Match Reports

As often happens during a bad run, City were held at home by a struggling side despite a host of chances and, on this occasion the luxuty of playing against ten, and then nine men!

Scunthorpe keeper Joe Murphy was very busy early on, saving from Leon McKenzie, making his first start for a couple of months, and then from Marcus Hall's acrobatic overhead effort after a corner.

Micky Doyle's shot then went just wide of the post, as tried to score a rare first-half goal, but failed to do so.

Scunthorpe had a couple of chances themselves, but the closest they came to scoring was a breakaway move when Ben Turner had to tackle Jonathan Forte to prevent a goalscoring opportunity.

Dimi Konstantopoulos wasn't really troubled, while Elliott Ward was clearing everything up in central defence on his return to the side, while David McNamee's calm defending and runs down the right looked a class above anything the visitors had to offer.

City had a good shout for a penalty when McNamee's cross towards Jay Tabb saw the lively midfielder bundled over on the edge of the area, but contact was judged to have taken place just outside the box and McNamee's free-kick wasn't quite on-target.

As usual this season we went in goalless at half-time, but probably deserved to be ahead, and it had been a frustrating evening so far, thanks to a doggedly defensive performance from Scunthorpe.

Shortly after the interval, with the small crowd getting restless, we finally made the breakthrough. McKenzie played Jay Tabb through on goal, and he was brought to ground by the keeper - this time there was no doubt, and we were given our second penalty of the season.

Eventually, after Murphy was sent off and a substitution made to bring on a sub keeper, Doyle held his nerve to dispatch the penalty and give us a 1-0 lead, and it should have been plain-sailing thereafter.

But the ten men almost hit back immediately, having a free-kick hit the woodwork, but we still looked good, with McNamee continuing to impress with a long-range shot, and Dele Adebola also going close, but generally having a quiet game.

We failed to add a second goal, and Scunthorpe undeservedly equalised mid-way through the half, as young winger Jack Cork - on loan from Chelsea and the son of former Sky Blues coach Alan - scored the first senior goal of his career, netting from close range after a corner.

We should still have gone on to win, given our one-man advantage, but shots from McKenzie and then from sub Wayne Andrews were both denied by the sub keeper.

With six minutes to go, defender Kelly Youga was sent off after picking up two yellows, but even against nine men we couldn't score from open play.

Ward pushed up front, sub Ellery Cairo rained crosses into the Scunthorpe area, and Doyle and Hall both chanced their luck from distance, but the visitors stuck all nine men behind the ball, and somehow managed to hang on.

While our effort was impressive, the final product was poor, and without Michael Mifsud we simply don't look like scoring. We deserved to win this game comfortably, but really can't afford to drop points like this - the good teams grind out results in such situations. We didn't.

The future of the club off the pitch remains uncertain, and recent results are not making us look an attractive proposition to investors.

Rock-bottom Norwich ended a long winless run the way that so many teams have in the past - by suddenly playing well when faced with a game against Coventry City!

Some tenacious away performances this month were not matched, as a punchless Sky Blues side - with five forwards unavailable for selection for one reason or another - succumbed to a team with the worst record in all four divisions, albeit fairly predictably given our previous record in such situations.

The game was preceded by a minutes applause rather than silence, in memory of the late former Cov and Norwich player Graham Paddon.

With several new loan signings and a new manager, Norwich made a positive start, and Dimi Konstantopoulos made an early stop from Darel Russel, while Arjan De Zeeuw made a late challenge on debutant Matty Pattison to prevent the on-loan Newcastle youngster from playing the ball across an open goalmouth.

The ball was in the back of the net when Pattison's free-kick hit Dion Dublin on the back, but fortunately the former Sky Blues striker (God that was a long time ago!) was in an offside position.

But the home side were in front, after a Sky Blues free-kick was cleared upfield, and Pattison set up midfielder Luke Chadwick to curl in a left-footed shot that Dimi probably should have saved.

Late in the half Dele Adebola had a header saved, but we had not put in a good performance, and probably deserved to be behind.

Our last five games have been goalless at half-time, so it was unusual to have had a goal to talk about, albeit one at the wrong end.

The ineffective Kevin Kyle had the first chance of the second half, but was well wide with a header, and went off injured shortly thereafter.

The introduction of Ellery Cairo saw us change to a wider formation, with just one big man upfront, and it was slightly better than the first half tactics.

