Coventry City v Aston Vile Preview

Safe to say we're no fans of Vile here at LAST. The Vile manager has always been our arch nemesis, we sported an image of John Gregory with 666 on his forehead for many a year and Mr GregoryHead where you could put Mr PotatoHead features on him. 25 years has done nothing to quell the dislike of our neighbours in claret and blue.

Pressers

To follow.

Head to Head

Normally I make a whole page dedicated to past meetings but I'm going to keep this to Cup meetings and save the rest for the PL games.

City have played Vile 5 times in Cups, 4 times in the FA Cup and once in the Full Members Cup (remember that?). The first time was in 1946 when the 3rd round of the FA Cup was 2 legs. City won the first home leg 2-1 and then lost the away leg 2-0 and we were eliminated on aggregate. Nearly 20 years later in 1965 City were drawn away to Vile in the 3rd round again and were knocked out 3-0.

City were again drawn away in the second round of the somewhat pointless Full Members Cup and once again were knocked out, this time 2-0.

This dismal run of form against Vile and especially at Vile Park was still continuing when City were drawn away again in the 5th round of the FA Cup in 1998. By this point City had played 26 times at Vile Park over 62 years and never won, in fact they lost 22 times. It was dismal and weighed heavily every time we played there. Then this happened.

Due to injuries, Dion Dublin was employed as a centre half, something he was very good at. City knocked on the door all game and then in the 72nd minute Gavin Strachan played a ball over to the right. George Boateng skipped round 3 Vile players, including Gareth Southgate and his shot was parried by Bosnich into the path of Viorel Moldovan. He wrote himself into Sky Blue folklore by slotting home to the delirium of the Sky Blue Army. I was on the front row and I don't think I have ever celebrated a goal like that before or since, not even at Wembley in 87. It was absolute pandemonium in the away end.

Of course that Cup run was ended at Sheffield United on penalties in the quarter final replay in one of the worst nights of my Sky Blue life. Funny old game!

City Team News

SFL is bound to make a raft of changes, there are bigger fish to fry than the League Cup, even if it is is Vile.

This is pure guesswork and going by the players who need game time we could line up something like this. That's 11 full changes from the team that played on Sunday but frankly these players need a chance to prove to SFL they are worthy of a starting place in the PL. Tats is missing from the line up and its possible he will start on the right.

What do you think? Head to the LAST Line Up Builder and make your own, you can post straight to the match comments or social media.

Vile Team News

Unai Dick Emery Board will also make a raft of changes, replacing his usual rubbish players for some even more rubbish ones.

Player Links

City and Vile have shared some tremendous players over the years. KKH and Ian Maatsen are the only ones currently at either club who have represented both.

Players who saw the light and moved to City from Vile include Callum O'Hare, Joe Cole, Julian Joachim, Nii Lamptey, Steve Staunton, Kevin Richardson and Bobby McDonald.

Mustapha Hadji, George Boateng and Dion Dublin all went to Vile, they all hurt! They followed in the footsteps of City legends Cyrille Regis, George Curtis and Dennis Mortimer.

Other well known names to play for both but not move directly include Les Sealey, Steve Froggatt, Garry Thompson, Robbie Keane, Steve Warnock and Tony Hateley.

LAST Prediction

City will find a working formation, players that gel and rip Vile to absolute shreds. End of.

LAST Prediction : 8-0
Huwligan* Prediction: 2:1
ChatGTP Prediction : 1-2 (more proof AI is stupid)

* "Huwligan" is Huw, 7 1/2 year old son of Greg "Sweet of the Match" from LAST 1.0. More to come from him, believe me!