A Review of the 2008-9 Season by Eddie Blount
The pain of relegation from the Championship totally affected how I would judge City's first-ever season out of the League's top two divisions. Apart from Leeds there was no other club with anything like our facilities, history and support. Clearly it took mismanagement of the highest order to condemn us to a season of games against clubs our reserve team should be competitive against and how could a team with such a good defensive record finish up in League One?
Given all this the club's self-respect could only be restored by one thing – winning the league as champions preferably with points to spare. I admit that finishing second to Leeds, an unpalatable thought, would have been acceptable given the similarity of their situation and ours.
I had no time for the argument that promotion was all that mattered even if achieved via the playoffs! This was about restoring pride and finishing behind clubs like Peterborough and MK Dons would not have done that. We needed to be top. I believe Nigel Pearson understood this and commendably never got carried away with our league position until the title was ours. Imagine the prattle we would have had to endure from some of our recent managers if they had still been at the helm!
So mission accomplished with the title and a string of records relating to games played without defeat, points won, total wins and wins away from home. To have lost only a handful of league games all season was excellent. I could even watch Sky Sports News towards the end of the season without flinching if the presenter announced that 'We are now going over for a report on the Leicester game.' ….
First an accolade for Nigel Pearson, a reporter's nightmare as he stonewalled every attempt to get him to say something over the top. We have had enough of managers who can talk and to have one who preferred to think was a real pleasure. I don't think he ever got the balance of the team quite right and home performances were frankly often no better than average but he drilled the defence well, made some shrewd signings and produced consistent results. He will surely be the League One Manager of the Year and we may struggle to keep him if other clubs suddenly find themselves without a manager.
An analysis of the playing strength must begin with the myriad keepers we employed as one by one they keeled over. Not much to choose between them with Henderson as good as any. How ironic that he gets injured just when a long run in the team beckons. Will we go for Martin who did well before an innocuous knock finished him off for the season?
The back four, whoever they were, were the bedrock of City's success. Hobbs is a very good signing and will do equally well in the Championship. I like Morrison's spirit but he is not yet good enough in the air to deal with the better class of striker he will meet next year. I was pleased when Pearson tried him at right back as this could well be his long term position.
Gilbert was quick but erratic as if his boots were on the wrong feet! His attempts at passing whilst running gave feminists genuine proof that men cannot multi-task! His far post defending also gave cause for concern but I wouldn't be unhappy if he returns.
Mattock I felt started very well looking a class act on the ball but stagnated as the season wore on, probably due to fatigue. He has something and international recognition endorses that view.
Tunchev showed how little a good player needs to run about with exceptional reading of the game. Once he had come to terms with big strikers pushing and shoving for 90 minutes he was a real asset. Poor old Kisnorbo came back too soon after a long lay-off and rightly Pearson put him on the bench. He is too similar to Tunchev to play alongside him I believe. Brown isn't and will give Hobbs a run for his money if he is still on our books.
I now come to midfield where we are in serious need of improvement. The few games that Davies played showed how good we could be with a decent engine-room. King did very well for a youngster but his lack of pace over short distances meant we were often unable to control midfield. We need a Davies-type player to support him. Adjarevic looked promising but he is only 18 despite his physique.
Oakley is something of an enigma. He shies away from tackles and is no quicker than King but he has a good first touch and sublime vision at times. He does not fit the job description of a wide right player but you get more space there – and time – and we played at our best when he occupied that position and put in some telling passes.
Dyer started and finished well but took a long breather in the middle. Pearson must get an experienced mid-fielder like Kavangh (now playing for Carlisle!) or Robinson (Leeds' reserves!). I am not suggesting these particular players but ones like them who run midfield as if it's their patch. This is the number 1 priority in my view.
Up front we will have to give thanks to Howard and Fryatt – and probably in that order! Fryatt did not look the same player without Howard to absorb the physical hammering that strikers face but his finishing when on song was brilliant.
On past evidence these two will struggle to score enough goals at Championship level but this may well have been partly due to the lack of support from midfield. Alter that and we will score more goals. We have the cannons but are short of cannon-balls! All forward-thinking clubs need at least 4 decent strikers. We got through this year on 2! Thus my second priority is another big striker – and his smaller brother!
If we can only have 3 players these two plus a quality midfielder would be my choice. We got out of a poor league (in terms of attacking ability) and will need to strengthen to compete at a higher level. The dross of the cup match against Crystal Palace awaits if we fail to do this. This game would have finished 0-0 after penalties and I don't fancy seeing matches like this every other week. I have faith in Pearson to know where the team's weaknesses lie and to try to remedy them. Up the City!!