By Jack Watson
After an international break, The Tigers were back to resume the Championship season, facing The Sky Blues, Coventry, under the lights of the MKM Stadium. It was a packed out away end, a near-full home end, but could we face the pressure of the thousand eager eyes watching and hold on to our unbeaten run?
The visitors have not had the best start to the season, winning one game out of five, losing one and drawing three; however, they began shaky last season and they finished in the play-offs, so they do not need to worry. For us, we had a better start, winning three, drawing one and losing one.
Same starting line-up as our clash against Leicester, save for Jaden Philogene, beginning his career in black and Amber, replacing Adama Traore: Matt Ingram, in goal; Lewie Coyle, Ruben Vinagre, Alfie Jones and Jacob Greaves, as the back four; Jean Seri and Regan Slater, below them and Jaden Philogene, Liam Delap and Scott Twine were distributed above Aaron Connolly, who was up-front on his own. Still no Tufan, however, Tyler Morton made the bench and there are still two signings yet to make an appearance, both on the bench and pitch. Hopefully they should all be ready soon as we need all the strength we have to get a good result against Leeds on Wednesday night. Same applies for all fixtures.
The first 15 minutes of the first period was very strong; we were pinging the ball around superbly, getting the ball to players making a run first time and creating some great opportunities. Connolly had the best chance in this stage of pure dominance; from a difficult angle, he struck wide. But, we put everything into our attack and left our backyard open and low in quality. Inevitably, Coventry found their momentum and we could do nothing to stop them.
The next 30 minutes was the worst football I have seen us play under Rosenior. It was like someone had flicked a switch and never turned it back on again. We were completely vulnerable at the back; our communication was terrible and we did exactly what we did against Doncaster; playing back to the keeper and passing it between CB and LB. It was not like we were doing it from the start, we suddenly started doing it and nothing good ever came from it; we lost possession plenty of times and could have given it away right on the edge of the box. I hate to be negative, but we must eradicate this style of play.
It did not take us long to get punished as in the 27th minute, the visitors earned a corner. Josh Eccles swung a dangerous ball towards the near-post and Latibeaudiere, in pockets of space, headed it home. Again, more sloppiness at the back. This was enough for them to see the first half out with the lead and we needed to do something special in the next period.
We made one change at half-time; Cyrus Christie replaced Ruben Vinagre, which I thought was strange as Vinagre was one of the better players. Nonetheless, the second period started and we needed to improve, but it never came. Indeed, we should have gone 0-2 down when Haji Wright misdirected a whipped pass over the crossbar.
Thankfully, after this scary start, we did turn the game around and fought well for an equaliser. We ended the last 35 minutes in the same way we did in the first 15 minutes of the first half; playing neat football, making fewer mistakes, staying alert at the back and getting the ball forward. In fact, we did not waste any time passing it at the back.
Save for a few Twine free-kicks from dangerous positions, which all went over the bar, our best chances to equalise were more or less from the same position. Christie made a run into the box and passed it to Twine, whose shot was saved by the keeper and the same thing happened again, but it was a low ball in from Philogene on the left, but the shot was blocked superbly by a blue shirt. I was highly impressed with their defence and I wish it was the same way for us. In fact, we know we can be the same as we have been quality in defence this season; they have helped us secure wins—like Blakburn–and prevented us from losing points–like Leicester. It just was not their day today.
Then, as Coventry’s back line were endeavouring to prevent us from scoring and carrying out the process from the 27th minute, any hope for Mark Robin and the away fans taking away all three points was shattered in the last ten minutes. As the clock struck 87 minutes, we equalised; new signing Tyler Morton chipped the ball into the box and Connolly was able to smartly direct the ball into the bottom-right corner of the net, making the stadium erupt. This was definitely coming, but I wish it came sooner.
I am pleased that we were able to remain calm, get back into the game and take something from it because if we did not, I do not see how we would get anything from Leeds on Wednesday. Even though we started well and ended exquisitely, there is still a lot to work on, however, it may have just been due to the break. Nonetheless, we need to consistently perform like we did against The Foxes. That was football at its finest.
As I have stated, we have our biggest rivals, Leeds, at home next and it has nearly sold out. I really hope we win this match; I want the three points, but, most importantly, I do not want to do 45 push ups in my next PE lesson–my PE teacher said if Leeds win I have to do the push ups, but if Hull win he has to do them. I have been practising, but I am quite optimistic that I won’t even need to do them as we will get the win. At least then, my teacher will have to do the push ups, whilst we push up the football league.
