A feeling of utter bewilderment seemed to cover most of the stadium following Carlton Cole’s late winner, against a rejuvenated Coventry City team, who seem to be saving their best for the cup. I for one felt a mixture of pride and dejection at the final whistle. Pride at the manner the Sky Blues went about their work, with a fierce determination to compete on level terms with the visitors and utter dejection at seeing the faces of the players at the final whistle, having lost to a Premiership Team, who had two shots on goal all night.

This was a game when the best side lost, the team with all the grit and determination, guile and none too small amount of skill, came off second best. We could chose to blame individuals, but I think we should concentrate on the plusses from this fantastic Cup Tie, played with pretty good spirit throughout.

Ian Dowie chose to keep the same back four that worked well enough together against Colchester, with Turner & DeZeeuw together in the centre, flanked by Hall and the ever improving McNamee. The changes came in midfield, with Jay Tabb operating in the centre, in a slightly advanced role, in front of Doyle & Osbourne, he then deployed Michael Mifsud on the right and Julian Gray on the left, with Leon Best asked to do the hold-up role up top. As with the Man Utd fixture, it worked a treat, especially ion the first half, with West Ham struggling to find any rhythm to their play, whilst giving the City ample opportunity to attack almost at will. Leon Best did his job superbly well, keeping hold of any balls played into him, thus allowing the midfield runners to link up with him, whilst Tabb was picking up the pieces in the centre of the park and allowing both full backs licence to get forward at will, certain in the knowledge that Doyle and Osbourne were there to offer cover.

From one such sortie down the flank, the ball eventually fell to Mifsud, who used his blistering pace to get past his marker, it looked a clear red card as he was the last man, but Rob Styles, not for the only time, saw things differently and proffered a yellow. From the resulting free kick Gray only managed to head straight at Richard Wright in the visitors goal. Mifsud won a succession of corners, from one Best had a good effort cleared by Wright. Two more followed, but it was all a bit too rushed from the Sky Blues, who lacked that little bit of quality to punish the, by now, rattled visitors. HT 0 – 0.

Dowie made a significant change at the break, removing the ineffectual Gray, who he replaced by Robbie Simpson. There was probably a case for putting Cairo on the right and swapping Mifsud to the left, where the visitors captain Lucas Neil had just talked himself into the referee’s book, but it is easy in hindsight I suppose. Best again did well to extricate himself from two defenders, before laying a lovely ball into the path of Tabb, who volleyed over.

West Ham also made changes, in an attempt to tighten down in midfield, reverting to a 4 – 5 – 1 formation and looking to hit us on the counter attack. It looked to have backfired on the hour mark though, as Mifsud’s pace took him into the danger area again, he skipped past his marker before planting a super cross shot past Wright. It all came to nought though, as the linesman belatedly flagged for offside. Seven minutes later it was time celebrate for real, the ball was only half cleared from a corner to Isaac Osbourne, who flighted a perfectly weighted ball to the inrushing Jay Tabb, who deftly headed into the corner to send the vociferous home crowd into ecstasy.

“We’re going to Wemberley” reverberated around the Ricoh as joyous City fans taunted the very quiet visiting support, but the lead was short lived. A corner was knocked out to Luis Boa Morte on the edge of the area and he blasted it back towards goal, Kevin Kyle, who replaced Best, could only divert it onto Hall’s leg and it flew over Marshall into the net.

Kyle had a chance to settle matters late on, but his swinging foot didn’t connect with the ball and it was yet another let off for West Ham. The crowd had settled for Extra – Time when the unimaginable happened. Kyle tried to play the ball forward, but was prevented by an outstretched elbow, it was as easy a decision as you will ever have to give, but not for Mr Styles, he waved away the protests then we all watched in abject despair as the ball ended up as a leg race between Turner and Carlton Cole, Turner went down under the challenge and Cole slotted past the despairing arms of Andy Marshall. The dream was over, for another year at least. But what a journey it has been, Mr Dowie will have learned a lot about his players, but so will the watching millions on TV, who saw that On their Day, this Sky Blues Team is a match for anyone!

GT M.O.M.

Jay Tabb

Player Ratings:

7 ……. Marshall

9 ……. McNamee

8 ……. DeZeeuw

7 ……. Turner

7 ……. Hall

8 ……. Mifsud

6 ……. Doyle

7 ……. Osbourne

9 ……. Tabb

5 ……. Gray

7 ……. Best

Subs:

6 ……. Simpson

7 ……. Kyle