Coventry City 1 Blackburn Rovers 3

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Coventry City 1 Blackburn Rovers 3

Postby dutchman » Tue Aug 08, 2017 11:06 pm

Match report as Sky Blues crash out of Carabao Cup

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Coventry City crashed out of the Carabao Cup, knocked out at the first hurdle by Tony Mowbray’s Blackburn Rovers.

The former Sky Blues boss was making his first return to the Ricoh Arena since leaving the club last September after failing to win the first ten league games of the season.

But the 53-year-old’s League One side took the game to City, grabbing two first half goals either side of a Duckens Nazon reply to give them the advantage at the break. Although Liam O’Brien was by far the busier of the two keepers – making three good saves in the opening 45 and three in the second – Coventry should have been 2-1 up themselves up before Rovers restored their lead when Nazon attempted to pick a pass for a tap-in.

And although Mark Robins men were still very much in an entertaining encounter going into the break, the returning Dominic Samuel confirmed City’s exit and Rovers’ passage to the second round of the newly-named League Cup competition when he danced through a pack of players in the box and fired in off a defender. Also in the away dugout was Mowbray’s hotseat successor, Mark Venus, who joined him at Ewood Park as assistant manager this summer after quitting City as technical director in April, while out on the pitch there was a return for former City centre-half Elliott Ward.

There was no particular reaction either way from the home fans when Mowbray walked out but it didn’t take long for the unpopular Venus to receive a verse of abuse, as he did again in the second half. Robins made six changes to the side that started the League Two season off with a bang against Notts County, including a fresh faced midfield pairing of Jordan Shipley and Ben Stevenson as the experienced Michael Doyle and Liam Kelly took a rest and were sorely missed on the night. Elsewhere, there was a debut for new loan signing Duckens Nazon who started up front with an ultimately disappointing Max Biamou, also making his first senior start for the club.

Devon Kelly-Evans started wide left of the forward three and got stuck in from the off, sliding in a beautifully timed tackle to win the ball in his own half as City spent the first ten minutes chasing shadows and trying to get the ball back from a slick passing Rovers. But it was the home side who carved out the first chance, Biamou getting on the end of a Shipley free-kick but heading it straight at goalkeeper David Raya instead of making him work from six yards out. However, four minutes later in the 15th, wing-back Corry Evans gave Mogga’s men the lead with a smart volley from the edge of the box that arced over O’Brien and into the back of the net.

City felt justifiably aggrieved as both Biamou and Kelly-Evans were fouled in the build-up, the referee happy for play to continue. Blackburn then looked to put City to the sword with Samuel being denied by two impressive saves by O’Brien in the space of two minutes, the keeper first pushing away an angled drive at his near post before stopping a long-range effort from outside the box.

But new boy Nazon opened his account to restore parity in the 21st minute. Right-back Jack Grimmer made the goal with a powerful angled shot that was parried by the keeper, but the Wolves’ loan striker was on the loose ball in a flash to slot home from six yards out.

It was an end to end affair with O’Brien coming to the rescue for a third time, denying Evans with his legs before Jodi Jones displayed a brilliant bit of skill to turn his man and spring Nazon clean through down the right.

The 23-year-old steadied himself as he cut into the area where he attempted to slip a pass to young left-back Chris Camwell for a simple tap-in but the keeper got a boot to it to intercept the danger. City were left to rue that missed opportunity a minute later when Rovers were back up the other end and Richie Smallwood was given far too much time to hit a smart finish from the edge of the box, leaving O’Brien furious with his outfield team-mates for not getting close enough to the midfielder.

That criticism couldn’t be levelled at the defenders for Rovers’ third, just ten minutes into the second half when former City loan star Samuel was surrounded by four sky blue shirts within two yards of the striker who danced his way through and hit a shot in off one of them. A change in personnel was clearly needed and promptly came just after the hour when Robins threw on two more strikers, Stuart Beavon and Jordan Ponticelli for Kelly-Evans and Biamou, as City switched to an attacking 4-3-3.

Ponticelli – who was making his senior debut – made an immediate impact, running and chasing everything in stark contrast to Biamou who hadn’t, the youngster upping the energy levels and clearly hungry to impress. Another Academy kid was handed his senior debut for the last 15 when Kyle Finn went on for Jones who was clearly being rested ahead of the weekend’s league trip to Grimsby as the tie petered out with the visitors seeing out the game professionally, continuing to threaten and O’Brien impressing further with three more impressive stops to keep the scoreline respectable.

Attendance: 5,372 (620 away)

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