Has been confirmed on the official website.

Best completes Magpies move

I doubt we'll get to hear the details of what we've received for him. You have to remember we paid a decent sum to bring him to club, and he's become a full Republic of Ireland international in that time.

A tribunal would have seen us get far more than the £500k that it's rumoured we received for him. I'm sure of that.

We've lost him on deadline day, with no sign of a replacement coming in and seemingly minimal compensation.

And on a separate note, his farewell to the club turned out to be a crescendo of undeserved boos, even given how vital he's been for us this year.

I reckon we're going to miss him.

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After a well-earned point at Pompey, I'm confident that if we're able to put a strong team out, we're more than capable of doing them.

I'm envisaging a night like the Blackburn match last year (minus the crowd and the queues) where we really take the game to them.

Typically, I shan't get carried away by a win - I best say that now, I'm not overly concerned about a cup run this year. Yes, it's great for exposure and money-wise, but all I'm bothered about is achieving some sort of consistency in the league. Last year it turned out to be our downfall because we put too much focus on the big cup game.

That said, it was also the catalyst and really got us playing (for a month, at least) so if we win it best bloody have the same effect again. I'd be delighted.

Best and Westwood playing..

was good by the way.

They're our players. All realism aside, It'd be nice to think that was a statement of intent from Coleman. For once, I'd like to see signs of him telling any prospective buyers to sod off if they think we're going to do them any favours. They'll probably get them dirt cheap anyway.

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It's official (it's not), we are the most inconsistent team in the history of kicktheball. I'd argue this also makes us the most impossible-to-support team as well, although I best note, this is purely an observation - I'm not moaning about winning, or naffink.

Driving up to the Ricoh, I realised that I literally had no idea how things were going to go during the match. We have so many frames of reference this season already, it really does make predicting a result (or anticipating a performance) more difficult than, well, anything.

This is not including, I might add, Michel Salgado's unenviable task of trying to understand a single bleeding word Gordon Strachan said in the Sky Sports studio the other night. (Sky Sports Champions League coverage, if you missed it.) But that's just a side point.

So, to the match. Once again Coleman's selection surprised me initially. Given how shocking most of the players finished the match on Saturday, he defied all logic and stuck with them again. This is why he is the manager, he is paid to make these decisions, and get them right. And by all accounts he got it right on Wednesday. Right much.

Nobody's saying it was a fantastic performance. We haven't really seen a fantastic performance since one of the Blackburn games last season. But what Coleman did was deliver a solid execution of "horses for courses" management. He identified the threat of Sheffield Utd's strength, and instead of playing into their hands by trying to avoid it, he met it head on with a lot of success.

Changing the formation to a 4-5-1 not only allowed us to compete in the middle of the park (which has been our downfall for many a year), it also allowed McIndoe to stay wide for once, and Leon Best to battle it out with Chris Morgan.

Unbelievably, all three elements paid off. I don't think the changes alone were the key to the success however. As obvious as it sounds, the players were actually up for the game on Wednesday and it made a real difference. They put in genuine effort. It wasn't quite that blood, sweat and tears kind we hear so much about, but it wasn't far off.

The 3 midfielders worked tirelessly. Not always producing moments of quality, but every time they did fanny it up, they worked hard and won the ball back. Clingan again had a mixed game in terms of his passing, but his positional sense was right on the money. He was where we wanted him to be, pretty much every time we needed him.

Ozzy was very similar, some of his passing was atrocious, and his attacking mentality currently stands at about 2% (and that's usually when he stumbles that way). But he ran and ran.

And let's face it, the man's a beast. So if he puts himself about, it's going to be beneficial.

Jack Cork gave another enigmatic display too. I still don't know what to make of him. He is a very leggy player, and won so many balls purely on the being-a-git factor alone. But he had the scared look about him a lot of the time too. Once he got a feel of the ball however, he grew into the game. He reminds me in many ways of Henderson - he gives us those legs to go from box-to-box in no time at all.

