confidentiality. At least the away end, without a concourse worth hiding in, is noisy; if the group that we saw on the way down Vicarage Road were anything to go by they’re well fuelled and will certainly quieten down, as if in post-alcohol sunny sleepiness, before half time. The group outside had certainly stocked up prodigiously from somewhere but, having had it pointed out that they wouldn’t be able to get armfuls of cans of beer into the ground seemed to be trying to stash it for later in the cemetery like rather noisy, large, pale blue squirrels.
2- Quite a lot has happened since the last correspondence on here of course. A boisterous away match and a defeat, an international break, a load of new signings and one significant loan out. You wouldn’t want or expect Tom to be silent himself through all of that, but I do wonder whether he might have to rein back his endearing candour in the goodness of time. His dismissal of Jeremy Ngakia’s prospects given his injury record in justifying the need for another right wing-back option was brutally direct… irrespective of one’s own views of Ngakia, if that was done consciously with a purpose then ok, I guess but if it was careless less so.
Tom’s at the mercy of his words being selectively highlighted and re-interpreted, but he needs to be alive to this possibility. A prominent assertion in the last week was that of needing to address our recent habit of starting slowly and giving goals away. There’s nothing he can do but answer a question if it’s put to him, and it’s not as if Cov wouldn’t have noted this proclivity themselves in any case… nonetheless there is a degree of inevitability about the visitors coming at as like wild dogs in the opening ten minutes. We don’t look remotely like settling and are scarcely able to cross the halfway line. Four minutes in a Jack Rudoni corner picks out Ellis Simms whose run leaves him in far too much space despite, for several reasons, being rather difficult to miss; Ryan Porteous is closest, but far from clear who is at fault beyond everyone. The big striker glances a header into the bottom corner past the helpless Bachmann.
Five minutes later we create our first chance; it’s a devastating break down the right, Ryan Andrews sends the ball across, Bayo steps over it and Giorgi has an open goal from near the penalty spot. Another curious quote from Tom in Thursday’s press conference had emphasised, naturally enough, the toll that international trips can take and the need to rotate accordingly; he added an “except Giorgi” almost as an afterthought, the exception apparently justified by the Georgian’s form.
Giorgi’s quality would shine through occasionally, he would provide the equalising goal and occasionally glitter into the sort of irresistible flowing run that we know he’s capable of. But much of his performance was clunky, heavy and jaded, never more so than this grotesque miss at a point where he could have taken at least one touch. The second half would see him stretchered off – reports imply that this as serious as feared and therefore not the disaster it might have been; you wonder whether Tom regretted either the decision or the observation. Star players get tired and susceptible to injuries too.
3- Coventry dominate the rest of the first half hour and should have been further ahead. We’re not awful, but we are second best and look sluggish, scrambling to meet the challenge offered… Mason-Clark would have put the visitors two up had the ball that found his run beyond the line not been slightly behind him, in the end it was an easier save for Bachmann that it might have been. Later the impressive Jack Rudoni was presented with a gaping goal, albeit from some distance with the ball bouncing in front of him, but shot wide.
Our own chances are fleeting and less convincing. We need respite and get some when the goalkeeper, having gotten a bash in a recent challenge when collecting a corner, collapses to the turf just past the half hour. His teammates run to check on him and are furiously beckoned to the touchline by their prone teammate, any doubt as to the existence of a real problem instantly dispelled.
Whether or not what is said on the touchline addresses some problems, we sharpen up and whilst still behind at the break begin, at least, to land some blows. Vakoun Bayo – willing, mobile, impotent – gets a couple of headers in, one of which perhaps should have been an equaliser. Mattie Pollock picks up a booking for a foul on Van Ewijk; Sierralta somehow escapes one (and a fifth booking of the season) for booting the ball into the prone wing-back’s face risking the only blot on a gleefully nasty, combative display from the Chilean. We get to half-time only a goal behind, somehow, but with a degree of positivity at having gotten away with it that a tamer end to the half might not have permitted.
4- The second half is a mirror image of the first in many ways. even if our start isn’t as ferocious as City’s had been. Nonetheless, we take control as City visibly tire and look to capitalise on still being in the game.
Sissoko and Chakvetadze begin to run through a weary midfield, we successfully stretch City by getting bodies wide. Mattie Pollock, who looks so much like a fixture now it’s startling to note that he’s only really been one since the summer, heads down for Kayembe to shoot over. Larouci smashes a shot with ferocity but insufficient precision from the left, pushed away by Dovun. Sissoko tries the same from the right, the young goalkeeper with more to do here.
The screw is being turned, but a triple substitution just after the hour tips the balance, two new faces and one seasoned one joining the fray. Daniel Jebbison looks the part, but also showcases why Bournemouth were keen to loan him out. Over both cameos so far he’s looked willing and aggressive but just a little out of sync with what’s going on around him, not quite on the edge of the cross, not quite in the right place for the pass. That will come.
We miss the injured Baah who would surely have been a default change at this point, but nonetheless Ryan Andrews’ withdrawal gives the left side of Coventry’s defence no respite whatsoever since Festy Ebosele looks equally quick but has a bit of power to go with it. His half hour wasn’t flawless – his reputation is of one far happier going forward than defending an there’s nothing to contradict that here; his best defensive work is an admittedly remarkable saving tackle to best Wright who shouldn’t have been past him in the first place. But he’s the poster boy for the physical attributes that Tom clearly wants his team to be defined by… bullish and direct, one bundle to the touchline finding Sissoko with a pull-back that the skipper should have done better with.
By then we were level… the third sub Ken Sema, replacing the slightly disappointing Larouci, was a decoy in the move that lead to the goal which saw Kayembe delay a pass and then spread a break leftwards to catch Giorgi on the gallop, inching round his man to slide a pass across the box for Tom Dele-Bashiru to tap into an empty net at the far post. Devastating and brilliant.
5- As in the first half, an injury pause seems to change the mood. This one contributed to 13 minutes’ added time being played after Giorgi was stretchered off, during which it’s Coventry that come closer to taking all the points. Hadji Wright, whose appearance off the bench after his own international jetsetting echoed Giorgi’s, a subdued performance peppered with isolated moments of quality including the header that hits the post in this period, while fellow sub Brandon Thomas-Asante fires a shot that deflects wide but might not have done.
It’s significant not just that we tale a point here but also that we get to the point where you could make a case for having deserved it. The slow starts do need sorting out, but add this afternoon to belligerence in the face of a bad day at Bramall Lane, the comeback against Derby and the win at Millwall and you’ve got a side with a bit of resilience to go with the pace and the power. That’s more than enough to be going on with.
Won’t be at Norwich; next report after Sunderland.
Yooorns.
Bachmann 3, Pollock 3, *Sierralta 4*, Porteous 2, Andrews 3, Sissoko 4, Dele-Bashiru 3, Larouci 2, Kayembe 2, Chakvetadze 3, Bayo 3
Subs: Sema (for Larouci, 63) 3, Jebbison (for Bayo , 63) 2, Ebosele (for Morris, 74) 3, Vata (for Chakvetadze, 80) NA, Morris (for Sierralta, 88) NA, Doumbia, Ince, Dwomoh, Bond
