Coventry City 0 - 2 Accrington Stanley

[dutchman]

[dutchman]

Record League Two crowd see Sky Blues fall flat



Coventry City’s promotion ambitions suffered yet another blow as the players failed to deliver in front of a record League Two crowd at the Ricoh Arena.

More than 28,000 fans were left deflated as Mark Robins’s men simply couldn’t rise to the occasion to outwit and overcome third placed Accrington Stanley in a hugely disappointing result and performance that leaves the Sky Blues in ninth place, two places off the play-off mix.

An early goal from Jordan Clark, after just three minutes of football, gave the visitors the first half lead as City were guilty of being half asleep at the back.

But Coventry laboured as they attempted to get themselves back into the game in a desperately poor first half when they had no rhythm and never looked like scoring against a well-organised and physically strong Stanley side.

Changes were needed at the break with Peter Vincenti going on for the returning Jordan Maguire-Drew who just didn’t do enough to impress in the opening 45 minutes when City had plenty of possession but couldn’t break their opponents down.

And things went from bad to worse after the break as Accy doubled their lead when Clark bagged his second of the afternoon, allowed far too much time and space to slot in an angled shot on the hour.

Robins responded by immediately throwing on Kyel Reid, who was making his first appearance for the club this season, and the winger impressed on his return, putting in some decent crosses to Vincenti who couldn’t quite convert at the back post.

Jonson Clarke-Harris was then thrown on for the last 20 minutes but City rarely looked like scoring in a dreadful performance that yielded one measly shot on target as little Accrington Stanley completed a league double over the Sky Blues, who beat City 1-0 at the Wham Stadium earlier in the season.

The impressive turnout was the biggest gate for a fourth tier game since the league reorganisation in 2004, beating the previous record set by Portsmouth two years ago when 18,746 watched their home game against Northampton.

But, sadly, many flooded out early, leaving the stadium half full well before the final whistle brought an end to a miserable afternoon.