Lying 5th in the table Coventry City are this season’s surprise package in the Coca Cola Championship, but can their form last?
Coventry currently lie 4 points off automatic promotion which is currently occupied by Cardiff City.
Coventry are currently in fine form winning their last 3 fixtures to recover from a three game losing streak to close the gap on the teams above them.
Following a disappointing 19th placed finish Coventry brought in former Watford manager Aidy Boothroyd from League One side Colchester and he seems to have turned around the fortunes of the club.
Boothroyd brought in Clive Platt from his former Club Colchester former Coventry star Gary McSheffrey and the controversial signing of Marlon King to give his side a whole new strike force.
The new look front line has repaid Boothroyd’s faith in them by turning in some top notch performances.
However, Coventry’s fine form comes with a warning. The clubs next four fixtures look extremely tricky first visiting serial under achievers Reading before hosting fourth placed Norwich, visiting second placed Cardiff, before welcoming league leaders QPR.
This is a huge test of the sides character and you would have to believe that if they emerged from these fixtures with 7 or more points Coventry will be seen as series contenders for promotion.
However, there is also another warning for any over expecting Coventry fans, a quick look at last seasons league 1 table at around this time of the year will show a Colchester United comfortably in the play off spots.
Colchester finished the season in 8th placed two places outside the play offs and 8 points off Huddersfield who finished in 6th. Could it be Boothroyd produces teams that have end of season collapses?
My personal opinion is that Coventry will struggle to get four points from their next fourth fixtures, which will cause a dip in the sides confidence and result in them slipping down the table.
I believe Coventry do not have enough quality or a strong enough squad to maintain a promotion push and will comfortably finish in the top half of the table between 8-12th place. Giving them a solid base to build on for next season.
For the sake of the Coventry fans I hope I am proved wrong and your push can go down to the wire.
What do you the Coventry fans think are my views acceptable or am I not giving enough credit to your side?
Where do you think you will finish? What more could Boothroyd do to strengthen your side?
Also rivals of Coventry let us know do your fear them? Or are they just in a rich vain of form?
Leave a comment and let me know what you think.
Check back regularly to see other fans response to your comments and to see if there are any more articles which are added almost daily.
Also if you use a social network site such as twitter or Facebook and think your friends would be interested in reading this article please re post the link as your status or as a tweet.
Your comments are reasonable observation. Interesting to note that Colchester slipped up late on last year but i believe there were problems at the club?
AB took Watford up just a few years ago to the premier league and he has a stronger squad now than he had then.
The fact the club had 3 defeats in a row but came back to win 3 in a row shows that this is a team that will not give up and believe in their collective ability.
The last 3 games have been with the loss of crucial players too (Turner,Clingan and Bell)
The next 4 games sure do look difficult but then that can work in your favour by raising your game level at such a crucial time so I remain optimistic.
If you take a look at my interviews the very first one (bottom of the interviews page) is with a Colchester United player who worked under Boothroyd last year.
He is a friend of mine and speaks glowingly of Bothrooyd. He has never mentioned any problems at the club and he is the type of person that would say if there are problems.
I believe your side has huge character which is probably their best asset, I think it would be interesting to see if they do drop a lot of point in their next four fixtures how it affects that character.
I know they have lost 3 in a row recently but I think it would have more of a psychological effect if they lose to all of the “big boys”.
I love that you remain optimistic all Football fans should, I wish your club well (as I do most clubs) I am just trying to encourage fans not to get ahead of themselves.
I think you are about spot on. We won’t slump massively, but we are over-achieving based on our squad. But hey, so are Blackpool & W.B.A.! Aidy has transformed the spirit,drive and organisation of the team. He’s a very clever man-manager and exactly the sort of guy you’d want giving you orders if you were in the trenches.
It has come with the price of ugly football, but if that what it takes I aint complaining!
There is no such thing as ugly Football in my mind, if my side wins every week I could not care less how they play because it will be me sipping champers at the end of the season.
At one point I loved watching Stoke, it was not lovely pass and move Football but it was entertaining.
A lot of players have a lot of time for Boothroyd so he is doing something right.
