Isn't life so uncomplicatedly brilliant sometimes? It shouldn't really be that a grown man directing an inflated piece of leather into a rectangular target can prompt such wild displays of emotion from many hundreds of other grown men. Yet, emerging from Coventry's smart new Ricoh Arena, the unrestrained glee that had greeted Jon Welsh's second goal of the afternoon was still very much in evidence. A very good day for the Tigers.

The manager elected to make four changes to the team that slid to an untidy defeat at home to Luton seven days earlier - Lynch, Edge, Woodhouse and Fagan replacing the unfortunate Coles, Dawson, Green and Elliott. On a splendid autumn afternoon, the Tigers lined up: Myhill; Lynch, Cort, Delaney, Edge; France, Woodhouse, Welsh, Barmby; Brown, Fagan. A bold series of changes from Peter Taylor. Many had implored him to pick two proper forwards; he did. This meant Barmby dropping to the left-wing as St Stuart was relegated to the bench. The Stuart Green experiment was rightly ended as Woodhouse was restored to the midfield. Micky Adams had also made four changes to his side, seeking only Coventry's second win of the season.

Coventry started brightly and could have taken an early lead when Jorgensen fed Dele Adebola, but his flew wastefully wide. Shortly afterwards the City fans witnessed that rarest of events - a Boaz Myhill error. A Doyle shot appeared to pose little threat, but it slid through Myhill's hands and weakly struck the base of his left post. However, Coventry's initial burst was not to prove particularly durable and City began to emerge from their opening caution, and scored with our first meaningful raid.

Welsh took possession on the right in the Coventry area and sent the ball across goal. No-one seemed on hand to convert the cross when suddenly the ball nestled in the side of the net. Impossible to see what had happened from our distant vantage point, although it appeared the cross had taken a deflection. 1-0 City, joy intermingled with relief that a troublesome goal drought had finally come to an end.

The effect upon the players was immense. Coventry were forced onto the back foot for most of the remainder of the first half, and the lead was nearly doubled Brown just failed to finish a chance at the far post after excellent work by France. City's midfield was lively, nullifying the threat of Scowcroft and Jorgensen, and with the cumbersome Adebola being policed with lethal efficiency by the twin colossi Delaney and Cort, Coventry had no way of reversing the amber tide.

Brown in particular was a handful for the home defence, combining thrusting, pacy runs with intelligent distribution and marvellous retention of possession. He and Fagan had further opportunities to extend our advantage during a particularly one-sided passage of play. The only blot was a caution for Lynch, picked up for a mistimed challenge on McSheffrey. A minute later came arguably the pivotal moment of the match. Scowcroft finally found space on the right, advanced towards the bye-line and smartly dragged the ball back to the unmarked McSheffrey. He connected crisply and his low shot seemed destined to be the equaliser, until Myhill pulled off a simply jaw-dropping save, flinging himself across goal and deadening the ball's momentum before swivelling around to clasp it safely. Wonderful, wonderful stuff. Boaz for England.

It seemed to deflate Coventry even more than Welsh's goal. Myhill was again called into action before the break to deny McSheffrey with his legs, but City held out until half-time to lead 1-0.

Not since 1967 had City played Coventry in a League match. We then spent the intervening years in a lower division than our hosts, who became founder members of the Premier League, FA Cup winners and built the first all-seated stadium in the country at the old Highfield Road. Their new arena is a impressive edifice. With 32,000 seats it is larger than the Circle, although not as good to look at within and with no scoreboard it has an unfinished appearance. Nonetheless, the acoustics are superb, the view from the stands is excellent and the stadium is a fine addition to English football. And we were 45 minutes from becoming the first away team to win there.

Coventry were a more effective force in the second half, a combination of urgent attacking and the more circumspect approach adopted by City. However, they failed to create much of note, although Hughes set the tone for the second half by blazing well over - the home side's shooting was pretty wretched throughout.

Barmby entered the referee's notebook for a somewhat injudicious challenge and complained slightly too long for comfort, though thankfully without incurring a second caution. Coventry were now well on top, and the busy Lynch was forced to clear an Adebola header off the line. Home manager Micky Adams made a brace of changes on the hour, introducing Willo Flood and Andy Morrell for Doyle and Jorgensen. It almost paid immediate dividends when Flood's excellent cross found Adebola, but his header smacked into the post and bounced to safety. It got worse for the big forward as he wasted a good heading opportunity two minutes later, expertly picking out Myhill with a free header.

City were creaking a little now - the home fans were even singing as their side poured forward. Scowcroft spurned another good shooting chance, pulling his effort badly wide. Peter Taylor reacted by withdrawing the tiring Barmby for Elliott, whose bounding energy was to be put to defensive use. However, with the home side still on top, disaster struck when Lynch was given a second yellow card for a foul on McSheffrey on the edge of the area, and the outlook looked decidedly bleak.

Watson's free kick brought yet another fine save from Myhill as he pawed a well-struck shot to safety. Taylor withdrew the blameless Brown in favour of Marc Joseph as we looked to hold onto what we had. Yet on 74 minutes, we were to thrillingly make the game safe. Welsh picked up a loose ball in midfield, skipped towards goal, beat a few challenges and curled the ball into the corner of the goal from 20 yards. Just like that.

The ball appeared to be in flight for approximately one agonising hour, and seemed to be sailing wide when it suddenly it dropped happily into the side netting. Total Tiger pandemonium erupted as the players celebrated fervently in front of the 2,000 City fans, supporters and team realising that three very very good points had just been secured.

Coventry were visibly a defeated side, and many of their supporters in the 21,000 crowd immediately exited the stadium. They generously provided a few more moments of comedy, blazing some shots hopelessly high/wide/both. The City supporters enjoyed the remaining few minutes in a fever of jubilation, before the referee ended things after three minutes of injury time to give us our third win of the season.

Excellent stuff, this. The spine of the team was superb, from Myhill, the twin colossi of Delaney and Coles, the industrious and intelligent pairing of Welsh and Woodhouse and the lively threat of Brown and Fagan. Credit must go to the manager, who bravely opted to play two strikers and drop Stuart Green and then got both substitutions spot on.

This win, our second ten-man victory on the road this season, elevated us to a more than respectable 13th place and sets us up very nicely for a un-unpressurised trip to Norwich on Tuesday before the eminently winnable fixture at home to Millwall on Friday. Those three disappointing defeats will hopefully prove to be a blip - if we can recreate the sort of form shown at the Ricoh Arena, we have nothing at all to fear for the rest of the season. Well played City.  (AD)