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Walsall 3 - 2 Coventry City (F.A. Cup)

PostPosted: Sat Nov 10, 2018 4:47 pm
by dutchman

Re: Walsall 3 - 2 Coventry City (F.A. Cup)

PostPosted: Sat Nov 10, 2018 6:51 pm
by dutchman
Sky Blues crash out of FA Cup

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Coventry City sent an incredible following of fans home disappointed after being dumped out of the first round of the FA Cup at Walsall.

A total of 2,665 of the Sky Blue Army backed Mark Robins’s men at the Banks’s Stadium where they outnumbered the home support.

But it wasn’t enough to inspire City who slipped to a 3-2 defeat - their first in seven games - to end any hopes of a lucrative run in the famous competition.

The visitors battled back from two goals down, grabbing an equaliser early in the second half as they looked the more likely to go on to win the tie.

But Coventry lost all their momentum after the 55th minute leveller and the Saddlers bagged the winner 13 minutes from time.

City had started the game reasonably well but found themselves two goals down inside the first 28 minutes and they only had themselves to blame after poor defending gave the home side the early advantage.

The first goal was all too easy for Saddlers’ striker Andy Cook who had time to slot home from seven yards after Coventry failed to deal with a deep cross to Zeli Ismail at the back post, the winger back heeling to set up his team-mate to open the scoring in the 12th minute.

Josh Ginnelly then doubled the lead just before the half hour mark when a mix-up between right-back Jordon Thompson and goalkeeper Lee Burge allowed the wide left man to get the slightest of touches to send the ball rolling into an empty net.

Jonson Clarke-Harris then pulled one back four minutes later for the Sky Blues when he capitalised on a mistake by centre-back Jon Guthrie, going clean through and slotting coolly past keeper Liam Roberts.

But, in truth, Coventry should have scored earlier when they created a couple of openings, the best of which saw Jordan Shipley fire across the face of goal from a terrific position, leaving the attacking midfielder to hold his head in his hands.

City came out strongly after the break when they got the equaliser they deserved from a sustained spell of pressure, Luke Thomas volleying home a loose ball after Clarke-Harris had drilled the ball into the box.

That sparked over zealous celebrations from the Coventry fans, a fair number of whom ran onto the pitch before being warned that they were committing a criminal offence and that CCTV was in operation.

But Coventry suddenly lost all their momentum as the home side got themselves back on the front foot with a sustained spell of pressure which resulted in Nicky Devlin cutting in from the right and smashing an angled shot into the far top corner to win the tie.

Attendance: 4,760 (2,665 away)

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