Coventry City 0 - 0 Stoke City
Posted: Sat Dec 26, 2020 7:09 pm
The Sky Blues earned a point from an entertaining Boxing Day match at St Andrew's
Coventry City earned a hard-fought point in their eighth Championship draw in a highly competitive match with Stoke City.
Both sides had chances in an entertaining Boxing Day clash at St Andrew’s where the Sky Blues kept their third clean sheet in their last five games.
Coventry started positively, playing some decent football on the deck to work their way into the Stoke box but it was the visitors whose more direct approach almost paid dividends in the third minute when a long diagonal was controlled by centre-forward Steven Fletcher who wasted a gilt-edged chance by firing over the bar.
City had the ball in the back of net with five minutes on the clock after Callum O’Hare played a lovely ball through to Matty Godden, only for the returning striker to be flagged for off-side.
And minutes later City had an appeal for a penalty for handball in the box by centre-back Nathan Collins turned down, the referee judging it to be a case of ball to hand.
The game was wide open in an entertaining first half, City going close again on 24 minutes when O’Hare nipped in on a Stoke backpass before his shot was blocked by the advancing keeper Josef Bursik.
City keeper Ben Wilson, meanwhile, was called into action at the other end to deny a powerful left foot half volley from striker Jacob Brown which was pushed wide at the near post.
Poor finishing was to blame for denying the Potters from breaking the deadlock four minutes from the break when Jordan Thompson hit a square ball wide with all the goal to aim at after City’s defence had been opened up.
Thompson failed to hit the target again after the break when teed up by Brown, sending his effort onto the crossbar as the game continued to be end to end, O’Hare hitting a powerful shot that was deflected wide for the fifth of six Coventry corners before the hour.
Jamie Allen had a low shot deflected narrowly wide before Stoke threatened with two corners and a free-kick in quick succession when Fletcher headed wide from close range as the game looked like it could go either way.
Mark Robins made a double substitution and went with two up top when Max Biamou and Amadou Bakayoko went on for Ben Sheaf and Matty Godden 17 minutes from time, just before Powell headed wide at the far post for the Potters.