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This commentary team every time Coventry complete a basic football move against a team of u19’s and 35 year olds that haven’t been paid in 6 months:

Since that game on New Year’s Day: Played - 15 Won - 2 Drawn - 4 Lost - 9 Goals For - 12 Goals Against - 24 Can people really not stay away from this?

Looking to play passes forward at every opportunity too! Fair play to them

This has been my fear amidst all the recent takeover talk; that he either has no intention of actually selling and/or it is not financially viable for him to sell us. Effectively he is mothballing us. Cutting us down to the lowest possible operating cost so that he can stick us on the back-burner until he sees fit. To use the gambling analogy, he won’t cut his losses because he can’t afford to pay his debt. Instead he is refusing to let the game finish by periodically placing the minimum allowed bet until he can gather some funds to play again and win back his losses (or so he believes).

Hope the young lad is okay. Not seen it back but looked a nasty challenge and a clear red in real-time. As others suggested, referee was likely clouded by having just used his red and was reluctant to use it again (which is very weak refereeing imo). The refereeing performances across the board in the opening round of fixtures have not filled me with confidence for the upcoming season.

F*ck you Matt Donohue F*ck you Courtney Sweetman-Kirk F*ck you Harry Winks and F*CK YOU dejphon chansiri Well done the players and the fans, deserved something out of that.

Football at the moment reminds me of one of those holiday complexes in 3rd world countries where everything inside the giant concrete walls is a care-free paradise but outside of it everything is incredibly bleak and unstable. Spurs and Arsenal playing summertime vanity games in Hong Kong. Man City supposedly being investigated for FFP but still spending an average of £150m-£200m per transfer window and taking their pick of upcoming talent for peanuts from clubs lower down the ladder. Top-6 clubs earning £40m+ each for playing in the "Club World Cup." Constant news articles of "Should Arsenal break the bank to compete for the title," "X Team willing to pay £100m+ for X Player" etc etc. Meanwhile clubs like Morecambe, Bury, Macclesfield, clubs with significant history that helped build and shape the game itself going up against the wall because of they cant afford to survive and/or through reckless owners given free reign to rip clubs apart (ourselves not too far away from it either). Just find it all so depressing and even more so that nobody really seems to care. Something really needs to change but in reality I can't help but feel this kind of situation is just going to become more and more commonplace for clubs outside the Premier League bubble.

I can't help but feel this is exactly the statement we have needed. Sad reality is that as fans, we are very much an afterthought in the eyes of the football authorities. Full support to everybody trying to arrange protests but sometimes feels like these have very little impact outside the club. TV money is where the real talk happens. If the players refuse to play on live TV; not only would this send a huge message but if Sky are unable to fulfill a primetime Sunday afternoon slot because of DC's actions, that would cause an earthquake at director/corporate level of the EFL and maybe kick them into gear to start taking action. Not a chance we get anything out of the game anyway so we might as well make the most of the opportunity (no PL football for a few weeks yet either so no other distractions in the football headlines.) In an ideal world, the players will travel to Leicester, walk on to the pitch and then as soon as the ref blows his whistle, the players stand in the corner with the fans and refuse to play. A giant banner unveiled by the fans with the players stood in front would just top things off.

"Cuckoo" BBC sitcom (S1E4). Greg Davies' character turns up with tickets for a Wednesday match as a birthday present for his father-in-law (played by Philip Jackson). Ironically, this episode came out in 2012 and he makes reference to the tickets costing £90 for the pair (which sounded ludicrously high at the time). Turned out to be quite an ominous but accurate real-life premonition..

The angle that shows it best is the one from behind the goal. The Sunderland keeper has to make a kind of initial half-dive to try and see around the United player and then he can only see the ball again when it is already passing him. His vision was clearly impeded and as the United player is in an offside position; he is interfering with play and the correct decision was ultimately made. Problem is for Wilder, such a big part of his "tactics" involve playing the referees through pressuring and intimidating them to force them into giving decisions his way and it has worked a treat for him all season. Add VAR into the mix and you take away a huge part of what makes him successful and one (of many) reasons why they will always struggle in the prem. Basically his argument after the match is; "we have been getting away with bad decisions all season so we should be allowed to get away with this one too." Karma finally hit the fat, detestable scrubber hard yesterday and it was wonderful.

