Coventry here again to end season

Last updated : 06 May 2007 By Tony Scholes
Jay Tabb
They are no strangers to bringing our season to an end. In 1976 they were our last ever opponents in the top flight, and just five years ago we beat them 1-0 with a Gareth Taylor goal only for it all to end in heartache as we missed the play offs by on goal.

This season for Coventry was the start of Operation Premiership led by former Claret Paul Fletcher, but it hasn't been the most successful of seasons for them and they were forced to part with manager Micky Adams in January after a poor run of results.

That led to Adrian Heath holding the job for a month but one win in five games ensured he wouldn't get the job on a full time basis and in mid-February they appointed Iain Dowie who has at least move north from his last job which should please Simon Jordan.

Dowie got off to a good start. They beat Southampton in his first game in charge and went on to win four and draw two of his first six games in charge. That saw them move up the table and gave them an outside chance of reaching the play offs but since then they've won just one point from six games, that coming in a 1-1 draw at Derby.

With the transfer window closed by the time he took over, Dowie has had to work with the players he inherited and didn't even bring in any loan players. The only changes to the squad since we were beaten at the Ricoh were brought in by Adams and Heath.

Goalkeeper Luke Steele arrived on loan from West Brom just before Christmas, but his form wasn't good and he hasn't featured in the first team since Dowie took over. In January, Heath strengthened the squad but missed out on the player he really wanted and that was RK Sunderland's Steven Caldwell. Despite outbidding the Clarets for his services, they missed out and we got our man with just minutes to spare.

Heath did bring in three new players. He signed Michael Mifsud from Lillestrom and the Maltese striker has netted three goals in eighteen games (eleven of them starts). One Clarets Mad observer picked him out after a good performance against Sheffield Wednesday recently.

The other two were New Zealand defender Che Bunce from Knights and Arran Lee-Barrett, a goalkeeper from Weymouth, but neither of them have featured as yet in the first team.

Last week they lost 1-0 at home to West Brom in a game that saw two players sent off and hopefully they'll sign off with another defeat as the Clarets look to end the season with a rousing victory.

Click HERE to see all Coventry's results this season.

Team News

Iain Dowie will be without the services of Ben Turner who starts a four match suspension after being sent off last week in his first ever league start for the Sky Blues. Turner had been sent off in his previous game playing for Oldham during a loan spell.

Don Hutchison, Wayne Andrews, Leon McKenzie, Colin Cameron and Adam Virgo are all expected to miss the game with various injuries, and for Cameron that could mean his Coventry career has ended with the club not having taken up the one year option on is contract.

Our former loan player Dele Adebola needs an operation for a groin problem and it isn't expected that he'll be involved either. They are expected to name their side from the following squad:

Andy Marshall, David McNamee, Elliott Ward, Marcus Hall, Chris Birchall, Isaac Osbourne, Stephen Hughes, Liam Davis, Michael Doyle, Kevin Thornton, Jay Tabb, Michael Mifsud, Luke Steele, Andrew Whing, Robert Page, Che Bunce, Colin Hawkins, Kevin Kyle, Lee Hildreth.

Click HERE to see the full Coventry squad.

Burnley will again be without James O'Connor. The clash of heads that saw him stretchered off in the last home game against West Brom have led to him missing games through injury for the first time since joining the Clarets.
Steve Cotterill has again opted to leave him out just thirteen days after the incident. His replacement at RK Sunderland was Chris McCann but he was substituted during the first half in that game with Joey Gudjonsson coming on for his first outing since the defeat at Southend.

Gudjonsson is likely to start today in what I expect will be an otherwise unchanged side which should be: Brian Jensen, Michael Duff, Wayne Thomas, Steven Caldwell, Jon Harley, Wade Elliott, Eric Djemba-Djemba, Joey Gudjonsson, Steve Jones, Andy Gray, Paul McVeigh. Subs from: Danny Coyne, Graham Coughlan, John Spicer, Garreth O'Connor, Graham Branch, Alan Mahon, Kyle Lafferty, Ade Akinbiyi.

Last Meeting

Coventry's visit to Burnley last season was on the second Saturday of the season back in August 2005. It brought us our first points with a 4-0 win in a game that saw Coventry reduced to ten men after Stephen Hughes spoke out against the award of a penalty at 2-0.

Referee Nigel Miller, who thankfully will be nowhere near Turf Moor this afternoon, had given the decision after his assistant flagged. It was a dreadful decision, but in the end Coventry needn't have worried. Gifton took it, and over twenty months later rumours are that the ball is still up in orbit somewhere.

It was a good performance by the Clarets, and the real star of the show was Ade Akinbiyi who had to wait until the closing minutes to get onto the score sheet, getting two late goals to give the final score a more realistic look.
Of his performance that day I wrote: "He turned in an awesome performance of forward play that had the visiting defenders pulled here, there and everywhere.

The teams were;

Burnley: Brian Jensen, Michael Duff, Wayne Thomas, John McGreal, Graham Branch, Wade Elliott (Chris McCann 12, Kyle Lafferty 78), Micah Hyde, James O'Connor, Garreth O'Connor, Gifton Noel-Williams, Ade Akinbiyi. Subs not used: Danny Coyne, Frank Sinclair, Mark Yates.

Coventry: Stephen Bywater, Richard Duffy, Robert Page, Matt Heath, Marcus Hall, James Scowcroft, Michael Doyle, Stephen Hughes, Gary McSheffrey (Adrian Williams 70), Stern John (Claus Jorgensen 45), Dele Adebola (Andy Morrell 76). Subs not used: Clayton Ince, Neil Wood.

Previous 20 Seasons

Season

Div

Ven

Result

Att

Scorers

1999/2000

FAC

a

0-3

22,774

.

2001/02

1

a

2-0

16,849

Taylor Little

..

h

1-0

18,751

Taylor

2002/03

1

h

3-1

13,470

Blake(pen) Grant Davenport(og)

.

.

a

1-0

13,659

Cox

2003/04

1

h

1-2

10,358

Blake

..

a

0-4

12,953

.

2004/05

C

h

2-2

10,919

Blake(pen) Branch

.

.

a

2-0

13,236

Oster Moore

2005/06

C

h

4-0

11,683

G O'Connor Thomas Akinbiyi(2)

..

a

0-1

19,641

.

2006/07

C

a

0-1

18,362

.

Click HERE to see all our results against Coventry, right from the first meeting, a 5-0 FA Cup win in 1911.