Coventry Rugby 38 Nottingham 24 - the day we said hello and waved goodbye

Oooh, oh, oh

Sometimes love just ain't enough

Oooh

There's a danger

In loving somebody too much

And it's sad when you know

It's your heart you can't trust

There's a reason why people

Don't stay where they are

Baby sometimes love just ain't enough

Baby sometimes love, just ain't enough

Oooh, oh, mmmmm, mmmm

Sometimes Love Just Ain't Enough - Patty Smyth ft. Don Henley

It was the day we said hello and waved goodbye.

Sadly, though, I've already used Marc Almond, so Patty Smyth will have to suffice.

Sometimes love just ain't enough to keep a player at the BPA. Sometimes you just have to say goodbye and accept it's for the best, hard as that might be.

3721 attended yesterday's penultimate Championship game of the 2022/23 season, the last to be played at home. They came in such numbers to show their appreciation of the barnstorming season this Coventry squad has enjoyed, winning as of now 16 of the 21 games played, amassing an impressive 83 points in the process and earning themselves a third place finish in a season where most supporters would have been delighted to end up somewhere mid-table.

Rumour has it that many Coventry-based medical practitioners are having to deal with an unprecedented outbreak of epistaxes and as yet they have no apparent explanation.

They could do worse than look at what's happening over at the BPA for a possible cause.

3rd place. And by a distance, too.

Heady heights, indeed.

Yesterday's gate, large as it was, wasn't quite the record attendance for the Butts Park Arena, that being the 3758 who watched Coventry beat Hull Ionians to end their 2017/18 campaign and earn promotion into the second tier of English rugby - at the time a record attendance for National One (and presumably still is).

It was an odd sort of day really.

Despite the numbers, and Alex Rae's comment in today's The Rugby Paper, that '...the crowd has been brilliant today and the numbers have been building all the time', given there were so many inside the ground, there wasn't really a great deal of noise and at times the chap on the PA had to work quite hard, especially in the second half, to ramp up the volume to reflect the significance of the occasion.

Ok, AR was spot on if he meant 'brilliant' in terms of the sheer numbers but I do think the atmosphere was affected a little by the knowledge that this was the last time we would see the current squad all together, so for some the occasion was tinged with a slight air of sadness, too.

With many of the players leaving so integral to the team's success this season, from the moment the club announced that there would be an opportunity for supporters to say their goodbyes immediately post-match, well the final home game was always going to have a different feel to it.

I do think the whole 'goodbye' thing was handled exceptionally well by the club. Too often these sorts of occasions are done some time after the game has ended and often in the clubhouse, immediately excluding the vast majority of fans who tend to leave the ground pretty much on the final whistle.

But by encouraging supporters to go on to the pitch and watch the presentations, it had far more of a 'family' feel to it. Players clearly enjoyed mixing with them too, never refusing a photo request or a shake of the hand and looking genuinely grateful for the love that was been shown to everyone involved with the club.

The whole thing lasted just a few minutes but they were minutes filled with happy faces, warm words and genuine sadness that we wouldn't be seeing these players in a Cov shirt again.

And the players were moved, too.

I'm not sure what Roger said to Adam Peters when he presented him with his shirt, but the player was in bits as he walked back to his team mates who were looking on.

It's occasions like these that form the glue that bonds supporters to the club; for young and old, yesterday will stay in the memory for a long, long time. I genuinely believe there'll be those who were present yesterday, occasional supporters who might watch Cov a couple of times a season, who will be thinking seriously about getting more involved from September onwards.

Yesterday was a fantastic advert for the club and worth far more than any press/media campaign. Well done to all involved.

Pat Pellegrini helping out before in the activities before yesterday's main event

The BPA was already a hive of activity when we arrived at the ground, with various Scouts' community activities taking place on the pitch. It looked as if groups were moving from one activity to the next, each one having a couple of Cov players who weren't involved in the Nottingham game helping out. Pat Pelligrini, Jordan Poole, Ollie Stone amongst others were all there and seemingly enjoying getting stuck in.

There's something rather indomitable and irrepressible about Pat Pellegrini. Take yesterday, for instance. The bloke is recovering from a broken thumb, I believe, but there he was out with the kids pre kick-off, on the touchline during the game getting involved and out with the replacements at half time. The guy just seems to love life. His enthusiasm is infectious; he's such a good role model for any youngster involved with Cov at the moment.

As for the game itself, it wasn't the greatest of spectacles. It was another very competent performance from a Cov side that we've come to expect nothing less from this season. However, at no point did we really dominate Nottingham as we have some teams over the last few weeks and months, but we did enough to ensure that once we got our noses in front, Nottingham were always chasing the game and in doing so we had them on the back foot for much of the time.

Yesterday evening, I happened to read a Jurgen Klopp interview after Liverpool's win against, coincidentally, Nottingham Forrest. In it, he stressed that, 'If you are solid, aggressive and positive in your defending, you can build on that'. Different sport, granted, but the principle is exactly the same.

