FOOTBALL: Fans pile pressure on Sky Blues boss.
Byline: PETER MAGILLSKY Blues fans were today planning to turn up the heat on under- pressure Coventry City chairman Bryan Richardson.
As the players prepared for their first game without Gordon Strachan in charge, supporters were stepping up their calls for the chairman to follow him out the door. Fans are planning another protest as City play Peterborough away in the Worthington Cup tonight.
Many fans believe Richardson is as much to blame as Strachan for the club's rapid decline. An internet poll shows 62 per cent of supporters want the chairman out. Evening Telegraph readers were giving their say in a telephone vote.
Hundreds of Highfield Road regulars, part of the newly-formed Save Our City fans' pressure group, pledged today they would continue their protests against Richardson, and club president MP Geoffrey Robinson.
Fanzines and unofficial club websites have united behind Save Our City.
Joe Rukin, aged 27, of Britannia Street, Hillfields, Coventry, one of the campaign's organisers, said that 12,000 posters had been printed to back up their efforts.
He said: "Despite the welcome removal of one of most inept managers in the club's history, we will not be content until the true architects of Coventry City's ruin are removed.
"If you have cancer there's no point in only removing part of it. The chants will now be against Richardson and Robinson, instead on Strachan, but we intend to keep the pressure on."
Other fanzines and websites including City Till I Die, Twist and Shout and Let's All Sing Together are all understood to be involved with Save Our City.
Campaigners are not only disheartened about developments on the pitch, including relegation and the sale of top players, they are worried about the future of the club's much-delayed move to a new super stadium at Foleshill.
An effort by city shareholder Ted Stocker to force an extraordinary general meeting, which could oust the board, has the fans' backing.
More than 300 fans are estimated to have remained on the terraces after the home defeat at Grimsby, demanding the sacking of the manager and the board.
Richardson brushed off Saturday's protests.
"There was nothing that every chairman of every club gets at some stage or another," he said.
Plans are being made to continue the terrace rebellion when Coventry City visit Sheffield United on Saturday.
The Evening Telegraph's affiliated icCoventry website received about 34,000 page impressions from people commenting on the Sky Blues news. In a poll asking if Richardson should also quit, 62 per cent of people said yes, and 38 per cent said no.
CAPTION(S):
STRONG FEELINGS: A young fan with a Richardson Out placard on his shirt (left), and fans make their protests known from the Highfield Road pitch and the stands (above and right). Pictures: RICHARD NELMES
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| Title Annotation: | Sport |
|---|---|
| Publication: | Coventry Evening Telegraph (England) |
| Date: | Sep 11, 2001 |
| Words: | 466 |
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