There are always examples of teams over achieving, but in my opinion which is similar to yours Coventry’s form will die out.
Saying that I would have predicted West Brom and Blackpool to struggle, so what do I know…
I expect us to finish top 10. We are extremely hard to beat and physically bully teams so that even when we aren’t playing well we can come away with 3 points.
I would say that it’s a bit harsh to say that Aidy’s teams slump towards the end of seasons solely based on last season with Colchester. His promotion with Watford showed the exact opposite trend! In fact looking at the last 12 fixtures you couldn’t really ask for anything more:
H Bristol C
A Doncaster
H Hull
A Preston
H Watford
A Derby
A Pompey
H Millwall
H Scunny
A Middlesbrough
H Reading
A Norwich
If we are within touching distance of the playoffs at the end of February – then the above fixtures should see us romp to a top 6 finish.
Your correct i was overly harsh in saying his teams fall away towards the end of the season.
I am aware Watford did not, but i am mainly compairing you to his Colchester side because you play very similar styles with the bully boy tactics as you said.
His side last year ran out of gas towards the end of the season due to the physical efforts it takes to be the bullies.
I can see the same happening to you.
But who knows? Everyone has their opinions and know one knows who is right, this is why we love Football
fair assessment id say…
6 points from the next four games, and thats at my most optimistic!
i wouldn’t be at all suprised if we come away with a solitary point from the four games.. as i think that the top attacking teams like cardiff & qpr will be too much for us , and reading & norwich are both games which could easily go either way
we just need that extra little bit of creative quality, either with a new player in jan ..or one/two of our current crop to come into a rich run of form.
now come on lads.. prove me wrong in the coming weeks!
I wouldn’t underestimate the impact that Eastwood and Bell might have, I think the return of these 2 could massively impact the shape of our season. A midfield of:
Bell
Gunnarson
Carsley
Mcsheffrey
and strikers:
Eastwood
King
Has a lot of potential….. I think we will actually kick on now.OyJimmy
I’m loving the fact we’re getting some TV and radio airplay and you have created this thread. It shows that AB is taking us on a journey worth watching. I’m always the optomist, but can’t help thinking things might implode. The CCC is a tough league and it only takes a couple of losses to see your side drop to 12th. If, come the end of Jan, when we’ve played QPR for the second time, we are still in the mix, then I’d bet on us for a playoff place!
Everyone has their opinion of course and with our past 10 year record you might well think we are headed for a fall but if we are to achive anything this year then we need to pick up points from the next 4 games, we aren’t goint to get 3 from every game but i can see one of them being an upset, also we could lose all 4 and still be in the mix come the end of the season. To surmise don’t count us out when we lost 3 on the bounce i thought it was same old cov but then we recovered and won 3 on the bounce. Your not a Leicester fan by any chance are you ;-]
I’m an Arsenal fan im just calling it how i see it, i hope you do well if i was a Leicester fan i would of said i hope you lose every game and that i can see Leicester going unbeaten from now until the end of the World ha
yeah ok gooner you might be right there !!
i’m glad to see so many comment’s on a thread of our’s and i would like to thank the web site for posting this thread so soon after a request being put forward to them by myself but as a Coventry fan i would like to think that we as least pick up the same amount of points after the turn round as we haven’t played well so far this season and to be fair we should get better with player’s coming back from injury!!!!
PUSB
Great thread. I do agree with your words. But on the other hand, Were due a good season weve been here way too long. I genuinely belive Boothroyd is the best manager weve had in this divison, hes a fans manager and knows the Championship very well as it proved with Watford.
With King getting properly off the mark against Boro (albeit a penalty) i think he will get us 10+ goals at least this season, and with Eastwood coming back, hopefully picking up from where his form left off before injury , we can push on and start becoming a stronger, more potent attacking threat and give the top sides something to worry about.
These next four games are the most crucial 4 games of the season IMO, it will make or break us.
Im optimistic:
Reading … WIN
Norwich..WIN
Cardiff…Lose (just)
QPR..Shock WIN
He who dares to dream, come on city!!!!
PUSB