Match report as Sky Blues win final home game
Coventry City brought an end to their failed home campaign on a high with victory in the M6 Midlands derby match with Walsall.
The Sky Blues chalked up only their eighth League One win at the Ricoh Arena in their penultimate match of the 2016/17 season that has seen them relegated to English football’s fourth tier. A first half strike from George Thomas topped a bright opening 45 minutes for Mark Robins’s men whose three points hauled them off the foot of the table for the first time in several weeks against a poor Saddlers side, who got better the longer the game went on.
The fans were in good voice throughout, belting out plenty of ‘Sisu out’ protest chants and throwing in several bursts of a few new ones, “We want Hoffman in,” and “Oh Gary Hoffman, he’s coming for you,” in relation to the former vice-chairman’s attempts to buy the club in recent days. And the game ended with large numbers of protesting supporters moving to ground level as they threatened to spill onto the pitch, but they heeded warnings from the public address announcer and applauded the team and manager as they did a lap of appreciation after the final whistle.
Robins, whose name had been sung aloud during the game, made six changes to his injury-ravaged side but not all were down to knocks, with understudy goalkeeper Reice Charles-Cook being given the opportunity to impress the manager for the first time. And he certainly made his presence felt midway through the first half when he came off his line to punch clear a high ball and took out Walsall striker Amadou Bakayoko and his own skipper Jordan Willis at the same time. Another player getting a rare start was Vlad Gadzhev, the Bulgarian international in for the injured Ben Stevenson and Callum Reilly in what was a chance to catch the manager’s eye ahead of the summer when he’s out of contract and almost certainly moving on from the club.
He did well, to be fair to him, but it was Gael Bigirimana who once again shone in the middle of the park, getting the ball moving forwards and out to the likes of Jodi Jones on the left from where the nippy forward sent in a string of promising crosses as City played with plenty of confidence – a quality that had escaped them last time out at Rochdale. But for all their possession and constructive approach play they had very little to show for it in terms of chances, the only one of which that found the target in the first 35 minutes falling to right-back Kevin Foley whose shot was hit straight at the keeper.
Chances were few and far between at both ends, the best the Saddlers could offer coming from a free-kick which saw centre-half Matt Preston given a free header at the far post, which he directed into the side netting to give the home fans a brief scare. However, George Thomas gave his side a deserved lead six minutes from the break when Ruben Lameiras teed him up on the edge of the box for a precise side footed shot into the bottom corner.
The 20-year-old Wembley hero’s ninth goal of the season underlined his coming of age in the side and the Welshman almost made it into double digits when Lameiras played him through two minutes later, only for him to fire wide as he was knocked off balance by a covering defender. Going behind seemed to shock the visitors into life for the remaining minutes of the half, after which the Saddlers sent on Erhun Oztumer – the man they call the Turkish Messi – for record signing Andreas Makris who had been largely anonymous.
And he certainly added a spark to his side who got straight at City from the first whistle of the second half when Robins’s men were forced to defend four set-pieces – two free-kicks and two corners – in quick succession, the last of which saw centre-half Eoghan O’Connell get his head on a far post flag-kick which looked to be going in until Bigirimana hooked it off the line.
But the big strapping defender was given his marching orders 20 minutes from time when he received a second yellow card – his first was for taking a quick free-kick without asking permission from the referee – for a nasty foul on George Thomas. The match turned quite ugly as full-back Chris Stokes was then shoved off the pitch and into the advertising hoardings by Preston, lying on the deck for several minutes and requiring treatment before being replaced by Farrend Rawson. Although down to ten men, Walsall kept battling away, looking for an equaliser while looking vulnerable to City’s pace on the counter attack. But Jones knew he should have done better as he and his team-mates flooded forward, out-numbering their opponents.
However, with two players screaming for the ball in space on the right, the forward opted to go it alone before being forced to turn and play the ball back. Robins made a couple of late substitutions, handing 19-year-old midfielder Jordan Shipley his first team debut when he went on for Gadzhev, who left the field to warm applause for his efforts, while the ever popular Dion Kelly-Evans went on for Kevin Foley. City defended a late corner as they held firm on their slender lead to end the campaign with four Ricoh wins under Robins – something, at least, to take into next season.
Attendance: 9,284 (932 away)
Less than 9,000 home supporters for an end-of-season game!
