Young Bulls come from behind twice to draw 2-2
Yesterday we travelled upto Coventry to try and get back on track after losing to league leaders Plymouth last week in a hard fought game. Coventry sit third in the table are the team we would like to pip to finish in the top 3.
Their warm up suggested they didn't take us seriously and if we started well then we we would have a good chance of winning, unfortunately it was the probably the most disappointing performance of the season and we ended up lucky to come away with a point against a team we should be beating comfortably.
The game was scrappy to start with and on a good pitch and in the sun it felt like a practice match for the first 25mins. We were slow on the ball and Coventry took the lead. A long range shot came back off the crossbar and none our back four followed it in, leaving their striker a simple tap in from 12 yards. This kicked us into gear slightly and we controlled the final 20 minutes. Long range efforts from Tom Gameson and Alex Lilwall should of tested the keeper before Liam Taylor got us level. A great ball in from Lilwall found Taylor 6 yards out and he nodded home his second in 2 games. We had good possession in the last 10 minutes of the half but rarely penetrated a weak Coventry back line, mainly due to our lack lustre movement.
We had a go at the lads at halftime as the standards were far below the ones we had set, everybody needed to up their game and we would cruise through to a victory. Our defending in the second half was woeful, and we lost out on two points in the second half.
Again we controlled most of the play but rarely made any chances. Every time Coventry won the ball it was sent forward and our two centre halves couldn't cope with their lone striker. He wasn't the most gifted of players but he gave our boys a lesson in what you can achieve through hard work alone. He got his second of the game with 25 minutes to go, holding off Matty James before scoring from all of 30yards. Again it sparked us into a life and few good chances finally produced our second goal. A great ball in from Matty Owen found Chris May who made no mistake with 20 minutes left. 5 minutes later Coventry lost their captain and best player when he was red carded but still their lone striker caused us problems. Benn Pugh had to be on hand to make 3 great saves as our defence was all at sea. We could of nicked it late on, Gameson shooting just to close to the keeper in injury time but it would of been an undeserved victory.
We played like kids throughout the game and not as a well organised team that I expect us to be, it was disappointing and performances like that will have to improve if we want to finish the season like we started, and if these lads want to move up into men's football. We have a chance to put it right tomorrow when we travel to Exeter for a rearranged game but we may be going with just 10 players as it may be all we have. We hope next year to have a much bigger and stronger squad but we will go into the game knowing we can win if we get back to the performance we had against Oxford.
Team: Benn Pugh, Liam Taylor, Simon Morgan, Matty James, Lewis Fletcher, Alex Lilwall, Tom Gameson, Carlos Moreira, Matty Owen, James Obern
Subs: Joe Davies, Robbie Trumper