Sheffield Wednesday 1 - 0 Coventry City
Posted: Sat Dec 19, 2020 7:57 pm
The Sky Blues fell to defeat on their first trip to Hillsborough for 11 years
Coventry City suffered their first defeat in nine at bottom of the league Sheffield Wednesday - the Owls recording their first win in ten games.
Former Sky Blues keeper Keiren Westwood was in inspired form on his return to the starting line-up, making a string of saves to deny Mark Robins’s men who looked arguably the better side and certainly created the better chances,
The game started at a frantic pace but with City on the front foot and looking to pick some early holes through Wednesday’s defence, with Callum O’Hare enjoying plenty of space in the final third.
Max Biamou was restored to the starting line-up as Robins went with two strikers up top, and the powerful centre-forward asserted himself early, shrugging off a defender and driving forward to unleash Coventry’s first attempt of the game with a hard and low shot that Keiren Westwood pushed wide at his near post.
The former Sky Blues favourite then tipped away a far post header from Leo Ostigard to keep his side on level terms as the visitors enjoyed 62 per cent of the possession in the first half when Wednesday were limited to a couple of corners and two woeful long-range shots high over the bar before finally carving out a clear cut goal scoring opportunity in the 24th minute.
Some clever build-up play resulted in striker Josh Windass receiving the ball at his feet in the box, only for his powerful shot to be denied by a brilliant block by Ben Sheaf.
The half was more balanced as it approached the break when Tyler Walker limped off injured, replace by Amadou Bakayoko.
Coventry controlled possession again early in the second half when Ben Wilson was called upon to make his first save, diving low to deny Windass from outside the box.
But it was Westwood who denied City for a third time on 58 minutes when he palmed away a cross-cum-shot from Sam McCallum before Ostigard had a far post header cleared off the line from a corner.
Coventry then invited trouble when Wilson cleared straight to Barry Bannan, forcing Ostigard to take one for the team and commit a professional foul to deny the skipper from scoring in an empty net. But City were punished from the resulting free-kick as Bannan sent the ball in to the far post where Tom Lees rose high and headed home across the keeper.
Westwood then came to the rescue yet again for the Owls, making a decent save to deny Bakayoko who stretched to get a touch to a Jamie Allen free-kick.
Robins threw caution to the wind with three substitutions, sending on Matty Godden, Julien Dacosta and Ryan Giles, in a bid to salvage something from the game before Gervane Kastaneer was thrown on for the last eight minutes as City desperately pushed for an equaliser.