From bad to worse
The promise of reinforcements finally came true when Kyel Reid dropped in on a free from Preston before Jordan Turnbull signed from Southampton and Dan Agyei and Lewis Page arrived on loan from Burnley and West Ham..
Agyei and Turnbull both scored on their debuts in a thrilling encounter at Valley Parade where the Sky Blues looked set for their first win until they pressed the self destruct button, gifting the Bantams a penalty and being reduced to ten men when Turnbull was sent off. CITY limped through to the last 16 of the Checkatrade Trophy with a morale-boosting 1-0 Ricoh win over Crawley Town but quickly reverted to type with a dreadful 3-1 defeat at Southend United, after which Venus launched into an emotional rant, declaring that City will have a new manager as soon as possible. Former Burton Albion and QPR boss Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink was targeted by the club but turned them down.
A valiant effort against Sheffield United saw City lose out 2-1 at home ahead of a blank festive week in which new boss Russell Slade was installed. The former Charlton, Cardiff and Leyton Orient manager only had a couple of days to work with his squad before getting off to a losing start with a 4-1 Boxing Day defeat at Bristol Rovers. NUNEATON Town boss Tommy Wright is refusing to settle for just one win against local rivals Tamworth over the festive period.
Boro soundly beat the Lambs 2-1 on Boxing Day and are set to face-off against them once again on New Years Day. And Wright is adamant that he wants to make it a derby double by winning the match-up at the Coombe Abbey Arena this weekend.
“We did brilliantly well on Boxing Day and went to what is a tough place to go and we came back with all three points,” he said. “That is not enough for me, though, I will not accept that and just say well done now we can relax.
“I want all three again now on New Years Day. That is the aim and that is what I will be demanding from the players.
“Yes it will be tough – Tamworth are a good team – but we are on a great run now and are showing how good we are by going out there and getting results against teams who are up there near the top of the table like Tamworth are.”
To get the win Nuneaton will need a healthy home following on Sunday as Tamworth will be sure to bring some support of their own down the A5.
For Wright it is a case of making the Coombe Abbey Arena as tough as place to come as possible.
“Tamworth had that on Boxing Day,” he said; “their fans came out and made it very tough for us.
“I’ve played there before as a player, I know what the ‘Shed’ can be like.We need to make it like that for them now.
“We need the fans to come out in numbers and really get behind the lads in what promises to be another close and hard fought game
“We had a job to do and we went to Tamworth and did it.
“We were very professional. We did what we needed to do and we got the win. “I thought the boys were showing that they have learned the lessons from previous games this season.
“They did all the right things at the right times and they deserved the win because of it. It was a big one for us.”