Professional Development League

Saturday 15th September 2018

Kick Off 11.30 Actual 11.29

Coventry City U18 2 Colchester United U18 1,  attendance 34

50’ 0-1

85’ 1-1 (pen)

90’+ 4, 2-1

@ The Alan Higgs Centre

Allard Way

Binley

Coventry

CV3 1HW (postcode on official website, but not recognised by my SatNav or Google Maps)

No Admission or Programme.

I had previously been here on 15th January 2005, when I saw the U18’s beat Aston Villa 3-1 in a Premier League Academy match. The pitch used in those days is now being built over (Photo 1 below, pitch was where the partly constructed steel framework is now behind the building). The new pitch is probably a couple of hundred yards away, beyond the new 3G caged pitch, where there are 4 grass pitches running widthways, with today’s match being on the nearest one.

The match was absolutely dreadful. Both teams had obviously had any attacking thoughts coached out of them, with every pass looking to go backwards if possible. Terrible stuff to watch as a neutral.

Colchester had a penalty saved when they were leading 0-1 and it turned out to cost them dearly. Coventry had a penalty awarded with five minutes left, which meant they were at last going to have to play the ball forward !!! They duly scored and then got a totally undeserved winner four minutes into stoppage time. There was still time for another five minutes to be added, during which there was a 21 man brawl (just the visitors ‘keeper not involved) that ended with a red card for each team.

One of the passengers had already seen a match on the new pitch our match was on today, having visited at the end of last season, but with the two clubs also meeting at U16’s level on the adjacent pitch, he decided to watch that instead. A good choice, it ended up 9-2 !