Coventry City 0 - 4 Stoke City

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Coventry City 0 - 4 Stoke City

Postby dutchman » Sat Apr 01, 2023 5:25 pm

Sky Blues play-off push dented by home thumping

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Coventry City saw their play-off hopes dented as they suffered a 4-0 Legends Day defeat to mid-table Stoke in arguably their worst league performance of the season at home.

The Sky Blues conceded as early as the sixth minute and were 2-0 down by the break at the CBS Arena. But despite a determined push to get back into the game in the second half, the Potters scored twice in the space six minutes to put the game beyond Coventry.

The visitors opened the scoring when a counter attack saw Stoke move the ball from right to left in the final third, leaving Tyrese Campbell free to cross the ball into to near post where Jacob Brown got a touch to beat Ben Wilson.

Callum Doyle headed off the line from a corner shortly after before Ben Wilson dived low to prevent Will Smallbone increasing the lead just after the 15 minute mark as the visitors looked threatening on the attack and largely in control of Mark Robins’ men, who were awful in the first half.

The Potters had carved out 11 attempts on goal with five hitting the target by the half-hour mark compared to City, who had just one attempt and one on target.

The visitors extended their advantage in the 40th minute when a long ball over the top saw Campbell race 40 yards clear of the nearest defender with Coventry furious there was no offside flag. Wilson tried to stand up to Campbell - but the Stoke man drew the keeper and knocked the ball past him.

Fankaty Dabo passed up a glorious opportunity early in the second half when he skinned Dujon Sterling and then cut inside Phil Jagielka in the box but hit his shot wide of the far post when he looked favourite to score. And Viktor Gyokeres failed to bury a loose ball after a good run from Wilson-Esbrand, with the keeper scrambling back to his line to make a stop.

However, the visitors grabbed a third in the 71st minute when a rare second half attack saw Josh Laurent hold several defenders off and lay the ball back to Smallbone who placed his shot into the far bottom corner, and Ki-Jana Hoever wrapped things up six minutes later when he went past Wilson-Esbrand and Doyle to slot home at the near post.

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Re: Coventry City 0 - 4 Stoke City

Postby dutchman » Sat Apr 01, 2023 5:32 pm

Stoke thrash Coventry to end their unbeaten run

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Stoke brought Coventry's nine-game unbeaten run to an abrupt end as they crushed the Sky Blues 4-0 to dent their hopes of reaching the play-offs.

Jacob Brown tapped the ball in at the back post to put Stoke a goal up only six minutes in, before Tyrese Campbell doubled their advantage just before the break.

Will Smallbone made it 3-0 midway through the second half, slotting the ball into the bottom corner before Ki-Jana Hoever capped an excellent afternoon for the Potters with a superb solo effort 13 minutes from time.

Stoke are now unbeaten in four games and move up a place to 13th, while Coventry fall four points behind the top six.

Coventry are looking to make ithe play-offs for the first time since being relegated from the Premier League 22 years ago, but their good run of form took a hit as they fell to their first defeat since 3 February and their biggest home loss of the campaign.

Despite a dominant opening few minutes from the hosts, Stoke took the lead with their first attack of the game as Campbell's cross on the counter picked out Brown, who tapped in from close range.

It set the tone for the half as Campbell's shot was well saved by Ben Wilson, Ben Wilmot had a header cleared while Campbell saw another volley denied by an excellent Wilson stop.

Campbell finally got his just rewards five minutes before the break, running onto a long ball into acres of space, beating the offside trap - to protests from Coventry - and slotting the ball beyond Wilson to make it 2-0.

Mark Robins made three changes at half-time in an attempt to get back in the game.

Viktor Gyokeres struck a volley from distance but saw it saved by Jack Bonham and Fantaky Dabo curled his shot narrowly the wrong side of the post as Coventry desperately searched for a lifeline.

Yet just as earlier in the match, Coventry were punished on the counter attack as Stoke pushed forward for the first time 25 minutes into the second half.

Brown and Smallbone combined with a one-two on the edge of the box and Smallbone slotted home to all but wrap up victory.

On-loan Wolves defender Hoever then added the icing on the cake as he broke down the wing and around numerous Coventry bodies before finishing coolly into the bottom corner.

Coventry manager Mark Robins told BBC CWR:

"You're playing against a really good team. We said yesterday, they're going to come after you, they're going to put you under pressure and they've got quality in the side.

"They had better legs, they had better qualities, they made it tell. We backed away, gave them too much room, didn't have any quality, couldn't get anything going.

"The consequence of that was the distance between the back lines and front lines was too big and we didn't solve that problem, and it's an easy problem to solve in the middle of the park.

"We just got out-fought, out-worked and they had more quality. When you put those together it was a long afternoon."

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