Colchester United 1 - 3 Coventry City

[dutchman]

[dutchman]

Sky Blues come from behind to defeat the U's and move into second place in League One



Coventry City set up a top-of-the-table Ricoh showdown against Gillingham next weekend when they came from behind to claim an impressive victory on the road.

And it was Jacob Murphy who made the difference against one of his former loan clubs, snapping up two excellent goals from his new No.10 slot.

With Joe Cole again not risked, Tony Mowbray made two predictable changes, Vincelot returning from suspension and Charles-Cook reclaiming the keeper’s jersey after last week’ warm-up scare.

The Sky Blues made an excellent start, Murphy’s shot blocked after fine work by Fleck and Stokes before Jones, briefly a City player last season, fielded Fleck’s skidding shot.

O’Brien and Fleck then fired into the side-netting. But, having looked far likelier to score, City suddenly found themselves trailing in the 18th minute as Briggs slide over a skidding left-wing cross and Bonne flicked it home with a delicate close-range flick.

Bolstered by that breakthrough, Colchester might well have doubled their lead as Charles-Cook pulled off a fine diving save from Moncur’s free-kick and then saw Sordell’s shot from the edge of the area smack against the inside of the post and roll across the face of the goal to safely.

But City levelled on the half-hour with a fine goal from Murphy, who seized on the loose ball when Fortune’s cross was blocked and swivelled to shoot into the bottom corner.

Briggs just cleared the visitors’ bar with a good snap-shot, but it was City who took the lead six minutes from half-time, Fleck sliding a free-kick through to Murphy who calmly rounded Jones and shot into the same corner as before.

The Sky Blues opened clear water between the sides four minutes after the restart as a flowing counter-attack saw Jones block Lameiras’s low shot but Fortune – prominently involved in the move – tucked in the rebound.

Briggs was fractionally high with a fierce shot but Jones had to show outstanding anticipation to spring yards out of his area as Murphy moved on to Lameiras’s through-ball.

The referee warned Charles-Cook about time-wasting but it was the fourth official who squandered several minutes as a farcical spell of substitutions saw him hold up the wrong number at least three times.

One of those replacements, Ryan Haynes, almost made it 4-1 when he cut inside from the left and curled a right-footer just wide.

But City in turn had a scare as Charles-Cook parried Sordell’s shotr and reacted brilliantly to kick Massey’s follow-up off the line.