Coventry City 3 - 0 Shrewsbury Town

[dutchman]

[dutchman]

Sky Blues tame the Shrews



Coventry City were denied three early penalty appeals before Adam Armstrong lit the Sky Blue touchpaper at the Ricoh Arena.

Tony Mowbray’s men were in sensational form back on home ground where they terrorised a fluid looking Shrewsbury side with a thrilling display in front of their fans.

Newcastle United loan star Armstrong hit a fine finish from 25-yards to notch his seventh goal of the season to get the ball rolling in a first half that ended with referee Chris Sarginson finally awarding a spot kick at the fourth time of asking, leaving Marc-Antoine Fortune to double the lead a minute before the break.

City always looked the more dangerous, having the supporters on the edge of their seats every time they counter attacked at speed in a scintillating display packed with pace, slick passing and trickery on a day when Mowbray made two changes to the side that lost to Bury the week before.

The manager handed Fortune his first start for the club, spear-heading the front four while Armstrong was deployed in the No.10 position normally occupied by Ryan Kent who was pushed out to the right of the attacking three in place of Jim O’Brien who dropped to the bench.

The other change saw understudy keeper Reice Charles-Cook come in for first choice Lee Burge who, while fit enough to be among the substitutes, was clearly still not strong enough to play after being laid up with a sickness bug all week.

The game started at break-neck speed with Coventry hitting the visitors with a blistering counter attack in the first minute, Fortune holding up the ball superbly and sending Ryan Kent on his bike down the right where he went to ground under a challenge from Mat Sadler. But appeals for an early penalty were waved away.

Armstrong then tested goalkeeper Mark Halstead for the first time a minute later when he wriggled into space to the left of the D and let fly with a right footer before Kent darted into the box and was felled by Sadler for a second time, sparking more unheeded calls for a foul. And the Liverpool loan man then went to ground a third time, this time under a challenge from Liam Lawrence in what looked to be the most blatant case of the lot, prompting the fans to chant “You don’t know what you’re doing,” to the man in the middle.

But City finally got their reward in the 26th minute when Armstrong pulled into space outside the box and placed a delightful shot inside Halstead’s left-hand post.

Mowbray’s men were forced to soak up a bit of pressure midway through the half but went back up the gears with a strong finish which saw John Fleck denied by a superb one-handed save before Jacob Murphy dribbled into the box where Halstead got the better of him in a one v one.

But it was a case of fourth time lucky at the stroke of half time when Fortune was up-ended by Nathaniel Knight-Percival and Sarginson finally pointed to the spot, leaving the Frenchman to score his first goal for the club with a hard and low shot to the right to give City a 2-0 cushion.

The Sky Blues continued in the same vein in the second half when they increased their lead when Fortune and Armstrong combined again, this time the former West Brom star slipping the fleet-footed front man through to finish clinically with his left.

That finished off the opposition who were well beaten in the end as City found themselves queuing up to add to the scoreline.

Attendance: 11,445 (803 away).