Coventry City 1 - 2 Southampton

[dutchman]

Saints stun leaders Coventry to boost play-off bid



Southampton moved back within three points of the Championship play-off places as they inflicted only a second home defeat of the season on leaders Coventry City.

Flynn Downes, making his 100th appearance for Saints, snapped up a rebound off the post to put Tonda Eckert's side ahead in the second half before Kuryu Matsuki added a second from close range late on to make it 10 league games unbeaten.

Coventry, who were seeking a new club record of seven straight wins, had their chances but Liam Kitching was denied by a brilliant Daniel Peretz save and top scorer Haji Wright twice went close to equalising before going off with what seemed to be a groin problem.

Victor Torp won and converted a penalty in added time to make it a tense finish, but defeat meant the Sky Blues' lead at the top was trimmed to seven points after Middlesbrough drew with Bristol City.

Both teams were in fine fettle heading into the game, with Frank Lampard's side having equalled a club record of six consecutive league wins, while Saints have continued their rise from 21st up to seventh under Eckert, who has now guided them to 13 league wins out of 24 as well as into the FA Cup quarter-finals.

Saints settled the quicker but Cyle Larin miskicked their best chance after chesting down Matsuki's header, his shot squirming past the post.

Coventry grew in strength as the first half wore on but Tatsuhiro Sakamoto and Luke Woolfenden both missed the target with far-post headers.

When Sky Blues got everything right, with Josh Eccles' fine cross glanced towards the far corner by Kitching, on-loan Bayern Munich keeper Peretz hurled himself to his left to turn the ball round the post with a quite brilliant save.

Wright's volley whistled past the Southampton post to end the first half but Saints again came out strongly after the break and edged ahead within three minutes.

Matsuki cut in from the right and curled a cross towards the far post where Larin's attempt to get a touch distracted Coventry goalkeeper Carl Rushworth, who recovered to tip the ball onto the post but Downes was on hand to ram in the rebound.

Both sides created chances after that, as Caspar Jander shot straight at Rushworth while, at the other end, Kitching headed wide and Wright directed another header straight into the arms of Peretz.

That was Wright's last involvement, as he limped off in some discomfort.

Saints seemed to have clinched it when James Bree's in-swinging corner bounced off Matsuki's foot and over the line but, as the game headed into added time, Sky Blues substitute Torp had his foot trod on by Shea Charles and referee Farai Hallam pointed to the spot.

Torp converted confidently but a late siege of Saints' goal did not yield a leveller with Brandon Thomas-Asante shooting straight into the arms of Peretz.

Coventry manager Frank Lampard told BBC Radio CWR:

"On a statistical basis we shouldn't lose the game because we created enough big chances to score three or four goals - we had five big chances in the game.

"In the first half I think they wanted to slow the game down from the start and we bought into that a little bit. We normally have more energy in our game.

"We're not happy with the goals we conceded. You can't get that wrong because you won't win games of football, and we weren't clinical at the top end.

"By our own standards, were we as good as we want to be? No, but that's football at this stage of the season, you just want to try to get a result. We gave everything and we have to go again."