Coventry City 1 - 0 Cardiff City
Posted: Thu Nov 26, 2020 12:33 am
The Sky Blues earned a deserved three points against the Bluebirds at St Andrew's
A single goal from Tyler Walker gave Coventry City a deserved third Championship win of the season against a big and physical Cardiff City.
But the Sky Blues had to endure late drama at St Andrew's where goalkeeper Marko Marosi had to go off injured deep in stoppage time, replaced by understudy Ben Wilson as the home side hung on to their slender lead.
Mark Robins's men started the game really positively with some excellent forward play and two early chances falling to Jordan Shipley, the best of which saw him volley with his left foot, only to be denied by the keeper Alex Smithies who spread himself wide to make a 12th minute stop.
Ryan Giles, intriguingly deployed out of position on the right to start, twice tried his luck from distance after cutting in onto his left foot, albeit straight at the keeper.
The Bluebirds, meanwhile, looked a threat from set-pieces and attempted to feed big centre-froward Kieffer Moore at every opportunity with Marko Marosi punching clear one corner and palming away a deep cross to help keep the big man at bay.
The City keeper, however, gave away a needless flag kick on the half hour mark as he attempted to dribble out under pressure and that resulted in a free hit for Joe Ralls who fortunately fired well wide of the target.
The ball was in the back of the net on 37 minutes when Marlon Pack sent in a deep free-kick that appeared to come off centre-back Sean Morrison in a crowded box but the referee blew for a foul and the goal was disallowed.
The home side had the better of the possession in the first 45, enjoying 57 per cent of the ball and knocking it about well but just lacking clear cut chances against one of the tightest defences in the division.
Sam McCallum created a golden opportunity, however, for Gus Hamer five minutes into the second period with a delightful cross from the left which found the midfielder unmarked and throwing himself to connect with his head, only to send his powerful effort straight into the keeper’s arms.
But City capitalised on sloppy play from Cardiff in the 54th minute to get themselves in front.
Centre-half Morrison attempted to shepherd the ball back to his keeper but the goalie failed to come and Tyler Walker nipped in to pinch the ball away and turned it into the back of the net to give his side a deserved lead.
The striker almost doubled the lead two minutes later when City forced another error resulting in Walker bursting forward and hitting a shot across the face of goal.
Cardiff boss Neil Harris responded with three substitutions in quick succession as Coventry were forced to defend a bit deeper to weather a spell of pressure and play on the counter attack as the visitors attempted to mount a fight-back.
And Marosi came to the rescue with a decent reaction save from close range to deny target man Moore from a 75th minute corner as City battled every step of the way, defending deep balls and putting their bodies on the line to see out several minutes of added time and record a superb result and second consecutive clean sheet.