Message Board regular Lord Sitar was at last night's reserve game with Coventry. Cheers for the report.
On a breezy and dribbly evening at Highfield Road around 400 hardy souls were treated to a spectacle and a half. However, aside from the half time cheerleaders the football on offer was a drab affair.
Without a doubt the most memorable item of the evening was the voice of the Coventry City Announcer, he would scare children — like a cross between the bloke that does voiceovers for horror films and a very angry Windsor Davies.
Anyway, the game — Coventry were out of the blocks a little quicker than Ipswich forcing a corner in the first minute. However Ipswich became quickly composed and got the early breakthrough. After some neat approach play from Karic and Nicholls, Darren Bent got in a shot that was fiercely blocked and spun up in the heavens. On it's way back it looked increasingly tricky for the Coventry Keeper Fahlman and indeed it dropped just under te bar forcing him into a weak punch, this punch was met by Darren Ambrose with a stooping header which he tucked easily into the net. 1-0 Ipswich with barely five minutes gone.
A few minutes later and Calum Davenport connected (too) well with a whipped in ball from Karic which also had Fahlman beaten but the defenders blushes were spared as the ball drifted wide.
Ipswich were definitely in the ascendancy at this stage and the impressive away support (seven — possibly nine) could be heard (if you were sitting within three yards of them). Westlake just failed to connect with a low cross before Logan and Ambrose both squandered chances with some wayward shooting.
Coventry tried a bit harder with the wriggly South American running everywhere and leaving the boot in a few times in what was otherwise a very clean game with no bookings. Andy Marshall was hardly troubled in the first half but was forced into one smart save low to his right. As for Gaardsoee, well he looked fairly comfortable on the ball, seemed to have a good reading of the game and looked good in the air, there was a slight hesitancy to tackle though.
1-0 at halftime. Then came the cheerleaders (or 'The Crew' as they were dubbed) — either way their nubile young figures reminded the sad souls there how much better life could get..... anyway, the football.
Alas, as Wise came with Morecombe and Corbett with Barker, the second half had to follow the first.
The second half was abysmal. Ipswich's best opening fell to Bent after some comedy defending and nice work from Nicholls he found himself six yards out with the ball at his feet and went for the power option instead of placement and hit it straight at the keeper. Bent rued this as it was about the only time all evening he had not run himself into an offside position.
Zuniga and substitute Fowler both managed tame shots easily held by Marshall and it all looked like a 1-0 as 90 minutes elapsed. However there was time for Coventry to have a good shout for a penalty turned down after an unidentified attacker clashed with Marshall and Miller. However Mr A Green had had enough and Frankly so had everyone else. Final score Coventry 0 — Ipswich 1. A good result but no performances to worry the first team squad. Wilnis was treating it as a keep fit exercise and Croft looked about at his level. Nicholls played well and Ambrose had a good first half as did young Westlake. As for Karic, well as we have all read he has a lovely left foot, but.....
Hopefully Old Git will be back soon as I don't think I could stand the excitement of another reserve game for a while.
Ipswich: Marshall, Wilnis (Artun), Croft(Graaven), Nicholls, J Miller, Gaardsoee (Beevers), Ambrose, Westlake, Bent, Logan, Karic.
Coventry: Fahlman, Antonelius, Hall, Quinn(Fowler), Spong, Davenport, Telfer, Strachan, Zuniga, McSheffrey, O'Neil (Norman).