McIndoe was quiet again, sure. But the 5 in midfield gave us some shape, and allowed us to cause them problems when we did break. His assist for Morrison was lucky, but it showed the importance of making sure you actually get the ball into the area. Too often we see crosses ballooned over the bar or hit too strong. He got the ball in, and we got a goal from it.

The resounding success of the night was playing Leon Best up front by himself though. I don't think this is something we can do every game, (my reference to horses for courses earlier) but he gave Morgan a torrid time.

The important thing was that he didn't make it easy for him. You see it all too often with Chris Morgan, players backing out of tackles, not prepared to get physical. Those are his strengths admittedly, but Leon Best is a strong chap too, and he forced him into mistakes and made him work for everything. It reminded me of the Chelsea game last year actually, with Best giving John Terry what-for quite a few times. He's starting to believe in himself now, and if he puts in the same level of effort consistently, he's going to be a vital player for us.

His goal was a lot niftier than it was made out to be too. I'd advise you to have a look.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_div_1/8259238.stm

All in all, everything went to plan, and 4 points from the last 2 home games is something I would have taken a week ago. But what confuses me more than anything is how Sheffield Utd are described as high-flying by everyone, while we have been flaming awful for half the games so far...

and yet we're now only 1 point behind them.

The Championship is a very strange league.

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Wonderful. Life is wonderful again.

I wasn't planning on the "alphabetical order" card being redundant quite so early (as a matter of fact, I was already working out ways we could use it later on in the season), but following the win at Barnsley, we're already the only team in the league with a 100% record. In other words; we're all top on merit, and that.

That's nice. Doesn't matter that it's only the 2nd game either - top is top.

Mind you, I tell you what else is quite nice; Leon Best masquerading as John Arne Riise.

Seriously, where did it come from? All the talk has been about Clingan being the set-piece expert, and how Michael McIndoe fancies himself a little bit. But I never thought Leon had the shooting technique for anything like that. Coleman says he practices them in training, and it showed.

In the words of that Villa prat Andy Gray, "Take a bow, son... Take a bow".

We never really looked in any trouble during the game. Our shape held strong throughout, and moving Ozzy into the midfield was just what we needed to ensure that solidity. It also gave Osmund the Defensive the opportunity to score his first goal in about 9000 appearances. There he was, inside the area, clear route to goal, no challenge in sight, the headlines ready to write themselves..

Yes. He missed by a very big margin. Chin up Oz - you just weren't born to be a goalscorer. You were however, born to supply sumptuous crosses for Clint. More on that after I've yapped on about the defence for a paragraph.

Cranie had a useful debut at centre-back, although I'm sure I wasn't the only one to have worrying McNamee-esque flashbacks when he had to go off. Turns out it was just a bit of cramp, so that's understandable. I'm still not entirely convinced with the back line though, but when everyone is fit, you'd like to think we'd have enough choice there to create a decent unit.

And finally, to the man with the most expressive face in football. The man who makes Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink look like the Mona Lisa. I congratulate you on your goal, Mr Clinton Ventura.

We all know he doesn't lack confidence. And last season we waited patiently for him to back up the talk and hissy fits with a consistent run of goals. That didn't really happen, but after the start this season there are signs that he might just be starting to get the service he needs to score the goals he talks about so often.

The one yesterday was a lot harder than it looked. Deep cross by Osbourne and a neat finish at the back post from a tight angle. One that Fred would have probably struggled with. So kudos to you Clinton.

So all in all, I'd go as far to conclude that it was a positive day in Coventry City's attempt not to be crap for another season. We should be confident going into the Doncaster match given the positive signs so far. The big question is whether we can continue to show the new professional attitude that has been there as well in these early games.

My only gripe would be the BBC's Football League show giving us about a 40 second mention, with Ipswich and Newcastle gaining all the chat-time again. Oh and Steve Claridge's "haircut", clichés, lack of knowledge of any club other than Leicester etc.

Basically, Steve Claridge being a pundit on the show in general.

"They show a real unity".

You read that in the paper you sausage.

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