But Norwich continued to press, and had a strong penalty claim waved away after serial offender Ben Turner looked to have handled.

Wayne Andrews came on for only his second appearance this season, and injected life and pace into the attack, and went very close with a header from Cairo's cross shortly after entering the field of play.

But a Canaries counter-attack saw Pattison crossing for Jamie Cureton - so often a thorn in our side - to tap in from close range and effectively seal the game.

We should have got on the scoresheet late on when Andrews broke through and rounded the Norwich keeper, but he steadied himself instead of poking the ball into an empty net, and Marshall got back to claw the ball to safety.

It was disappointing for Andrews, given his prolific form for the reserves, and fellow sub Julian Gray then hit a post in stoppage time.

But it was to be Norwich's day - and how often have we seen such precariously-placed teams turning the formbook around against us? Far too often!

Not for the first time this season, a good little run came to an abrupt end with a humilatingly substantial home defeat - this time to Midlands rivals West Brom.

And while Michael Mifsud has been a hero so many times this season, he cast himself as the villain of the piece early on, with an unnecessary sending-off that changed the very nature of the game.

Just over ten minutes of fairly even, uneventful football had been played when Mifsud jumped up for an aerial ball and tussled with right-back Carl Hoefkins. For some reason he recklessly elbowed the defender in the face as he went for the ball, and after a long discussion with the linesman and fourth official, the refetee sent him from the pitch, leaving us to play almost the entire game with ten men and without our top scorer.

But what happened next was extraordinary - we battled hard (but legitimately) for every ball, and outplayed the visitors. Stephen Hughes, making his first start of the month beneath a protective face mask, had a long-range shot deflect just wide, before Dele Adebola's header from the resultant corner was also close.

The ten men were playing the better football, and West Brom couldn't get into the game at all - in some ways it seemed as though Mifsud's dismissal had strengthened the team as a unit, while the crowd certainly turned on the referee.

We had to be careful, given our numerical disadvantage, but against a toothless Baggies side, it looked as though we might yet hold on for at least a point, given the fighting spirit Iain Dowie has instilled in the side. Stephen Hughes discarded his mask and played on risking severe injury to his broken cheekbone, and the visitors lost a player to injury.

It wasn't pretty, but we held on rather well to half time, turning in a solid defensive display. Late in the half, Marcus Hall played a one-two with Jay Tabb before firing a shot just wide, and then Hoefkins did little to endear himself to the home side by bringing down Leon Best.

Dimi Konstantopoulos had to make one good save at the end of the half, but you wouldn't have known we were down to ten men unless you'd been counting.

Unfortunately the second half was rather different in tone after a goalless first period, and unlike recent games where we've gone on to break the deadlock and win, we were utterly humiliated on this occasion.

Micky Doyle tried his aim from distance early on, and Dimi made a routine save from Ishmael Miller, and it looked as though the even nature of the game would continue.

But left-back Paul Robinson scored twice against us last season, and continued his statistically unlikely goalscoring exploits today, starting and finishing a move that saw him break through the defence and chip the stranded Konstantopoulos, as Stephen Hughes desperately tried to clear off the line, but just couldn't get there.

And just a minute later, a defensive mistake gifted the visitors a second goal. Arjan De Zeeuw and Ben Turner both left the ball in the six-yard box, and as Dimi tried to come and collect, midfielder Fillipe Teixeira blasted home from close range.

By now, the visitors were keeping all the possession, and their lead was extended from comfortable to emphatic when Teixeira netted his second, with a low shot from the edge of the area that wrong-footed the keeper.

Hoardes of home fans were leaving now, and although we briefly threatened a consolation through a De Zeeuw header, and a shot from sub Leon McKenzie on his return from injury, it would be 4-0 before the end of the game.

On a counter-attack, Teixeira broke free, and rather than going for his hattrick, he passed to Koren, who scored a simple tap-in.

If Mifsud had not been dismissed, it might all have been rather different, but our second-half defensive frailties at home were once again exploited here, when we possibly could at least have kept the defeat a narrow one.

It's just one result, but a bad one, and we've already been beaten by a three-goal margin four times this season. That is not something that should happen to professional sides with ambitions such as ours.