Much has rightly been made of Coventry's attacking game and the ability of the team to strike form almost anywhere on the pitch these days. However, a lot of Coventry's strength comes from the team's propensity to grind the opposition down, even without the ball.

Cov defends really well these days, always up very quickly (but legally), ensuring that first tackles are successful so that the gain line isn't broken as often as it used to be. Within the first minute Will Wand had put in a thunderous tackle in midfield that shook the main stand and this set the tone for much of the game. Often this season, teams have had several phases of ball but haven't been able to do anything with it, causing them to eventually kick the ball away or make the mistake which leads to Coventry gaining possession. Attack might be the best form of defence but it's the defence this season that has so often given Cov the attacking options.

It's been a very underrated part of Cov's armoury this year, for me anyway.

Action from yesterday's game against Nottingham (photo courtesy of John Coles)

Arguably, Nottingham possessed two of the most dangerous runners on the pitch in Harry Graham and Jordan Olowofela (his twin brother, Ryan, played a couple of games for us whilst on loan from Leicester, I think?). Olowofela, in particular, can cause sides real problems but Cov played him out of the game. He was given no space to work with and as a result he did little to catch the eye. The more the game progressed, the more Graham was involved but this was, in part, due a number of injuries that forced a reshuffle and the game opening up as a result.

The Cov scrum again wobbled early doors, with the first two set pieces ending in penalties, the second of which resulted in a lineout close to our line from which they scored after just 5 minutes. However, the forwards did manage to stem the flow and once Cov had taken the lead after 13 minutes, they were always in front.

If the TRP is correct, Cov conceded just 6 penalties in the entire 80 minutes which must be one of the lowest counts this season. That sort of discipline is exactly what Cov needs to show consistently if it is to make the step up and be a realistic contender for the top spot alongside the likes of Jersey (and well done to them!) and Ealing.

There's still nothing coming out of the BPA regarding players coming in next season, other than hearing again confirmation that those signed are at least as good as, if not better than, those leaving - although from past experiences, reputations don't always count for a great deal.

Two different Men of the Match (?) yesterday - over the tannoy it was Will Chudley and in TRP it was James Martin. Both good shouts. Martin is in a rich vein of form at the moment and from a few yards out he is near unstoppable. He's always been dangerous with ball in hand but it's his defence that has improved the most for me and if fit he's made the 11 shirt his own this season.

And if Will Chudley isn't in the Championship Dream Team in The Rugby Paper, then I'll be very surprised indeed. I watched him closely yesterday and what impressed me most is how he reads the game - his awareness of the players around him and where the gaps to attack are is on a different level and whilst Kessel impressed for a while when he came from Saints a few seasons back, Chudley is altogether a classier player. He seems to make things happen and his arrival at Cov has enabled the likes of Mitchell, Mannion and Ogden to really prosper. The speed of his pass alone gives the no 10 just that little bit longer with the ball.

And talking of Theodore Mannion, the Senior Academy fly half made his first start yesterday and must have pleased the coaches with a competent display at 10.

It wasn't the easiest of contests for him to make his entrance given it wasn't the fluid, open game that we've come to expect at the BPA this season, but he did little wrong and the experience of playing in front of a large crowd, and the confidence gained from being on the winning side, will have done him no end of good.

I think he's currently out on loan at Berkswell and Balsall RFC, coached by Louis Brown and former Cov player Gerard Ellis - so having Brown alongside him will have eased his nerves a little I'm sure.

Being able to give talented youngsters like Mannion game time in a winning side must only be a positive and, hopefully, it won't be too long before we see the next crop of the senior academy players making appearances for the first team. I know I've said it before, but the Academy is already playing an important part in recruiting players for the senior squad and it will become even more influential if the club continues to invest in it as it has with the appointment of Gordon Ross as Head of Academy Pathway and Talent Development.

25 caps for Scotland on your CV must certainly have been a good starting point for the interview, that's for sure.

This season seems to have flown by and it's strange to think in less than a week's time it will be all over. Just the small matter of the trip down to Bedford remains.

I see they had a narrow win against Ampthill yesterday, after having conceded a few points early on. Here's hoping they show the same levels of generosity next Saturday. If they do, Coventry will be far more ruthless. Never the easiest of teams to beat away from home but with Coventry on a run of six straight wins, you'd have to fancy us for the win, surely?

Might even treat myself to an end of season burger.

Although I did enjoy a sneaky Koffman's yesterday. The Bedford equivalent will have to go some way to beat that one, whatever the result.

Koffmans - a great addition to the matchday entertainment.

Hope they've been re-signed next season, too.

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Sometimes love for a club just isn't enough to keep a player there and it's right and proper that Cov encourages players to move on should they wish to pursue their careers elsewhere.

But it was clear yesterday that the players who are leaving do so with heavy hearts. They have all bought into what Alex Rae and his coaching team (and RW before them in some cases) are trying to do here and they have all won over the crowds with their efforts.

To a man, they will all be missed.