Coventry City (ten men) 1 - 0 Port Vale

[dutchman]

[dutchman]

Sky Blues take maximum points at the Ricoh



Coventry survived eight minutes of injury time with ten men to claim maximum points courtesy of Jodi Jones’s brilliant first-half goal.

Fewer than 7,000 fans watched the game – the lowest Saturday league attendance in Coventry since 1958 – but they were rewarded with a stirring display which lifted Mark Robins’s men to eighth spot, just three points shy of the automatic promotion zone.

Both sides went into the game seeking their first goal in four league starts and the opening quarter reflected that bleak shared statistic – Barnett’s first-timer from distance sailing well wide of the home goal while Vincenti’s sliced volley from McNulty’s chested knock-down was similarly off target.

But the Sky Blues made the breakthrough with a superb 24th-minute strike to crown a flowing crossfield move which featured double contributions from Doyle and Jones before the latter logged his fourth of the season.

Jones collected from Doyle to float a long diagonal to overlapping full-back Grimmer who slipped the ball inside to the skipper. Doyle in turn fed Jones, lurking just outside the area, and he shaped to shoot with his right before swaying back on to his favoured left to curl a precision shot an inch or so inside Lainton’s right-hand post.

Although Robins had to regroup four minutes later when Marc McNulty limped off they almost added a freakish second when Grimmer’s first-time cross-come-shot volley whistled just past the far top angle.

But they made life harder for themselves by conceding a series of free-kicks inside their own territory and Vale were denied an equaliser in the second of three overtime minutes as Kay challenged Willis for Gunning’s far-post free-kick and the ball ricocheted over Burge and against the bar.

The wake-up call had the desired effect and City launched the second half in enterprising style – Kelly going close with a long-range shot and floating a header over the top before Beavon spun deftly 15 yards out to fire in a left-footed effort which required Lainton to pull off the first genuine save of the afternoon.

Two minutes later the keeper’s involvement was suddenly curtailed. Forced to dash out of his area as Beavon chased Doyle’s through-ball he saw the City substitute’s delicate flick roll fractionally wide but went down clutching his left thigh and had to be helped off.

Beavon was poised for another counter-attack sprint when Harry Middleton took one for the team and sent him tumbling just inside the City half – a clear yellow card and, despite the distance from the Vale line, arguably a red one because it certainly had all the potential for a goal goal-scoring break.

The referee had a far easier call moments later as McDonald clipped Worrall’s heels on the edge of the box, although Mr Huxtable took the precaution of consulting his linesman before producing the red card.

Robins sacrificed Beavon to send on Davies to plug the defensive gap, but de Freitas’s free-kick slammed into the wall and City almost turned near-disaster into a game clincher as Nazon galloped the length of the field before Gunning eased him off the ball as he shaped to shoot.

Burge had to pull off a sharp block at Harness’s feet and dealt with a succession of crosses under severe pressure but it was City who had the first opportunity in the marathon overtime stint as Jones’s shot skewed past substitute keeper Hornby’s top corner.

It was all hands to the pump in the closing moments, however, Burge’s richly-deserved clean sheet preserved as Davies’s back-header beat the keeper’s dive but bounced clear off the post.

Attendance: 6,951 (Away 553).