Despite the dropped points on Tuesday, there’s a real sense of momentum gathering as we head into the business end of the season. Unbeaten this year in the league, it was important we got 3 points today to keep us in the hunt. And despite being a scrappy performance it’s a good win.
The day didn’t start so well with news that Evans and Connolly would be missing with injuries, along with Miller who was injured in the Palace game. Possibly our 3 most influential players recently. This gave Stern John a starting place alongside Daryl Murphy up front with Stokes dropping to the bench. I think Keane is easing him in and treating him like he is, an 18 year old. Leadbitter and Varga were the other starters.
It was a fairly slow start from both teams. Coventry, unlike Palace came for a game and played 2 up front. However when Kevin Kyle is one of those strikers I was never overly worried we’d concede. As much as I admired Kyle for his attitude and effort, he’s just not a good footballer. My confidence in our defence however was tested to the limit as within 10 minutes Darren Ward had to make two point-blank saves. The best was just a ball over the defence into the strikers path in the 6 yard box and Ward did well to cover it. The defence looked shaky and Varga particularly seemed the main culprit. He’s slow, gets caught out easily and puts everyone else under pressure. Collins would be a far better bet without Evans but he’s needed at left back.
Despite Coventry always looking fairly dangerous on the break we got into it more, Murphy had a shot saved that was straight at the keeper and then we got a free-kick near the touchline. It was swung in, headed back by Varga and up popped Dwight Yorke to head in for the lead. It seemed that a set-piece was going to be the only way we’d score as the Coventry defence were largely in control at that end of the pitch.
So, we got the early-ish goal that we needed, how would that change the game? Well not a lot, Coventry still kept coming at us, nearly getting through a couple of times but they never left much space at the back for us to get beyond. Wallace was ineffectual on the left and the ball to our front 2, much of it played long, came back too easily. Our cause was helped a little when Thornton went off injured just after the half hour as he was causing problems.
Second half saw much of the same. Ward made another good save, and the times we did get in their box we looked threatening, Yorke blasted over from 6 yards and a couple of corners saw Varga threaten. However it wasn’t until Keane made his changes that the game changed for the better. Stokes and Hysen came on and instantly gave us more of a threat. Danny Simpson came on for Leadbitter which gave Whitehead the chance to move into midfield, where we were getting a little over-run. Whitehead had a good game in defence and has done consistently now for a while but his move into midfield brought about a new dimension. He and Yorke controlled it from then on which lead to several Sunderland attacks, one of which gave us the 2nd goal. Edwards received the ball outside the box on the right, cut in and lashed a shot into the net. Two-nil and the game was over.
As Coventry piled more men forward a couple more goals could have been scored on the break and Edwards was denied a clear penalty (again) when brought down by the keeper.
Overall a good win from a scrappy game but a decent enough performance. The pitch is pretty poor at the minute, but I don’t like that as an excuse. Nosworthy again was excellent and is fast becoming a big player for us. Yorke played very well and is putting some consistent performances in and Wards saves early on kept us in the game. Stern John had a decent enough debut and a late header nearly sneaked in to give him a goal.
So, we plough on onto 50 points, gaining ground on more above us. The next 2 games are crucial, we should be in the top 6 if we win both of those. We then enter the make-or break period of the season with games against Birmingham, Derby and West Brom. We’ll know at the end of these whether we’re good enough for the top 2.
Man of the match – Dean Whitehead
Report by marcopaul