Coventry City 2 - 1 Millwall

[dutchman]

Wright double beats Millwall as Coventry hit top six



Coventry City had to come from behind as Haji Wright's two goals in three minutes beat Millwall to lift the Sky Blues into the Championship top six.

Despite wasting a lot of chances, Mark Robins' side looked in danger of being beaten by teenager Romain Esse's first-half strike.

But Wright went down in the penalty area in a tangle of legs with Millwall defender Japhet Tanganga to earn himself a 67th-minute spot-kick.

Then, having sent Matija Sarkic the wrong way from the spot, US international Wright fired a 70th-minute winner when his near-post shot beat Sarkic's weak attempt to keep it out - for his 11th goal of the campaign.

While City avoided the threat of a second home defeat of the season to climb four places to sixth, it was 18th-placed Millwall's sixth game without a win across all competitions.

Coventry's victory was undoubtedly reward for their overall dominance.

They should have been ahead after an early scramble when Tatsuhiro Sakamoto had a shot blocked, then Wright's follow-up came off the left post - ricocheting on to the woodwork for a second time and back into Sarkic's safe clutches.

But Millwall's Michael Obafemi also went close with a shot straight at Coventry keeper Brad Collins, before the visitors stunned the arena by going in front.

The move came straight from Millwall keeper Sarkic, whose long clearance was flicked on down the left and transferred back inside by Zian Flemming before Esse let fly, his powerful right-foot shot getting a big touch off Luis Binks to divert past Collins.

Obafemi should then have made it two when he shot straight at Collins, before Coventry midfielder Victor Torp's free-kick was tipped over by Sarkic, and Kasey Palmer's shot was deflected over for a corner off Wes Harding's head.

The home chances continued to come after the break as Callum O'Hare played in Sakamoto, whose shot was pushed out by Sarkic before Torp had an effort from just outside the area deflected wide.

But, just when impatience levels appeared to be increasing among home fans, Wright went down in the box - and put the resulting penalty in the right corner.

Three minutes later, O'Hare picked out Wright on the left side of the area unmarked and, despite Sarkic's outstretched right hand getting to it, he found the bottom left corner.

Both sides return to Championship action on Wednesday.

Coventry travel to Devon to play Plymouth Argyle while Millwall host promotion hopefuls Ipswich Town.

Coventry City manager Mark Robins told BBC CWR:

"We've had to work hard for that. We want to play quickly and they made it very difficult for us.

"We could even have been out of the game as they had a couple of chances. But then Haji planted his foot, had his leg taken away and got the penalty, which I thought was stonewall.

"There was a bit of rock, paper, scissors with the penalty [to decide who took it] but he's taken them before in Turkey. He knows what to do. Then he gets the winner and we had other chances. Haji could even have had a hat-trick as he hit the post too.

"The pitch is not in great nick, by the way, and needs sorting out. We have to do some work on that."

[dutchman]

Robins stunned by ‘rock paper scissors’ game to decide Coventry penalty taker



The Coventry manager, Mark Robins, joked he was “going to kill” Haji Wright and Callum O’Hare over their unconventional way of deciding who would take a penalty in their 2-1 victory against Millwall.

Wright won an impromptu game of rock paper scissors between the two before converting the spot-kick that cancelled out Romain Esse’s early opener. The USA international then struck the winner to lift the Sky Blues up to sixth in the Championship and leave Millwall, who began as the better side, four points clear of the relegation zone.

Robins said: “Rock paper scissors? I’m going to kill them. For me, it’s about who’s confident to take the penalty. Now, Callum’s confident, Haji was a regular penalty taker in Turkey [with Antalyaspor], so I’ve got no problem and then if I get involved with that then it obviously puts doubt in somebody’s head.

“So, let them sort it out and if they miss it then they’re in trouble, aren’t they, but thankfully they’ve got the wherewithal and the calm heads to deal with that situation. The good thing is they both want to score, they both want to take the penalty, they both want to get on the scoresheet.

“I think that, obviously, you’ve got a situation where there’s two really decent penalty takers there, but it needs to be a little bit more scientific than that. They’ve obviously sorted it out between themselves and that’s fine.”