Coventry City 3 - 1 Charlton Athletic

[dutchman]

Coventry score 50th league goal of season in win over Charlton



Coventry City maintained their outstanding form at the top of the Championship as they fought back to beat Charlton Athletic.

Harvey Knibbs had given the visitors a surprise lead at the CBS Arena when he turned in Tyreece Campbell's deflected shot from six yards.

But the Sky Blues put themselves in front with two goals just before half-time as Josh Eccles scored from outside the box and Ellis Simms glanced in a header from a corner.

Charlton pushed for a leveller after the break before Simms poked in Coventry's 50th league goal of the season to seal victory.

Coventry have now won 11 of their past 12 matches and only lost once in the league all season.

Stoke City's defeat by Hull City earlier on Saturday means they hold a 12-point lead over third-placed Millwall and might already have one foot in the Premier League for the first time since 2001.

Few would have expected Charlton to take anything away from the Midlands, but the Addicks have now lost four matches in a row and only won one of their past seven.

Frank Lampard celebrated a year in charge of Coventry on Friday and his side are dominating the second tier like few have done before them.

The Sky Blues have now won all five of their matches in November following their only league loss of the season at Wrexham on 31 October.

Their goalscoring is also unrivalled in the top four divisions of English football.

In 10 of their 18 league matches they have scored three or more times.

They have 15 more goals than the second-highest scorers in the Premier League or EFL - League Two MK Dons.

No side at this stage of the campaign has scored 50 goals since Sheffield Wednesday in 1958-59 and Middlesbrough's second-tier record of 122 goals almost a century ago could also be under threat.

Coventry face tough away tests in their next two fixtures at Ipswich and Preston but on this form no one would bet against them taking six more points.

Despite the blow of conceding two quick goals just before the break, Charlton showed plenty of heart in the second half and Sonny Carey should have scored to make it 2-2, instead blasting over.

Once Simms had scored his second of the game and seventh of the season, Bobby Thomas almost made it 4-1 but his effort from distance struck the post.

Coventry City manager Frank Lampard told BBC CWR:

"A really important and good win for us at the end of a tough week.

"We've had to try to manage the squad, we've got a few issues so I was really pleased after going 1-0 down to show the patience in our game, to keep going, keep probing.

"You worry when there's a clear penalty you don't get that the whole stadium sees, you worry when they block things on the line and you wonder if it's going to be one of those days.

"To be fair to the lads they kept calm, got two goals in the first half and then saw out the second half very well against a dangerous opposition."