COVENTRY CITY - SATURDAY 04/02/2006

REPORT | VIDEOS
Coventry are a side that should be on the up. A nice new stadium in the Ricoh Arena, and a decent manager in Brighton legend Micky Adams all looks good. Until recently they had been stuck down the bottom, but with a superb run after Christmas have pulled well clear. A tough first visit for the Albion to the Ricoh, as Neil Kane, Scott McCarthy, Tom Witham and Gemma Bantock made the trip

Neil enjoys another session of M25 sweepstake in the Witham Mobile McCarthy enjoys it more though, as he takes the victory and the £3 pot
This fellow motorist looked like Bin-Laden, but fortunately it was only a builder After a service station stop, Neil reads through the Sun

While McCarthy is angered, as Oxford Services did not sell blue Powerade, so he had to settle for Lucozade We arrive in Coventry, and Neil thought this diner in Burger King looked like David Brent

We struggled to work out whether this worker was a male or female Disaster. We stop at BP, and originally thinking the car has stalled, Witham discovers these gashes in the tyre. We are losing air!

Witham and Kane inspect the car manual in an attempt to find out what pressure the tyres need to be at in order to fill them up Neil soon gets to work, filling up all the tyres. Unfortunately though, the one with the slash keeps deflating, indicating it could be punctured

We drive on, and the extra-long stop allowed McCarthy and Kane to purchase some drink, which Neil promptly spills everywhere We see a garage and pull into it. This man checks the car, and informs us we should be ok to get to the ground, but that going home at motorway speed could result in a blow out

We head for the stadium, Neil enjoys a drink As does McCarthy

This sign directed us to the stadium The stadium appears
Kane is delighted that, despite our wheel trouble, we have reached the stadium Inside the brand new Ricoh Arena
It is rather nice Although rather empty
Kane enjoys this fine footballing stadium Tom Witham looks happy, despite his car trouble

While McCarthy looks forward to the game in prospect The  Coventry mascot was an elephant, and did some incredible acrobatics, including the forward flip, captured here in mid air
The two teams enter the stadium Coventry appeared to have enough mascots for every player in their team
The Brighton team complete their pre-match huddle The Albion on the attack
In American-style commercialisation, the goal kicks were sponsored Dennis Wise scores with a header to make it 1-0 Coventry
Seeing patio doors is something of a novelty within a football stadium The Coventry keeper takes a goal kick

The fan in front was thirsty and enjoys some water Brighton kick-off, having gone 2-0 behind to another Dennis Wise goal
We get bored and so look around the Brighton stand, finding Rumble looking incredibly camp with his gay scarf The game peters out into another Brighton defeat
Game over, as Coventry win 2-0 The players clap the fans
Another disappointing day for the Brighton faithful Back to the problem of the tyre, and McCarthy attempts to blow it up, while Witham calls the AA
The AA man confirms that if we drive at speed, the tyre will blow, so we follow him to a garage in nearby Leamington Spa to get a new one fitted Witham and Gemma relax in the garage as the mechanics do their stuff
Kane fiddles with the TV set While McCarthy is happy with this childs play thing
These certificates told us we were at a reputable garage The Witham Mobile has no tyre
These fine locals fit the tyre that will allow us to return safely to Sussex