Sheffield United 2 - 0 Coventry City

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Sheffield United 2 - 0 Coventry City

Postby dutchman » Wed Apr 05, 2017 7:33 pm

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Re: Sheffield United 2 - 0 Coventry City

Postby dutchman » Wed Apr 05, 2017 10:51 pm

Match report as Sky Blues fall to defeat in Yorkshire

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Coventry City came crashing back down to earth after two former Sky Blues stars struck for title chasers Sheffield United whose three points edged them closer to securing automatic promotion to the Championship.

Just three days after more than 43,000 Sky Blues fans turned out at Wembley Stadium to cheer their team to Checkatrade Trophy success, little more than 300 hardcore supporters made the trip to South Yorkshire where Mark Robins’s men got back to what’s been a miserable League One campaign.

Goals from one-time Ricoh favourites Leon Clarke and John Fleck consigned Coventry to their 23rd defeat of the season, edging themselves closer to relegation which could be mathematical confirmed on Saturday, depending on results.

To be fair to City, they stood firm for 69 minutes, looking organised and keeping a good shape before caving in amid the increasing second half pressure from the title chasers who scored the two killer goals in the space of five ruthless minutes of football. Robins made four changes to his Trophy winning side, largely due to muscle issues that have plagued his squad following their energy-sapping heroics on Sunday.

Stuart Beavon, George Thomas and Ben Stevenson were all suffering with minor pains and strains and started on the bench with the fresh legs of Nathan Clarke, Jodi Jones, Marcus Tudgay and Kevin Foley coming in to the side.

Robins has switched to a 4-4-1-1 formation that saw Clarke restored to the back four while Foley slotted into the central midfield berth alongside the impressive Gael Bigirimana, with Jones on the right and Ryan Haynes deployed on the left wing in place of the injured Kyel Reid, leaving Lameiras supporting veteran striker Tudgay up top.

Kick-off was delayed by 15 minutes to due to large numbers of Blades fans trying to get in and, as suspected, the partisan crowd got right behind their team, creating an intimidating atmosphere as the home side knocked the ball about with an air of confidence that comes with their lofty position.

Aside from the occasional foray forward, City spent much of the first half chasing shadows and soaking up the pressure from a number of measured and some route-one attacks, with wing-back Daniel Lafferty firing a warning shot in the 18th minute when he rippled the side netting.

Former City favourite John Fleck, who is having an outstanding season at United, was in the thick of the action, pulling the strings and teed up target man James Hanson a treat with a smart pull-back that the striker fired over with a dreadful miss from six yards shortly after. Coventry looked reasonably composed on the rare occasions they managed to get forward, as they did when Haynes picked up a loose ball and burst down the middle to get a shot off that struck a defender and deflected wide for the keeper to collect.

Bigirimana was playing a key role in midfield where he was pressing and winning the ball with Foley backing him up in support, and then making decent use of it while the rest of the team held an excellent shape and were very well organised to keep the home side at arm’s length, a fact that was reflected in by the volume of the crowd which had turned pretty low as the half progressed.

Wide men Jones and Haynes have looked reasonably lively on the few occasions City have managed to get forward, albeit never looking like scoring in the opening 45, and both have played their part in tracking back to defend. The teams went in all square at the break ahead of what was expected to be a more frantic second half.

United gave the impression they still had more to give, just cruising in the first half with a few more gears to go through if needed in the second period. Robins was forced into a change at the break when Willis had to go off, replaced by Ben Stevenson who slotted into midfield as Foley filled in at right-back. Blades’ boss Chris Wilder then ramped things up in the 52nd minute when he took off a centre-half, Jake Wright, and threw on an extra striker in former City star Clarke, while Samir Carruthers replaced Mark Duffy in midfield.

And Clarke was in the thick of things straight away, receiving a through ball that found its way to 26-goal Billy Sharp who stuck it in the back of the net but saw it ruled out for off-side. Lameiras provided a bit of respite from the increasing pressure with an excellent chance when he managed to wriggle his way through into the box but could on toe poke the ball, unable to get any real power to beat the Simon Moore in goal.

Jones continued to provide a decent outlet with his pace, Tudgay playing a lovely ball to spring him down the right where he cut into the box and was shoved to the ground by covering centre-half Chris Basham but the referee was not interested as the forward raised his arms to appeal for a foul.

But former City stars, Fleck and Clarke, combined to break the deadlock, the midfielder sending in a threatening cross from the left and the striker timing his run to get on the end of it and finishing clinically from close range to give the home side the 70th minute lead. Fleck then made it 2-0 five minutes later when he raced on to a loose ball, burst forward and unleashed a hard and low shot into the bottom corner of Burge’s net.

Robins responded by throwing on Sunday’s goal hero George Thomas for Haynes but the game was pretty much over as far as the result was concerned as the league leaders looked every bit worthy of their imminent promotion back to the Championship after six years of trying.

Attendance: 24,334 (308 City)

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