Rugby
Town 0-2 Coventry City XI
Pre-Season
Friendly
Tuesday,
8th August 2006
Attendance
| 241
| Entertainment |
|
Rugby's
series of home pre-season fixtures ended in another
defeat, when a Coventry side containing six players
with first team experience came out on top in
a close encounter at Butlin Road on Tuesday night.
Reserve
team boss Mark Shackelton in charge of the team
in the absence of Billy Jeffrey pulled a surprise
by changing the side's formation to a 4-4-2, with
Ross Harris moving to right-back, Delroy Gordon
returning to a central defensive role and Chris
Tullin in the left-back berth. After impressing
from the bench in the previous two games, young
Ryan Byrne was handed a starting place in the
centre of the Rugby midfield.
The
City side was a mixture of players on the fringe
of the Championship side plus the club's first
year professionals and current Academy crop including
Faroe Island international Claus Jorgensen, Andy
Morrell and Isaac Osbourne, and the visitors settled
first, creating a number of clear-cut goalscoring
opportunities in the game's opening exchanges.
Tullin
just managed to divert Morrell's header onto the
crossbar in the 4th minute, and Jorgensen saw
his shot saved by Farhad Afandiyev, with new signing
Faysal Idrissi - probably Coventry's best player
on the night - unable to convert the rebound.
Liam
Davis was also guilty of squandering a gilt-edged
opportunity shortly after, when after leaving
a couple of Rugby defenders floundering, he pulled
his shot wide from a central position.
Rugby
then began to make an impression on the game,
and David Stone was at the centre of most of their
attacking highlights, causing problems for the
young City back-line. Within a five minute spell,
he was unlucky not to have grabbed two goals.
First he rounded Sky Blues keeper Cameron Belford,
only to see his goal-bound strike deflected for
a corner by Ben Turner, and then Belford pulled
off a fine finger tip effort to touch his curling
shot onto the post.
Belford
was again in good form shortly after when he flung
himself at a Danny Hall effort after neat interchange
play between Stone and Jason Taylor.
However
it was Coventry that took the lead on 40 minutes
when Idrissi underlined his quality with a good
finish after Rugby had been unable to clear their
lines from a corner.
Idrissi
had another opportunity to increase the advantage
from the kick-off in the second half, but this
time Afandiyev was well-positioned to push the
ball over the bar.
Another
purposeful Stone break saw his dangerous cross
blocked by Turner, and at the other end Andy Gooding's
shot again pulled a fine save from Afandiyev.
On
64 minutes Hall tried an acrobatic volley on the
edge of the penalty area, but was unable to get
proper contact on the ball after more fine work
down the left hand side from Stone.
Coventry
killed the game off on 79 minutes when a corner
finally fell at the feet of Turner, and his half
volley flew past Afandiyev.
Late
in the game, Stone again made a dangerous break
down the left wing, and his cross flashed across
the box, but unfortunately then fell away to safety.
Rugby
: Afandiyev, Harris, Tullin, Gordon, Herbert,
Hall (Kolodynski), Francis, Byrne, Feely, Stone,
J.Taylor. Subs not used : Lynn, Wells, Hackett,
S.Taylor, Sawko, Orford.
Coventry
: Belford, Jones, Lynch (Lorougnon), Osbourne,
Turner, Robinson (West), Jorgensen, Gooding, Morrell,
Davis, Idrissi (Hildreth).
Goals
: Idrissi 40, Turner 79.
Attendance
: 241
|