The goalpost shifting from them this season has been incredible. When they were widely mocked for their embarrassing away attendances earlier in the season, they shifted the focus to "Well Hillsborough is always empty." And then; despite them arguably being in one of the peaks of their entire history versus us at one of our lowest dips; we finish with an average attendance of 26,636 versus their 28,023. They have competed for top-2 all season and after all their shouting of the odds; it all equates to a difference of about 1,300. Not even mentioning our off-field turmoil, ticket prices, home form and the added restrictions we have to deal with from SAG. So now, where can they try to shift the narrative to? "Wednesday fans only turn up for the big games." Where do they go next? "Average age of Wednesday fans is higher?" "Traffic is worse around Bramall Lane?" "We have more fans who appeared in episodes of Game of Thrones?" Despite their recent measured success, deep down they all know that we will always be the bigger club and it absolutely kills them. If we could even half get our act together off the pitch we absolutely blow that lot out the water.

Feel for Charles a bit there. He’s at least trying to get the ball up the pitch quickly to get us on the break but it’s an absolutely horrendous error. Not sure this run of games has done much for his confidence. Traditionally think of us being strong in the gk position but not really felt confident in a keeper since the days of Keiren Westwood. Also feels like we’ve had a void in that department ever since Andy Rhodes left the club.

Absolutely correct. As well, we don't even strictly have to generate a profit (or even become totally self-sufficient) but just take steps to reduce the reliance on any prospective new owner while more long-term success is planned for. We are probably at the stage were we need some form of cash-injection to help rectify the neglect of recent years but even some form of long-term strategy which moves away from the current ad-hoc, short-termism approach to running the club would likely make a huge difference. As you suggest, we have quite remarkable gate receipts given the lack of success in recent years with fans paying a premium for what is often a sub-standard product alongside increased revenue from the new TV deal. We also have one of the lower wage budgets in the league, we rarely pay transfer fees and we certainly don't appear to make significant investment in infrastructure. There must be huge opportunities for better management of the bottom line in terms of both decreasing costs and increasing revenue for any new ownership who has even the slightest commercial nous. Instead we are caught in this Chanisri Stockholm-Syndrome type scenario where he bounces from disaster to disaster but we are expected to be grateful for him for attempting to financially patch up his mistakes at the end of each month. Ipswich have managed it after being on a par with us in League 1 just two seasons ago. Brentford and Brighton have also adopted similar models with huge success during the Chansiri-era. In theory, it can be done.

Worst part for me is that I think Danny would actually be happy to stick around for at least another season or two if we were even just semi-competent off the pitch. Not expecting miracles but a reasonable transfer/wage budget and some indication of a plan for improvement of the facilities and some forward momentum of the club as a whole. Also allowing him to focus on what he is actually employed for; football! Not being utilised as a buffer to effectively plug the gaps throughout the club caused by the chairman's incompetency's. I think he has built a genuine rapport with the fans and would have loved to have a genuine push for promotion but he must be starting to realise that the longer he sticks around the DC circus; the more his own stock may start to diminish. Southampton seem to have a fair few off-field issues of their own but compared to us they must look like a footballing paradise.

Bloody hell Darren Deadman, that's a name (thankfully) I've not had to think about in some time. I remember seeing a few years back that he was struck off the PGMOL list under mysterious circumstances that were never disclosed and he was never seen again. I try my absolute best to avoid the referee conspiracy theories but given that lack of refereeing ability rarely results in dismissal; he must have done something particularly bad especially if the PGMOL didn't want the facts going public. Thinking back to that Huddersfield 4-4 game where he basically kept the match going until Huddersfield equalised; I would not be surprised one bit if some kind of match fixing was involved.

Seems like a no-brainier to me. Better footballer than what he gets credit for, always gives everything, pops up with some crucial goals and can play just about any position on the pitch. He's still also only 30 years old. We are likely going to have a fair bit to do in the summer regardless and the major "clear-out and rebuild" rarely works well; especially with our budget. Keeping some continuity with known-quantity players like Patterson who can certainly still offer something on the pitch just seems like sensible business.

Completely agree. Ideal world we would fill in the corner between the Kop and North with a proper safe-standing area. However, given any significant investment in the ground looks a long way off; a standing section somewhere at the back of the Kop would improve things massively in the interim. So many other stadiums with notable home Kop ends seem to be standing (Anfield, Old Trafford, Villa Park, Elland Road etc) but we never do. Anybody stood up for longer than it took their keeper to get the ball back to the 6-yard box on Sunday was met quite rapidly with a "Sit-Darrn." Appreciate some might have issues with disability/kids etc that make standing not feasible but we have more than enough space to accommodate both. Not saying its a "fix-all" for the home atmosphere but would almost certainly be a start.

