Coventry City 2 - 1 Nottingham Forest
Posted: Sun Aug 08, 2021 10:43 pm
Late drama as McFadzean snatches victory
Coventry City made a triumphant return to their home stadium with a brilliant 2-1 victory over Midland rivals Nottingham Forest to kick the new Championship campaign off in style.
A crowd of 20,843 saw the Sky Blues go behind just after the half-hour mark when Lyle Taylor finished at the far post from a Brennan Johnson counter attack in an opening half when City failed to trouble the keeper once.
The Sky Blue Army got right behind their team as they launched a second half fightback and got their reward when great work from Callum O’Hare set up Viktor Gyokeres for a deserved equaliser nine minutes from time.
And Kyle McFadzean popped up in the sixth minute of stoppage time to slam home a winner amid a goalmouth scramble in the opposition box to snatch the full three points at the death and lift the roof off the stadium.
It was a fairly open first half with poor attempts at both ends, lacking quality and accuracy to cause either goalkeeper any problems in the first 20-odd minutes.
Jack Colback went closest in the opening half an hour from a free-kick to the left of the City goal but his attempt was plucked out of the air by keeper Simon Moore.
But Forest broke the deadlock in the 36th minute when Viktor Gyokeres gave away possession on the attack, resulting in City being turned over and the visitors launching a blistering counter with Brennan Johnson getting away from Ben Sheaf who, having just been booked, did not commit to a sliding challenge.
The forward broke into the box and played it to the supporting Lyle Taylor who slotted home at the far post.
Johnson caused more problems on the stroke of half-time when he wriggled free in the box before being denied by a decent save from Moore at his near post before Callum O’Hare appeared to be slapped in the face by Gaeten Bong at the other end in what might have been a red card offence had the referee seen it.
Coventry, however, were left to reflect on a largely disappointing opening 45 minutes and clearly in need of putting straight with a half-time team talk.
They duly came out with a lot more purpose with Sheaf picking out Ian Maatesen in the box and the wing-back turning onto his right foot but shooting over the bar with City’s best chance of the game that far.
Sheaf then played a nice one/two with O’Hare in the box resulting in the midfielder hitting the angle of the goal.
Martyn Waghorn tested the keeper with a low left-footer on 66 minutes but he was replaced two minutes later by Tyler Walker, while Jodi Jones went on for Maatsen.
Urged on by a brilliant atmosphere, O’Hare cut into the box, going past two men on the right before sending the ball into the six-yard area where it got a flick from Sheaf on to Gyokeres who thumped the ball home from close range to pull City level on 81 minutes.
But City kept pushing and got their rewards when McFadzean got on the end of a loose ball in the box to beat Samba in the Reds' goal.