SKY BLUES 1 – 2  BURNLEY 

All the talk in the press over the past week was of the return of KK, or King Kev as he is more colloquially known and so Ian Dowie deemed it appropriate to include our very own KK, with not quite the fans thoughts deeming him King Kev, in fact he will be lucky to get any sort of support after his ridiculous lunge early in the second half, reducing the Sky Blues to 10 men for almost 40 minutes. I am, off course, referring to our very own KK, Kevin Kyle. Having spent the whole of the first half defending him against a backdrop of disgruntled supporters, I looked on incredulous as he was shown his second yellow card of the afternoon, with what can only be described as a reckless lunge, leaving the pitch to a crescendo of Boo’s from his own fans.

 Ian Dowie had reacted to the lacklustre display against Leicester by ringing the changes, 5 of them in fact, with Davis, Tabb, M Hughes, Doyle & Kyle all earning recalls. It looked like it may pay dividends, with Mifsud feeding off the occasional well directed header from KK and in fact, squandering a couple of gilt edged chances. But as has been our want at home recently, these misses were to prove costly as Ade Akinbiyi opened the scoring for the visitors. Local lad Graham Alexander broke down the right before squaring the ball into the space behind our flat defence and the striker used his pace before driving past Dimi. This should have been the signal for the fans to get behind their team, but a minority, which grew in numbers, began to abuse their team with most abuse hurled in the direction of Kyle. The doubters were silenced shortly thereafter, when Doyle notched an equaliser, albeit a bit of a scrappy one, following a couple of parried efforts from Jensen in the visiting goal. The following ten minutes didn’t prove too promising for the Sky Blues, with Akinbiyi continuing to look a threat against our very flat defence, but it held firm. Blake got a booking for the visitors, before Kyle followed him into the book for a needless shove. HT 1 – 1 The Sky Blues came out with a plan for the second half and for 10 minutes looked comfortable, but then KK had his rush of blood and was shown a second yellow, before the inevitable Red Card. Some sections of the home support cheered as the striker headed off, others, myself included, just looked on in desperation at such a foolish act.  To be fair the ten men gave a pretty good account of themselves, and the action seemed to galvanise them, Michael Hughes & Doyle took control of the midfield, ably supported by Tabb. Adebola replaced the ineffectual Gray and ID went for a 4 – 3 – 2 formation in an effort to win the game. Mifsud looked to be on his way to doing just that, before an intervention from Unsworth took the ball from his toes, the crowd bayed for a penalty, but to me it looked clumsy, but I feel he took the ball. Straight from their next move Burnley re-took the lead, Michael Doyle lost the ball in the middle of the park and the visitors stormed away to score. Akinbiyi unselfishly passed to Blake, who finished with some aplomb. City pressed late on and had a couple of long-range efforts and Mifsud had another decent opportunity, but another home defeat tells its own story. City are a side looking short on both confidence and ability at present, with the introduction of a couple of new players a pre-requisite to any push up the league table. With Leon Best having handed in a transfer request on Friday and Robert Page also heading for the exit door, Mr Dowie needs to get replacements in place sooner, rather than later. GT M.O.M.M Hughes Player Ratings: 6 ……. Dimi6 ……. Osbourne6 ……. DeZeeuw7 ……. Ward5 ……. Davis4 ……. Gray5 ……. Doyle7 ……. Hughes7 ……. Tabb5 ……. Mifsud3 ……. Kyle