"Sheffield United and Bristol City have been charged by the Football Association over the mass confrontation at the end of Tuesday's Championship game.The Blades were fined £80,000 in January after admitting to a similar charge resulting from the 2-2 draw with Coventry City. The South Yorkshire club have now been charged with five non-standard breaches since August 2024." Not much use charging nominal fines to a club receiving £30m-£40m a season in failure payments. Those scrubbers consistently re-offend and basically just stick two fingers up to the FA. Really should result in significant suspensions and/or points deductions for persistent re-offenders like them.

All kitchen puns aside, not sure I like the sound of this. "Andrew Kitchen began officiating in the EFL at the start of the 2021/22 season, and has so far taken charge of over 50 EFL fixtures." Only done National League prior to that and never done higher than Championship. Poor from the EFL imo putting a relatively inexperienced referee in charge of a game like this. Absolutely should have been a ref with prem experience; not that they are all that great but at least someone with the experience of big crowds and high stakes etc. Needs to be at the absolute top of his game to cope with the pressure on the day and all of their cheating/diving s*ithouse antics.

Completely forgot about McNeill! Thought he did more in his 60 minutes in the cup against Hull than Ugbo has all season. He must look way off it in training if he's not even pushing a squad place currently. If the season is going to fizzle out in the way it looks to be then hopefully we can start getting some minutes for the likes of McNeill/Kobacki/P.Charles etc ready for next season.

Home: Away: All down to opinions but for me I think the deciding factors are: Defence - We have conceded the 2nd most goals at home versus the rest of the league; simply not good enough for a team with top-6 ambitions. Lack of strengthening in this position is costing us; Ihiekwe has been great for us but we are now relying on a player brought in for our L1 campaign as the lynchpin of our defence for a top-6 push. Lowe/Valery have also been good for us this season but playing as converted full-backs they don't have the same presence/physicality as a traditional cb and arguably one of the reasons why we struggle with aerial balls and set pieces so much. This gives a great option for teams visiting Hillsborough who might be looking to utilise set-piece/aerial balls more-so than they would at home. Ugbo - This season he has averaged 51 minutes per home game but only 31 minutes per away game. We utilise him much more at home and his lack of goals/contributions is severely costing us. Now on 29 games without a single goal or assist. His role has seemingly been adapted to work defenders for approx 50-60 mins to then allow Smith to come on and provide the goals. Even allowing for this; you still need to see some contribution from him. He's had plenty of chances but just looks like he doesn't believe himself that he will convert. Playing Style - Our goal numbers are actually quite consistent across both home/away where some other teams fluctuate quite heavily; suggesting we maybe stick to a similar style for both. As above, we adopt a style which seems to rely on nullifying the first half and then pushing on in the second. I think I heard a stat yesterday that we have scored the least goals in the opening 30 minutes of games. This arguably has an effect on the home atmosphere and also maybe allows the away team to settle; which has the adverse effect playing away. What's the solution? Sadly I would suggest it was the January window. We desperately needed strengthening in the cb/st positions but for whatever reasons we didn't add to these areas. As things stand, the stats suggest we will probably level off around mid-table by the end of the season. Arguably a decent enough return after last season and a reasonable platform to build off but uncertainties about Röhl's future cast doubt over what our starting point might be.

Makes some big saves but also has a clanger in him. He doesn't really dominate his area that well given his height and often struggles to collect aerial balls in/around the 6 yard box. Noticed a few times today he was reluctant to come for crosses which he should have been competing for (not even including the calamity at the end) which puts added pressure on our already stretched defence. Think this is also one of the reasons why we are so poor at defending set-pieces. Been a reasonable/decent player for us overall but not spectacular. If the season looks like fizzling out we should definitely start giving Charles a few games and developing our own player for next season rather than doing Brighton's work for them.

Tom Nield West Brom

Incredible how it always turns into a thorough forensic investigation to check the validity of our goals and yet QPR's players can sit on top of Beadle and they don't see a thing

Sounded like he was reading a funeral speech when he thought we'd scored