Coventry City 1 - 0 Middlesbrough
Posted: Sat Oct 01, 2022 5:18 pm
Gyokeres strike gets season up and running
A single goal from Viktor Gyokeres secured Coventry City’s first win of the new Championship campaign on a welcome return to Saturday afternoon football at the CBS Arena.
The Sky Blues could have had more goals as they dominated the first half before being forced to defend their fragile lead after the break.
City started brightly and really should have been in front in the fourth minute when a sweeping move resulted in Kasey Palmer having a free hit in front of goal, only for the playmaker to put his shot the wrong side of the post.
But Gyokeres made no mistake in the 17th minute when he was played in behind by Fankaty Dabo, cut in from the right and slotted under Boro goalkeeper Zack Steffen to give the home side a deserved lead.
It took the visitors 28 minutes to have their first attempt at goal, with striker Rodrigo Muniz trying his luck from outside the box but not really tested Ben Wilson who was right behind it to make a comfortable stop. But Coventry continued to boss the game and Gyokeres had another attempt on goal when Palmer sent him down the left and he cut in past his marker and hit a hard and low shot which the keeper saved at his near post.
Chris Wilder’s men came into the game after the break when City were forced to play more on the counter attack. And a double substitution saw former City loan man Ryan Giles go on for the visitors and almost set up an equaliser with a piercing ball across the face of goal that had Matt Crooks sliding in at the far post by failing to connect.
Coventry were playing a dangerous game as they sat deep amid mounting pressure and were forced to defend a number of set pieces while Palmer passed up the opportunity to secure the points in the 75th minute when his attempted long range effort into an open goal went wide.
But Mark Robins's men hung on amid five nervous minutes of stoppage time to keep a second successive clean sheet and get their season up and running at home.
ATTENDANCE: 19,788 (2,457 away).