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“We are top of the league,” sang the Coventry City supporters of returning to the summit of the Championship. Ironically, it was a result that quelled the nagging noise surrounding Frank Lampard and his team.
Coventry, pace-setters for the majority of the season, had won just four league games since the end of November. But Haji Wright hit a timely hat-trick as Coventry again traded places with Middlesbrough, whose six-game winning run came to an abrupt halt. Riley McGree pulled a goal back midway through the second half but from the restart Boro conceded a penalty that allowed Wright to claim the match ball. Coventry’s lead may be a single point but this felt a significant victory – psychologically as much as anything – their having taken just 16 points from the previous available 39.
For Kim Hellberg, the Boro head coach who grew up in Sweden idolising Lampard, this was disappointing but not a disaster. When he took charge in November, Boro trailed Coventry by 10 points. On this evidence, Boro look determined to run them close as the pair fight for automatic promotion in the remaining 14 matches.
There was a big-game energy in the moments before kick-off: fireworks shooting into the sky, pyrotechnics sparkling and the Enemy, the Coventry band whose We’ll Live and Die in These Towns has evolved into a club anthem, blaring. The match itself was entertaining from the first whistle, Tommy Conway bounding into Joel Latibeaudiere after Coventry got things under way on halfway and Wright sent a header against a post inside 99 seconds, rising above Luke Ayling to flick Tatsuhiro Sakamoto’s floated cross towards goal.
Perhaps it should have been no surprise this quickly descended into a breathless contest between not only first v second in the second tier but also the teams with the best home and away records in the division.
Coventry came into this game winless in three matches and fresh from being held to a 0-0 draw at home to struggling Oxford but did not appear a team short on confidence. Jay Dasilva sent a teasing cross into the box which his opposite number and fellow left-back, Matt Targett, headed clear. Then, on 21 minutes, they seized the advantage. Wright started and finished the move but the true catalyst was Sakamoto, who twirled clear of Tommy Conway and then Hayden Hackney with a neat piece of skill before handing the baton to Jack Rudoni. Wright’s first-time finish went through the legs of the Boro goalkeeper Sol Brynn. Boro were overpowered as Coventry clicked to devastating effect.
Boro may not have registered a shot on target in the first half but they did not lie down after conceding. Targett whipped in a devious cross himself that Dasilva sent behind for a corner. Ayling then powered a shot at goal that was blocked. Equally Coventry attacked in search of a second goal, Ephron Mason-Clark putting a shot wide after Wright pinched possession and before the half-time interval Mason-Clark, from Carl Rushworth’s long kick downfield, again threatened.
Boro did not heed Coventry’s warnings. Lampard’s side looked to utilise Rushworth’s booming kicks to put Boro’s back line under pressure and approaching the hour the hosts doubled their lead in direct fashion. Rushworth wellied the ball downfield and as it bounced 20 yards from the Boro goal, it became clear that Ayling was in a spot of bother. Wright sensed Boro’s vulnerability and after the ball bounced a second time, Wright sent it into the far corner of Brynn’s net. It was a nerveless finish but Boro were rattled, Ayling and Brynn asking questions of each other.
Hackney vented his frustrations after the referee, Thomas Bramall, inadvertently prevented Boro shifting the ball through the middle of the pitch.
Boro began the second half encouragingly, Morgan Whittaker heading over from a McGree cross within moments of the restart and Rushworth held an effort by the Boro captain, Hackney, after an intricate move. Hellberg freshened things up by introducing Jeremy Sarmiento and David Strelec and within a couple of minutes Boro hit the woodwork themselves when Sarmiento cracked a curling shot against a post.
Eventually Boro got a reward for their efforts, McGree lashing in on the half-volley, but any joy proved short-lived.
Within 17 seconds of the restart Targett was penalised for handling a cross from the Coventry substitute Josh Eccles and the hosts restored their two-goal cushion from the spot. Eccles kept the ball in his grasp before handing it over for Wright to do the rest.
