Coventry City 0 - 0 Birmingham City
Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2020 3:38 am
The Sky Blues earned a valuable point against their landlords at St Andrew's
Coventry City earned their third Championship draw in a poor game against Birmingham City at St Andrew’s.
The big positive for the Sky Blues, however, was keeping a rare clean sheet to stem the flow of 23 goals against them so far this season.
Coventry started on the front foot in the tenants versus landlords clash where Birmingham looked very much the away side at their home ground until late on in the game.
Mark Robins’s men had the better of the possession as they looked determined to put right the wrongs of their previous two performances when they had thrown away valuable points.
But it was Blues who went closest to breaking the deadlock as the visitors grew into the game with a couple of free-kicks testing City’s resolve before Mikel San Jose sent in a deep delivery to the far post where former Sky Blue Lukas Jutkiewicz stretched, worrying unmarked, and headed wide, unable to get a firm connection.
The Sky Blues’ first real opportunity came in the 23rd minute when Liam Kelly played a ball over the top to Tyler Walker who raced into the box as the ball dropped; the striker improvising with a cheeky header as it bounced up, almost catching the keeper out but Neil Etheridge managing to make the block.
But that was City’s only real effort in a tight first half with chances few and far between as the two sides pretty much cancelled each other out.
That theme continued after the break when Walker cut inside and hit a rare shot at goal for the hosts, his effort deflected into the path of Callum O’Hare who was unable to direct the ball on target from a tight angle.
Blues, meanwhile, enjoyed a decent spell of possession around the hour mark as they began to find more space in and around the opposition box with Ivan Sunjic wasting a half decent chance when he screwed a shot across the face of goal.
Robins made a tactical change on 68 minutes when he reverted to a back three with wing-backs, sending on Leo Ostigard as the third centre-half in place of Ben Sheaf, while striker Max Biamou replaced Jordan Shipley, to add an extra threat up top.
Jutkiewicz almost snatched the points when his header was pushed onto the underside of the crossbar eight minutes from time as the game suddenly livened up as the clock ticked down, and the landlords looking the more likely to prosper.