Greetings and welcome back to Coventry, where I have been struggling to get to grips with FM20. Whilst I long for the familiar embrace of CM9798, we’ve battled through pre-season with average at best results. Now, our League One campaign gets underway and I say a silent prayer that it all comes together when it matters most.
A glance at the real life table suggests that a home game with Sol Campbell’s Southend is a kind start. That is of course assuming the Essex club are as haphazard on this game as they are in reality. Besides all of that, I’m certainly a lot less useful than Mark Robins so it all balances out. With Hiwula injured and O’Hare just on the way back, here’s what we go with in our temporary home.
Would you believe, it actually went well. Jobello gave us the lead midway through the first half and then the very promising Zain Westbrooke slammed one in from 25 yards. Life is good. After half time, we were awarded a penalty but just like the two we got in pre-season, it was saved. Michael Rose is a centre back but has our highest penalty taking stat, however he’s missed two now. Thankfully it didn’t matter and we thoroughly deserved our 2-0 win.
A perfect start. It’s worth considering calling it a day there, but instead we’re off to Bolton. Using the logic of the opening day, Bolton are bottom of League 1 with their 10 point deduction so it’s certainly a good opportunity for us.
Instead, we pass up multiple opportunities before conceding a garbage penalty from a corner. Obviously Daryl Murphy scores it and our attempts to get back into the game involve committing the silliest fouls possible. Sigh.
What we definitely don’t need after that is a trip to West Brom. One of the favourites for promotion in the league above us, I don’t really imagine we’ll be in round 2. We do at least keep it tight and make it to half time goalless. However just like the Bolton game, we concede from a set piece five minutes after half time. This time it’s Hal Robson-Kanu bundling in at the far post as we limp out of the Carabao Cup.
Our lack of goals is an obvious concern so I’ve tapped into the loan market. Adam Idah of Norwich arrives, based purely on his FA Cup hat-trick. Seriously though, stats wise he fits the bill so let’s see what he can do.
He makes his debut at home to Bristol Rovers and Kastaneer plants an early header back across the keeper to give us the lead. We never really kick on from that though and the longer time ticks on, the more the Gas come back into it. It looks like we’ve seen off the danger but, such is life, former Coventry man Tom Davies heads in from an injury time corner. I reckon we should practice defending set pieces…
Off we go to Portsmouth who are one of the favourites for promotion. Ronan Curtis scores a good goal before farce takes over. Downing heads in from a corner and although Walsh pulls one back, Hinds scores twice from corners to leave us on the wrong end of a thrashing. These kids can’t defend corners. For goodness sake.
This is going well. I didn’t expect it to be much different in truth. I’ve noticed a lot of teams use wingbacks, maybe we should? I only have three centre backs though so it’s not a guarantee of success. Also most of my best players are wingers…
Anyway, Gillingham at home seems like the type of game we can win. We have all the ball. We have a number of chances. Each and every one is wasted. Adam Idah at least gets chances which is more than can be said of Godden but his finishing is poor at best. Thankfully Gillingham upend Jordy Hiwula in the box in injury time and he takes the responsibility himself, slotting his penalty away. Phew.
6 shots on target out of 23 is a poor return but at least we’re dominating the ball, right? Desperate times.
There’s only one game left in August and it’s away to Oxford. I like the novelty of the Kassam Stadium, it has 3 stands with the fourth being a car park, shared with a bowling alley. Anyway after a quick trip to the Megabowl we’re more than prepared to strike. Ben Woodburn, on loan from Liverpool, is probably too good for League 1 and gives Oxford the lead. Uh oh. We’re good though, we’re going toe to toe in front of the car park and get our reward when Walshy scores from the edge of the box. Idah meanwhile misses two one-on-ones, testing my patience even further.
It’s a good game though, played at what feels like an unrelenting pace. Not quite two heavyweights slugging it out but not far from it, there are no further goals but this is the type of draw I can live with.
There we have it then, August has come to a close and we’ve amassed two wins, two draws and two losses. Oh and a cup exit but we were never going to win at WBA.
Not quite a total disaster then and a couple of wins on the bounce could make all the difference. You’ve got to be in the mix and right now, we are. Let’s see what September brings. Toodles for now.