The Sky Blues remain rooted to the foot of the League One table following defeat to Swindon
Nicky Ajose came back to haunt Russell Slade with two goals to help sink Coventry City further in the relegation mire.
The striker – last season’s second highest League One scorer with 24 – was signed by Slade for Charlton Athletic last summer but only managed three league goals before the manager was sacked by the Addicks in November. The 25-year-old re-joined Swindon on loan in January where he has been reunited with strike partner Jonathan Obika who grabbed the Robins’ second to send the Sky Blues in 2-0 down at the break at the Ricoh Arena.
Ajose then added a third midway through the second half as the pair – who enjoyed a 36 goal partnership last season – conspired to inflict City’s 18th league defeat of the campaign and see their relegation rivals pull eight points clear of them in the division’s drop zone. Slade stuck with the winning side that beat Gillingham last week for the six-pointer against their fellow strugglers whose head coach Luke Williams also kept faith with an unchanged side.
And it came as no surprise that City’s first meaningful attack was an almost carbon copy of their opening goal from that 2-1 victory over the Gills with overlapping left-back Ryan Haynes hitting a deep cross to the back post where Marcus Tudgay took the sting out of it with a cushioned header looking for strike partner Kwame Thomas. However, the 21-year-old front man was impeded by centre-back Nathan Thompson who had his arms round him – an offence that went unnoticed by the referee – in an entertaining end to end start between two sides desperate for maximum points.
Tudgay and Andy Rose both managed to get shots on target, neither of which troubled the Town keeper while the visitors looked a greater threat at the other end where Ajose was snuffed out twice by last ditch sliding tackles from Jordan Turnbull while goalkeeper Lee Burge made a good save to deny James Brophy, and Thompson fired wide across the face of goal. George Thomas – who is growing in stature with every game – was the architect of City’s best move of the half when he won the ball in midfield, slipped it to right-back Dion Kelly-Evans and then received it back on the overlap before pulling it back for namesake Kwame who hit and angled shot that was saved low at the near post by Lawrence Vigouroux.
Ajose curled over a threatening free-kick on the edge of the D as the visitors gave as good as they got, and then the returning striker gave his side a 31st minute lead when he stuck a foot out to get on the end of the Ben Gladwin cross from the left that wrong-footed Burge and nestled into the back of the net. The goal came as the first for the front man since returning to his former club and was followed up by a crushing second blow when Obika doubled the lead six minutes later in the 37th with a near post stooping header from close range from a Charlie Colkett cross.
Slade responded by sending on fit-again striker Stuart Beavon on at the break, replacing Rose, as City were forced to throw caution to the wind to get themselves back in the game. The fight-back started with three early corners, the best of which saw skipper Nathan Clarke fire agonisingly wide, but the home side looked vulnerable on the counter attack where Ajose should really have wrapped things up on 53 minutes when he beat the off-side trap from a long punt from the keeper, beat Clarke for pace and went round Burge before firing over the bar with the goalmouth gaping.
Coventry spent long spells camped in Swindon’s half but just couldn’t find a way through the resolute Robins who defended in numbers and grew with confidence as the clocked ticked down. Yakubu was thrown on for Tudgay for the last desperate 20 minutes but no sooner had the 34-year-old entered the pitch City found themselves another goal down when Ajose nipped in for his second, getting in behind a sluggish defence to connect with a killer low Brandon Ormonde-Ottewill cross.
Slade's men simply failed to deal with Ajose's runs in behind despite having been warned about the player the manager knows only too well from earlier in the season from their time at The Valley.
City continued to battle in vain before George Thomas scored a stoppage time consolation goal, hitting a low shot from the edge of the box to beat Vigouroux at his near post.But the late strike couldn’t sugar coat the end result which will leave most fans resigned to relegation with the Sky Blues now 11 points adrift of safety with just 13 games to go.
Attendance: 9543 (853 away)
Posted: Sat Feb 25, 2017 3:57 pm