Andy Turner reflects on a disappointing night for the Sky Blues at London Road
We weren’t privy to Sky Sports' official half-time summation but it was presumably something along the lines of ‘how on earth are Posh winning this?’
Tony Mowbray’s dressing room message, it’s safe to assume, was ‘how the hell are we losing?’
The answer to both questions was that, having crested a stack of opportunities with some typical free-flowing football, Coventry City were undone by one of those glaring set-piece lapses that has become their other trademark this season.
They still had 45 minutes to hoist themselves back into the play-off positions, of course, but, forced to chase a win that should have been safely wrapped up, they succumbed to a side who had lost their previous five home starts.
With Jack Stephens on England Under-21s duty, Tony Mowbray switched Romain Vincelot to centre-back for the Sky Blues and drafted Gael Bigirimana into the Frenchman’s customary holding midfield slot.
Marc-Antoine Fortune led the line in the absence of top scorer Adam Armstrong and although Vladimir Gadzhev’s international clearance didn’t arrive in time for him to feature, teenage midfielder Jodi Jones was on the bench after Monday’s two-goal debut for the Under-21s.
Despite their woeful sequence of four consecutive home defeats, Posh made an enterprising start but it was Coventry who threatened the break through three times in the space of five minutes.
Alnwick reacted well to tip Cole’s shot over the bar before turning Murphy’s fierce low shot on to his near post and as City ramped up the pressure Rose stooped to head Cole’s corner a yard wide.
Alnwick had to come to his side’s rescue again as Murphy led Santos for dead and the keeper was reprieved by Fox’s goal-line clearance when Cole teed up Fortune.
The visitors’ only hint of a problem in the first half-hour was when they needed two attempts to clear Ozturner’s far-post free-kick.
And they were soon chalking up more close-shaves at the other end, Anwick doing well to deflect from Ricketts when the skipper charged upfield and cut inside for a right-footed shot and the keeper then got down to deny Fortune at the far post.
And disaster struck on the stroke of half-time as – not for the first time this season – the Sky Blues were undone by a bog-standard dead-ball goal – Bostwick climbing unchallenged at the far post to head home Maddison’s corner.
Mowbray responded to the setback by pitching on Jones who wasted no time displaying his potential with a fine run that just ran out of room and a shot that was deflected over off Baldwin.
Mowbray turned to target-man Henderson in search of an answer but seconds after the veteran had entered the fray it was home substitute Angol who struck, rolling home Maddison’s low right-wing cross with Charles-Cook again helpless.
City’s luck was out again when Murphy smashed a ferocious shot against the post but moments later the Norwich asset sprinted down the right and pulled back a low cross for Cole to steer home.
Henderson then stumbled at the vital moment as he seemed all set to level and City promptly found themselves 3-1 adrift – Beautyman turning home the rebound after Charles-Cook had saved the initial attempt.
There was still time for Alnwick to rubber-stamp his man-of-the-match credentials with a superb save from Ricketts.
But the 800-odd City fans who abandoned their TV sets to make the trip to London Road know the truth – even if they would struggle to explain exactly why they didn’t head home celebrating three vital points.
Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2016 7:08 pm