Sky Blues review 05/06 - part three

Perhaps the turning point on the field came when City recovered from a goal down to beat Plymouth at home in early December with new signing Don Hutchison making an immediate impact with a lovely turn and finish for one of the goals.

City finally managed to string two wins together by beating Millwall a week later and then performed a smash-and-grab raid on Queens Park Rangers live on Sky with Gary McSheffrey winning and converting a late penalty for the first away win of the campaign.

Only one point was taken from the next three games but the Sky Blues were clearly growing in confidence and turned it on when it mattered, in front of the biggest crowd at the Ricoh to date (26,851) and in a local derby to boot as Wolves were beaten 2-0 in the first game of the New Year.

Stern John had returned from Derby with the boos of the Pride Park crowd ringing in his ears and an uncertain future to say the least back at City.

His cameo in defeat against Preston though earned him a start against Wolves and he, and City never looked back as Micky Adams found his ideal front four, with John and Adebola up front, McSheffrey and Scowcroft on the flanks.

City's home form kept them moving steadily up the Championship table as the New Year got underway, with surprise new signing Dennis Wise making an immediate impact with a goal and a booking in the 6-1 win over Derby County.

Off the field, Geoffrey Robinson, who had been acting chairman since Mike McGinnity stepped down for health reasons, appointed Paul Fletcher to the role of managing director as he began to implement a three-year plan designed at getting the club back into the Premiership.

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