Stoke City 1 - 1 Coventry City
Posted: Sat May 07, 2022 6:45 pm
Gyokeres adds to outstanding tally as Sky Blues settle for point
Viktor Gyokeres put Coventry City firmly in control at the Bet365 Stadium where the visitors had to settle for a final day point and 12th place finish in the league.
The Sky Blues should have been 3-0 up before Sam Clucas restored parity with a breakaway goal just before halftime, such was the dominance of Mark Robins’s men and chances created.
City showed plenty of early attacking endeavour and enjoyed two corners in the first eight minutes of an fairly open start to the game at the Bet365 Stadium
And that paid off on 14 minutes when Gyokeres gave the Sky Blues the lead with a calm and clinical angled finish. The move started from Liam Kelly who slipped a neat ball forward to Jamie Allen who immediately sent the bid Swede clean through on goal. The striker made an angled run and drilled the ball low to beat Joe Bursik at his near post to send the noisy travelling fans wild.
Taking his season’s tally to 18, Gyokeres passed up the opportunity to make it 19 just 90 seconds later when he was again played clean through but this time hit a left footed effort into the side netting.
Jordan Shipley also went close to scoring a minute later when he volleyed an over the top ball, watching as his attempted lob of the keeper bounced just wide of the far post as Mark Robins’ men looked in full control, enjoying over 60 per cent of possession and have had seven attempts on goal, one on target, in the opening 30 minutes.
City suffered an injury blow just after the half hour mark when Josh Eccles burst into the box where he was challenged and went to ground. Clearly in trouble, the young wing-back required treatment for several minutes before being stretchered off and replaced by Todd Kane.
The game resumed after a five minute delay and City continued to look for another goal as Callum O’Hare turned his marker smartly in the box and hit a lovely shot that was denied by a brilliant diving save from the keeper.
Jordan Shipley then had a crack with a hard and low left footer from the edge of the box which was just too close to Joe Bursik who dropped low to make the stop and the Sky Blues created chance after chance against a Stoke side that looked all over the place.
But Coventry were punished just before the break when the Potters scored on the counter attack ahead of six minutes of added time. It was Sam Clucas who drove forward and played the ball out wide to Josh Tymon who immediately play it back into him in the box where he was completely unmarked and able to hit a precise shot into the far corner to beat Ben Wilson. It was a real sucker punch, coming as the home side’s first attempt on target from just three attempts in the first half.
Stoke came out looking a lot more determined after clearly having been on the end of some harsh words fro their manager, with Nick Powell forcing Wilson to tip over the bar.
Shipley tested the keeper just after the hour as City got back into their stride, looking to restore their lead in front of the brilliantly vocal travelling faithful. The midfielder made way for Jodi Jones with 20 minutes to go, with Matty Godden following shortly after in place of O’Hare.
Jake Clarke-Salter made a crucial sliding tackle to deny Josh Tymon and headed wide from a corner at the other end where Todd Kane had a powerful shot deflected wide in a game that could have gone either way.
Godden sent in a lovely cross to the far post where Maatsen looked to have scored with a downwards header, only for James Chester to clear off the line.
ATTENDANCE: 23,086 (2,613 City).