Blackburn Rovers 1 - 1 Coventry City
Posted: Sat Feb 27, 2021 6:14 pm
James scores as Ostigard sent off
Matty James secured a valuable point for Coventry City against former manager Tony Mowbray’s Blackburn Rovers.
The Sky Blues gave their opponents a head start in the game with some dreadful basic defending in the first half, allowing Ben Brereton to score a gift of a goal.
But they got themselves back on level terms early in the second half through the experienced Leicester City loan man James before attempts at going for a winner were hampered when they were reduced to ten men when Leo Ostigard was sent off for a second yellow card eight minutes from time.
Coventry enjoyed all the early possession as they started the game with real purpose, with Sam McCallum putting two decent balls into the box and hitting the side netting in the opening four minutes.
The visitors continued in the same vein with Jordan Shipley hooking a shot over the bar on 11 minutes after a clever flick on from Matty James who provided plenty of guile going forward.
Rovers grew into the game and began to see more of the ball, which they managed to feed into the box on a couple of occasions which required City to defend well to deny the runner making contact.
And the home side took the lead from out of nowhere when overlapping right-back Ryan Nyambe edged past McCallum and pulled the ball back into the box where Dom Hyam swung his leg and failed to clear, leaving it to run free to the unmarked Brereton who thumped it into the back of the net from the edge of the box.
The 27th minute lead came against the general run of play against a poor looking Rovers side who had looked there for the taking until the setback.
Leo Ostigard thought he’d pulled City level when he turned the ball in at the far post from a James’ free-kick just past the half hour mark but the goal was ruled out for off-side.
Barry Douglas almost doubled the lead two minutes from the break when his angled free-kick clipped the far post before Adam Armstrong was played through on the right and denied by the out-stretched foot of Ben Wilson as Rovers ended the half the stronger of the two sides.
City missed Callum O’Hare’s energy and Gustavo Hamer’s guile in the opening half – the pair rested on the bench – but Robins’s men got themselves back in the game early after the break when Shipley and McCallum combined well down the left, resulting in the wing-back sending in a deep cross which Tyler Walker knocked down with his head before James pounced with a hooked shot into the back of the net.
Robins then made a triple substitution on 70 minutes with O’Hare and Hamer replacing Shipley and James in midfield and Josh Pask going on for the tiring Dabo for the last 20 minutes.
Viktor Gyokeres followed as he replaced the tired-looking Walker up top as Rovers threatened with a string of late corners and free-kicks.
City were then reduced to ten men when Ostigard was sent off for his second yellow card eight minutes from time, for a professional foul on Armstrong, having been booked a few minutes earlier for reacting angrily to a challenge in the box.