Where Did It All Go Right For Coventry City?
IT'S BECOMING INCREASINGLY DIFFICULT to avoid catching "Sky Blue Play-off Fever". It would take at least ten consecutive wins to rid me of my eternal scepticism, but I can slowly feel a warm sense of optimism flooding my senses.
As a relatively young City fan, the past two months have seen perhaps the best run of sustained form I can remember. The last time we achieved a top ten finish was under a certain Micky Adams back in 2006, and I'm certainly backing Chris Coleman to emulate this success.
With declining attendances and vicious rumours circulating regarding the sale of our top players, the situation looked fairly gloomy heading into the New Year. So what was it that triggered our remarkable (well, remarkable by our standards) return to form?
Personally, I put our new found defensive solidarity largely down to the return of James McPake. Despite being with the club since last January, he remained a fairly unknown quantity until he finally reached full fitness and earned an extended run of games at the heart of our defence.
Excluding the 4-1 defeat to Newcastle (in which McPake didn't feature), we haven't conceded more than one goal in the last 9 games, which comes as a welcome change from the days of conceding goals like nobody's business.
At the other end of the field, it seems our strikers are beginning to find form. I remember reading an interview with Steve Harrison shortly after he joined the club, in which he promised to get our "misfiring" strikers back in the goals. It appears he's managed to do this, albeit slightly later than desired.
First came Best, sticking out like a dove amongst pigeons by hitting the back of the net whilst the rest of the team struggled to perform.
Next came the resurgence of "Super Fred", scoring like a man possessed.
Now it appears that "Super Stead" is replacing "Super Fred", forming a solid partnership with Clinton Morrison that will hopefully remain fruitful until the season draws to a close.
It also seems that the goal-scoring virus is contagious, with 8 different players notching up a goal for City in the last 10 games. Having had "limited" firepower in the goal scoring department for as long as I can remember (Shaun Goater, Kevin Kyle et al), it's great to finally see players from all over the pitch getting in on the act.
It's refreshing to finally have an air of positivity surrounding the club, but the question remains as to whether we can avoid the traditional end-of-season slump and continue to set league alight*.
* Perhaps an over-statement, but when we're winning, who cares?
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I think all us regular Cov City fans are in a state of shock,when we look at the table,especially at how we were playing a couple of months back.
But there is definetly a good buzz floating about just now, but obviously when you've been a city fan for a long time, you do become a bit cynical,and do not want to get to carried away, but lat's all enjoy this feeling , and get behind the team,they do deserve it !
It's great to see Cov performing well at the moment, we seem to have the luck on our side and I only pray that doesn't change anytime soon as with only scoring 1 goal in most of the recent wins, it only takes a change of luck and we could end up dropping points left, right and centre.
If previous seasons are anything to go by, then we are approaching the time of the season when our performances start to deteriorate, I only hope this season is different - Finishing in the playoffs would be excellent and it has been consistency that has always let us down before, if we can keep this run of good form consistent, then we are in with a good shout! :)