Southend United 3 - 1 Coventry City

[dutchman]

[dutchman]

Sky Blues lose yet again



Coventry City slumped to their fifth straight League One defeat against an upwardly mobile Southend side on the brink of the play-off places.

It took just five minutes and 30 seconds for the Shrimpers to get their noses in front at Roots Hall to further dent City’s flagging confidence as they were left floundering in the relegation zone.

The Sky Blues were up against a big, stocky and experienced side typical at this level but brawn had little to do with the opener which was down to rank bad defending as the visitors failed to clear their lines from a ball in from the right, and it fell kindly to Anthony Wordsworth just inside the area to pick his spot.

That prompted early calls of “Venus, sort it out, Venus, Venus sort it out,” from the travelling 406 fans clearly fearing the floodgates had been opened yet again.

To be fair to City they put up a valiant effort and carved out the better chances once they’d settled down in the first half but a quick-fire double midway through the second put the visitors to the sword before a late consolation goal from Dan Agyei gave the fans something to finally cheer when he converted a Jodi Jones pull-back two minutes from time.

Venus made four changes to the side that limped through the Checkatrade Trophy against Crawley Town in midweek with a less than convincing 1-0 win, dropping striker Jack McBean completely while Jodi Jones, Vlad Gadzhev and goalkeeper Reice Charles-Cook were relegated to the bench to make way for Andre Wright to return to the side for the first time since the heavy defeat at Oxford United last month.

Fellow front man Agyei also returned for the first time in four games to make up the front three along with leading scorer Marvin Sordell in a 4-3-3 formation.

Elsewhere, Andy Rose returned to his more natural midfield position after filling in at right-back where teenager Dion Kelly-Evans came back from injury, and first choice goalkeeper Lee Burge was restored in goal until the 39th minute when he was taken out but big centre-forward Nile Ranger as the pair competed for a high ball.

The stopper dropped to the deck hurt and had to be replaced by Riece Charles-Cook after several minutes of treatment on the field.

It was far too easy for the Shrimpers in the early stages with Wordsworth dictating the play in midfield along with striker Simon Cox who dropped deep to hold up the ball and spread it wide before the ball was pumped into the danger area where Ranger was a right handful for Jordan Turnbull and the keeper.

But after an awful first 20 minutes City started to find a bit of composure and enjoyed some decent approach play at times.

Chris McCann provided a bit of quality and control in the middle of the park and was in the thick of the action as the visitors enjoyed their best spell of the first half when Rose got his head on the end of a deep Lewis Page cross to force goalkeeper Mark Oxley into his first save just after the half hour.

Sordell headed across the face of goal from McCann’s resulting corner while Dan Agyei turned and fired goalwards at the near post from a low Andre Wright ball in from the right which was denied by a decent save as Coventry finished the half arguably the stronger of the two sides.

Sparks flew early in the second half when Wright and Michael Timlin went in for a 50-50 challenge and the latter went down writhing in agony, somewhat theatrically, and the pair then clashed off the ball minutes later resulting in handbags all round as players flew in from all angles before the referee called both players and the captains in for a good talking to.

Wright – City’s brightest player on the day – pulled into space on the hour and lifted a shot narrowly over the bar as there was little to choose between the two sides. But Coventry were left wanting at the back again, this time from a set-piece, to hand the Shrimpers their second of the afternoon just after the hour.

Kelly-Evans committed a foul just outside the box on the byline and the resulting free-kick was simply not dealt with as Ryan Leonard knocked it down at the back post for Anton Ferdinand to hook home with a close range volley.

Things went from bad to worse as Stephen McLaughlin curled in a shot four minutes later in the 68th and watched as it thumped the post and went in off Charles-Cook’s back to secure the full three points and consign City to another heavy defeat and rooted in the relegation zone.