A second away win in three days came courtesy of a late goal against one of Iain Dowie's former clubs, but this was a strange, timid game - entirely different from what we were expecting given QPR's recent revival and the arrival of a new manager in Luigi Di Canio. But of course, we'll take the three points, and on the basis of being the slightly more attacking of two shot-shy sides, just about deserved them tonight!

Loftus Road on a cool night gives a game an old-fashioned vibe, but Lord only knows what would have happened to Rangers in the days without substitutions. In the first half they lost three players to injury, which might explain their timid approach for most of the game.

Leon Best had a cross-cum-shot tipped over for a corner, and Michael Mifsud shot wide, and that was about as close as we came during the first-half.

QPR had new loan signing from Chelsea Scott Sinclair among their number, but he struggled to really get into the game, and after jinxing through the City defence, his finish was poor and well wide.

At half-time, the game looked like it would finish 0-0, and this was our fourth game in a row to be goalless at the interval.

But none of those games had finished 0-0, and a goal after the restart from new Rangers signing Buzsaky ensured that this one wouldn't either - he hit a 30-yard piledriver that sailed in and gave Dimi Konstantopoulos little chance.

Given Rangers recent form and attempts to slow the game down, it then looked like it would finish 1-0. But on the hour mark, Mifsud continued his impressive form, squeezing in a low angled shot that the keeper got a hand to but could not keep out.

And then, being the strange, timid game that it was, it looked like it would finish 1-1.

There was very little action of note in the final half-hour, with both sides probably happy to accept a point. But the late appearance of Kevin Kyle - a man still with much to prove to his supporters - changeed all that.

Deep into stoppage time, Isaac Osbourne floated in his usual cross that he's become rather adept at lately, and the big man Kyle was there to nod in and steal all the points.

The win elevates us into the play-off positions, and once again we are putting a reasonable little run together with one of the best away records in the division. But how long can it continue?

Iain Dowie's Sky Blue Army bounced back from a defeat due to biased officiating in midweek to win somewhat fortuitously at Stoke in a game where we did, thankfully, pick up a few refereeing decisions.

After recent away defeats in the league, we proved that we are still capable of winning on the road, and as usual it was mostly thanks to Michael Mifsud who simply cannot stop scoring this season.

Stoke made a bright start, with Ricardo Fuller going close, and their big goalscoring defenders having chances in a goalmouth scramble, but Dimi Konstantopoulos wasn't unduly troubled in our goal on his recall to the side.

At the other end, Jay Tabb had one long-range effort go wide and another saved, but we were struggling to find our rhythm, and our attacking 4-3-3 formation with Robbie Simpson dropping back was disrupted when the Summer signing had to go off injured.

The home side then enjoyed a good spell - they had a shout for a penalty after a foul by Arjan De Zeeuw on the very edge of the area, and then Cresswell hit the post with a header.

It was somewhat tense as we went in goalless at half time - this fixture usually ends 1-0, 0-0- or 0-1, and there weren't too many signs that we would get anything from it on this occasion.

After the restart it was a different story.

Again we took a few minutes to get going, but once we did we were pretty much unstoppable. 13 minutes into the half, we took the lead when first-half sub Dele Adebola played in Mifsud to fire home from a difficult angle.

And at the other end, big defender Ryan Shawcross looked to have headed in an equaliser, but Dimi made a superb save on the goalline.

Then came the all-important second goal. After Stoke failed to clear a corner, Isaac Osbourne played in a deep cross, and Adebola was there unmarked to nod the ball in from close range. For a defensive ball-winning midfielder, it has to be said that Osbourne's delivery has improved vastly over the last few months, and once again it led to a decisive goal on this occasion.

Micky Doyle had a shot saved after good work from Leon Best but the home side were thrown a lifeline when Ben Turner brought down Ricardo Fuller inside the area. This time the ref gave it, but then he had let a few things go our way earlier in the game.

Dimi guessed correctly and almost got to the penalty, but it sneaked in to make it 2-1 with under 20 minutes remaining.

Our heads didn't drop, and we found ourselves in an attacking position with four players against three, and Doyle played in Mifsud who hit a curling shot from just outside the area to make it 3-1.

Stoke went to pieces after that - Miffy should have got his hat-trick after hitting a post, Doyle had a go from distance, and Leon Best ought to have got on the scoreshee too, but his header was saved.

In the final half-hour we had played like promotion contenders, and despite all our problems off the pitch, promotion contenders we may well be.