League One did its best at the Ricoh Arena on Saturday to restore the credibility of ethics. At the end of a week in which Fifa had corrupted even the meaning of the word and the game’s chatter at home was all about rape, role models and Rooney rules on and off the field, Coventry City and Notts County battled with whole hearts before County won 1-0. It was only work ethics, reflecting the priorities of two young managers, and it was not beautiful. But at least it was honest. Victory lifted County to fourth. Defeat dropped City to 20th.
Both managers were pleased with the effort, which is more than Coventry’s Steven Pressley was the previous weekend when, also at home, they were knocked out of the FA Cup by non-league Worcester. After a night sleepless with anger he addressed the squad in private before declaring that “any players falling below the standards I expect will be shipped out”. On Saturday he said: “The attitude of the players was terrific [as it had been in reaching the quarter-finals of the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy midweek]; there was a real will to win.”
There needs to be. Coventry have been a mess off the field for some time. Last season they were sent to Northampton, eight years after their ambitious move to the Ricoh. Pressley, a centre-back who played his only football outside Scotland at Highfield Road in 1994-95 and came from three years managing Falkirk in March last year, was given a four-year contract in early September as City were re-admitted to the Ricoh. Their comeback game drew 26,800 home fans; 7,500 saw their league slump stretch on Saturday to one win in 10 games. Perhaps they are concentrating on the Johnstone’s Paint.
A local MP called their exile “a disgrace” – hardly by Fifa standards but nonetheless embarrassing. On Friday City learned that Wasps rugby club, once of London, had been preferred as new owners of the Ricoh. They have been promised a “mutually productive relationship” for four years while they look for yet another ground. Steve Waggott, a chief executive with a good record at Charlton, wrote of “the world of good that football can do in the community”. A good start would be a home in that community rather than in a maze of motorways outside.
By comparison Notts County are a model of stability after flirting with Middle Eastern owners and Sven-Goran Eriksson. Shaun Derry is their 10th manager in five years after the club commendably had three black managers in four, two of whom had Lee Hughes on the books after three years in prison for causing death by dangerous driving. Derry, 36 and Nottingham born, has just completed a year in charge. County were bottom of League One when he rang the club’s chief executive, Jim Rodwell, said he was the man to save them and got the chance to prove it.
Derry, a combative midfielder, had been relegated with Harry Redknapp’s QPR from the Premier League and was maddened by their lack of fight. He found a similarly fractured dressing room at Meadow Lane and sorted it out with old-fashioned discipline and respect. With Greg Abbott, former Carlisle manager, as assistant, he kept them up in May with six wins in the last nine games, let 17 leave and brought in 14 with a leavening of experience and carefully identified character. They have won six of their last seven league games and are unbeaten away.
Before this latest win he warned that “we are a different beast now”, which may have been simply that injuries and international calls forced him from 4-4-2 to 3-5-2. In the event the beast was a headless chicken, matched in kind. The pitch was no help – and rugby’s hooves have yet to arrive. The game pleaded for anyone to put a foot on the ball but the only consistent touch was down the sides, found unerringly by sliced clearances in the helter-skelter. The goal after 72 minutes was neatly put away by Garry Thompson, 33, breaking on to a midfield error. Another summer signing, Roy Carroll, 37, was in goal for Northern Ireland in Bucharest the previous night. He could have added to his three hours’ sleep here. City had no shot on target. That is the spirit of Derry’s Notts. As the executive chairman, Ray Trew, put it: “Above and beyond the call of duty.”
