Coventry City 1- 1 Charlton Athletic

[dutchman]

[dutchman]

Sky Blues' agony complete as Charlton draw confirms relegation



Coventry City’s relegation to League Two was today finally confirmed as the Sky Blues could only manage a solitary point against Charlton Athletic at the Ricoh Arena.

The Sky Blues completed five years of League One misery with a return to the fourth tier of English football for the first time in 58 years.

The day started with City and Addicks fans joining forces against their respective owners with a protest march to the stadium, and ended in further doom and gloom as the famous old club dropped out of the division with three games to go.

Mark Robins’s men finished the game on 36 points, ten off the safety cut-off point with just nine left to play for in the last three games of the season.

George Thomas gave the fans a bit of hope when he fired City into a first half lead, temporarily lifting the side off the bottom as other results were going their way, but an early second half reply from centre-back Patrick Bauer pulled the Addicks level.

The players continued to battle to the end, denied by some impressive goalkeeping from Declan Rudd before being consigned to the drop.

Flying pigs had made a return as both City and Athletic fans joined forces again to protest against their club’s respective owners.

Hundreds of the pink foam stress busters were thrown from the terraces by both sets of supporters to bring a temporary delay to kick-off to the League One clash. The game was held up seconds before kick-off as both sets of fans chanted “We want Sisu out,” followed by “We want Roland out” at the Good Friday fixture, resulting in the stewards and ball boys clearing the field of play before the game was able to start.

Then when the game did kick off, more pigs were thrown and the referee brought a halt to proceedings, barely 16 seconds from his first whistle, and sent the players down the tunnel for a further five minutes, amounting to about a 10 minute delay in all.

But once the game did finally get underway there was a lively opening with Jodi Jones showing some early intent when he cut in from the left and forced Rudd into the first save of the day as the forward tried to place his shot across the keeper.

City were guilty of giving the ball away too freely with three stray passes, coupled with conceding two free-kicks to invite pressure on themselves in the opening 15 minutes, and Nathan Byrne went close to opening the scoring amid a sustained spell of pressure from Athletic.

Left-back Jay Dasilva sent in a deep cross to the back post where the forward was allowed a free header which struck the bar.Athletic continued to keep possession for long periods as City desperately tried to find some rhythm to their play and put pressure on their opponents, which they did just before the half hour mark when George Thomas sparked them to life.

The young forward won City’s first corner of the game and his short flag-kick to Ruben Lameiras was played inside to Ben Stevenson who thumped a shot at goal. That was blocked and the alert Thomas pounced on the loose ball and fired in an angled shot to give his side a 28th minute lead, slightly against the run of play.

That seemed to pep up the Sky Blues who went agonisingly close to a second before the break when Jones made a diagonal run from left to right and unleashed a low angled shot that Rudd dived low to tip wide at his far post.

City were then forced to defend two corners in quick succession in a frantic few minutes when Lee Burge made a stop at his near post to deny striker Josh Magennis.

Robins made a change at the break, swapping Stuart Beavon for Kwame Thomas who almost got on the scoresheet within minutes of the re-start when he got on the end of a near post corner from George Thomas and sent a back-flick towards goal that was blocked and cleared on the line.

The Sky Blues made a much improved start to the second period, clearly having been told to ask more questions of their opponents, which they did with a quick and slick counter attack that saw Jones fire inches across the far post.

But the visitors got themselves back in the game from the second of two corners in quick succession which saw Magennis flick the ball on at the near post to centre-back Patrick Bauer who threw himself to head home at the back stick, piling on the pressure for the home side who were staring relegation in the face, with a win needed to live to fight another day.

The players redoubled their efforts with some determined forward play but a well organised Athletic were proving a tough nut to crack, organised and strong at the back.

Buoyed by the fans, who were getting right behind them, the excellent Jones went close again with a fierce shot from the left that was parried by the keeper onto George Thomas and out for a goal-kick.

Lameiras then threaded a delightful ball through to Thomas in behind but Rudd spread himself and made a terrific save to deny the striker his second and City survival for another few days.

As the clocked ticked down Athletic grew in confidence and began to really frustrate the Sky Blues who found themselves struggling to get out of their own half.

They were desperate for a bit of magic but when Thomas was presented with a 25-yard free-kick he hit it wide of the mark five minutes from time.

Then, after four minutes of stoppage time, referee Darren Handley finally called time on Coventry’s League One status as the fans stood in quiet reflection for a few minutes before launching into some final protest chants against the owners.

Attendance: 9,479