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Coventry City 0 - 1 Fleetwood Town

PostPosted: Sat Jan 21, 2017 4:43 pm
by dutchman

Re: Coventry City 0 - 1 Fleetwood Town

PostPosted: Sat Jan 21, 2017 6:39 pm
by dutchman
Sky Blues stay bottom of League One

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Coventry slumped seven points shy of League One safety as a cruel late goal maintained Fleetwood’s play-off momentum.

The Sky Blues matched the visitors for 89 minutes of a generally poor-quality game but just as it seemed they were on course for a heartening draw they were sunk by a setpiece sucker-punch.

It was their ninth defeat in a sequence of 11 league games without a victory and they desperately need a change of fortunes if they are to avoid becoming the first Premier League founder members to slide into League Two. New loan recruit Ferrand Rawson was pitched straight in as Russell Slade matched Fleetwood’s 3-5-2 formation with Jordan Willis and Ryan Haynes in the wing-back berths.

And the two teams did, indeed, cancel each other out in a woeful first half which produced plenty of effort but precious little in the way of constructive football. Lee Burge went down to collect Hunter’s skidding cross/shot and later did well to push Grant’s bobbling effort round the post while Cairns had no trouble fielding Beavon’s shot and then watched Haynes’s free-kick curl way over the bar.

The Fleetwood keeper did have to move smartly on the half-hour as Rose’s sliced cross threatened to drop under the bar. Jodi Jones replaced Beavon for the start of the second half – whether for tactical reasons or injury wasn’t immediately apparent – but it was Fleetwood who should have broken through inside a minute.

Bell, whose overlapping runs looked their main threat in the first half, made good progress and slipped over a perfect low cross but Hunter swung a half-hearted boot at the ball and scuffed his shot wide of the post from prime position. City responded well, Reilly meeting Haynes’s chipped cross with a stretching header which beat Cairns’s dive but bounced to safety off the far post. City’s optimistic penalty claims were rejected when Eastham tackled Jones just inside the area before Fleetwood wasted a clear opening as Bolger headed over from Dempsey’s corner.

Home skipper Willis was fractionally off target with a glancing far-post header when Haynes and Jones combined in a flowing move out of character with the general level of play – but it was Fleetwood who found the crucial inspiration as the match ticked into the 89th minute.

Newly-signed substitute Wes Burns – a scorer at the Ricoh last season while he was on loan with the Cod Army – was denied by Burge as he scampered through a near-post gap. But the reprieve was momentary as Dempsey spooned the corner into the middle and Bolger arrived late to ram home a penalty from the six-yard line.

Attendance: 8,129 (84 away)

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