Andy Turner dissects a disappointing day for Coventry City at Roots Hall
Coventry City slumped to their worst defeat of the season against a goal-shy Southend side forced to play the final 40 minutes with ten men.
Trailing 2-0 at the break, the Sky Blues were given a route back into the match when old boy Gary Deegan picked up his second booking but were condemned to back-to-back defeats for the first time as the Shrimpers broke away to win a penalty.
With on-loan duo Adam Armstrong and Jacob Murphy both nursing knocks, Mowbray gave Marcus Tudgay a rare start up front and drafted in Stephen Hunt for his debut.
Joe Cole and Jim O’Brien returned to the midfield in place of James Maddison and Ruben Lameiras while Mowbray also shuffled his back four, Aaron Phillips dropping to the bench with Sam Ricketts moving to right back and Chris Stokes to centre-half to accommodate Ryan Haynes on the left.
The nett effect of the six changes was to bump up the average age of the team to 28 years two months against a Southend side unchanged from their 0-0 draw at Peterborough last weekend despite Phil Brown’s recent transfer activity.
Although City had the lion’s share of the early possession it was Southend who conjured up the first genuine chance, baby-faced midfielder Jack Payne making space cleverly but shooting straight at Charles-Cook from just outside the box.
City almost made the breakthrough n the 15th minute as Hunt teed up O’Brien for a flighted 25 yard shot that Bentley tipped over at full stretch – Vincelot heading wide from Hunt’s subsequent corner.
Southend found a way through in the 24th minute courtesy of a lucky ricochet, Rickett’s attempted clearance cannoning off Hendrie to Payne who had all the time and space he needed to pick his spot in the far bottom corner.
O’Neill denied the Sky Blues an instant equaliser, pulling off a last-ditch tackle on Hunt as the Irishman shaped to round off a fine Cole-O’Brien combination.
But the Essex side double their lead just after the half-hour with a classic counter-attack down the left, Hendrie slipping a perfectly-timed pass to the overlapping Barnett who drilled his shot low past the exposed keeper.
Charles-Cook then had to scramble to divert Payne’s half-hit shot before Bentley had to pull off a far more resting save as O’Brien cut loose from 25 yards.
City had a goal disallowed four minutes before the break – Tudgay beating Bentley to O’Brien’s hanging cross but the referee blowing for a foul as the striker turned in the loose ball.
There was just time for Gary Deegan to collect his tenth booking in 12 appearances for a rugby-style tackle on Cole on the half-way line.
Tudgay, who seemed to pick up a back injury towards the end of the first half) was replaced by Maddison on the resumption, leaving City with no orthodox striker. And the substitute inadvertently changed the tone of the game after barely five minutes as Deegan clipped his heels on the half-way line and was promptly shown his second yellow card.
Mowbray moved to exploit the situation by pitching on Lameiras and Fortune while Phil Brown, surprisingly, hauled off his best player Payne. But it was Southend who nearly struck again on the hour as Charles-Cook had to pull off a reflex save from Hendrie’s close-range header.
Maddison was fractionally wide with a curling effort from 25 yards while O’Brien shot straight at Bentley from similar range.
But disaster struck for the Sky Blues in the 67th minute as Southend counter-attacked from deep in their own half.
Atkinson passed up two opportunities to shoot before Charles-Cook the third at the expense of a penalty – and after referee Malone had ignored Southend protests and settled for a yellow card, Barnett smashed the penalty into the roof of the net.
The Hunt brothers faced each other for the first time in their professional careers when Brown sent on Noel for the final 15 minutes which saw City queuing up to take long-range shots, most of them charged down before causing Bentley any inconvenience.
And their final hope of a consolation goal disappeared in the fifth and final minute of overtime as Cole lifted a free-kick two yards over the bar.
"Disappointing"? Yeah, that's one word for it!
