I am sending myself to Coventry today, yes...I won't talk to myself all day, which will be a relief to all the locals there. It's Preliminary Round day in the FA Cup and the local derby between Midland League's, Coventry Sphinx and Bedworth United from the Calor Southern League. It will be my first visit to this ground.
I haven't been to Coventry for 3 years now and then it was on my way to see Bedworth in action.
When I leave Worcester on the train, it's cloudy and likely to remain so for most of today. By 1pm I am walking out of Coventry rail station and to my dismay the pedestrian walkway is still surrounded by hoardings, giving things a decidedly unfinished air. To be honest, Coventry is not one of my favourite places. There are some great things to see, like the Cathedral, Art Gallery etc but the city centre is a bit of an eyesore in places.
I am visiting the Transport Museum today before going to the game and it's certainly worth a visit. Of course the displays provide a great insight in to the history of Coventry as a major centre for the bicycle, motorcycle and auto-mobile industries in the UK. Looking at a list on the wall, I can see there have been hundreds of companies based in the city over the years. Not so many now of course!
I have a bite to eat in the museum cafe and then find the relevant bus stop for my 10 minute journey which takes me close to the Coventry Sphinx sports ground.
Sphinx Drive is situated off Bull's Head Lane in the Lower Stoke district and ground has a bowling green and a rugby ground as well as the football pitch. The football ground itself has a rugby pitch on one side, separated by a rope. On the other side is situated the only stand. Everywhere else you are open to the elements, apart from the club house of course, which is by the entrance. At the back of the club is where you can find the bowls club.
Coventry Sphinx come out in their sky blue and white striped shirts, dark blue shorts and socks while Bedworth United (the Greenbacks) appear in their all-green strip.
There looks to be a good crowd to see this local contest and as often happens in such matches, play is scrappy and the pace frenetic and the windy weather does not help either.
Sphinx have the better of the early exchanges and after 5 minutes go close to scoring. A free kick awarded on the right is met well by a Sphinx captain, Ashley Jackson's head but the ball flashes past the far post.
After 15 minutes another Sphinx attack, down the left this time, sees the Bedworth keeper race out of his goal, he's lobbed but the ball goes just wide of the goal.
Bedworth though do get more in to the game and the later stages of the first half sees them gain the upper hand without creating any clear cut chances.
So it's all square at half-time and I'm hoping there will be some goals in the next 45 minutes. The weather has taken a turn for the worse with darker clouds coming over and it rains for the next 20 minutes or so. The half-time draw sees a guy near me winning a bottle of whisky and makes me wonder if I would have won that if I'd bought a ticket as I don't think anyone else near me had bought any.
Bedworth United leave their hosts waiting on the pitch for a few minutes before play starts again. Maybe they are trying to psych them out?
It's still a physical battle in this half too although Bedworth do test the Sphinx keeper a few times but he and his fellow defenders hold firm. Although you can't fault the commitment of both sides the match is desperately calling out for a bit of quality.
The final whistle blows with both teams unable to break the deadlock. Although it hasn't been a brilliant match there has been some entertaining banter at times in the crowd near me.
The teams will resume their battle on Tuesday evening with the winners visiting Boldmere St.Michael's in the next round.
I noticed that Coventry Sphinx looked to have a young team out today and I saw on their website the other day that last season, their Under 10,11,13 AND 14 teams won their respective League Cup competitions. That's quite an achievement and shows they have some quality players coming up for the future.
Match attendance: 334
Match entrance: £7
Match programme: £1.50
Club badge: £2
Entertainment value: 3/10
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