Coventry City 2 - 0 Chesterfield

[dutchman]

[rebbonk]

Not many fans of either side in the local

[dutchman]

Not many fans of either side in the local

Not many in the ground either according to the gate figure 7,941 (217 away)

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Match report and analysis as Sky Blues win at home again



The Sky Blues took another tentative step up the League One table when they won their game in hand, the rearranged fixture against a Chesterfield side in freefall.

The Spireites arrived at the Ricoh with just one point to show from their previous seven league matches but more than held their own in a woeful first half – by some distance the Sky Blues’ worst 45 minutes of the season. But the second period was a considerable improvement, without ever hitting any great heights, and goals from skipper Jordan Willis and Andy Rose embellished Lee Burge’s third clean-sheet since returning to the side.

There was a minor sting in the tail courtesy of a flurry of bookings – two of them for Lewis Page and a fifth of the season for Gael Bigirimana who will be ruled out of Sunday’s FA Cup trip to Morecambe. After Saturday’s 1-1 draw against Walsall which, by common consent, represented two points dropped for the Sky Blues, Venus switched to a 4-4-2 formation and rotated his attacking assets. Marvin Sordell, Ruben Lameiras and Rose all dropped to the bench – the latter decision possibly influenced by the tight hamstring which prompted his early exit at the Banks’s Stadium – while Jodi Jones, Kyel Reid and Marcus Tudgay stepped up to the starting 11.

They faced a Chesterfield side on a run of six consecutive defeats, including a 4-1 EFL Trophy humiliation at home to Accrington Stanley, but City struggled to find string two passes together, let alone find any rhythm, after Jones had forced an early free-kick only to clip it high over the bar. They conjured up their first quality move in the 11th minute – Bigirimana blasting just wide from 25 yards after a sinuous run by Jones and a neat lay-off from Agyei – but skipper Willis then had to produce a perfectly-timed tackle to halt Evans in full flight.

The Welsh international, who opened the season with four goals in as many games, last netted on August 16 but so nearly made the breakthrough in the 21st minute with two close-range shots – the initial effort sharply saved by Burge and the follow-up blocked by Willis whose lapse had caused the problem in the first place. As a woeful game ambled towards the interval one of the City-ball boys received the biggest cheer of the night for brilliantly fielding Willis’s up-and-under clearance – and there was some more much-needed entertainment when a dad-and-lad combination teamed up to scoop top prize in the half-time challenge.

City started the second half like a team fresh from a wake-up call and they finally had the Singers Corner fans on their feet when Page and Reid made enterprising progress down the left. The same fans howled their displeasure when referee Brookes elected to ignore a brazen bodycheck on Reid, springing a counter-attack that saw Evans get in a took-close-for-comfort shot.

Burge twice had to get down smartly to clutch shots from Evans and dashed out of his area to head clear from the increasingly influential striker. Venus promptly reversed two of his changes by pitching on Rose and Lameiras – and he was rewarded inside two minutes as Rose’s header from Bigirimana’s corner was blocked but Turnbull recycled the ball to Willis who steered home from eight yards for his second goal of the season.

The Sky Blues were still far from fluent but they gave themselves some breathing space for the final ten minutes when Page surged down the left and fired over a low cross which Rose swept home left-footed from ten yards – his second goal in four days and virtually a mirror-image of his comeback opener at Walsall. That proved more than enough as Chesterfield’s shoulders inevitably dropped although the match finished on a sour note for City as Page collected his second yellow for a horribly mistimed challenge on Evans.