Sideways Sammy

Coventry City battled to a narrow victory in a scrappy contest away to Stoke City to grab three points that sees them hold onto their top six position in the Championship table.

The Sky Blues should have been ahead early when Callum O’Hare missed from inside the six-yard box after both Haji Wright and Ellis Simms triggered a scramble. The away side looked the better team in the first-half but couldn’t quite translate that into chances of quality. That was until, early in the second-half, O’Hare pounced on a loose pass at the back from Stoke City to quickly tee up Ellis Simms for a confident finish.

The Potters were on top for the majority of the remainder of the contest but failed to test Ben Wilson, who had been restored by Mark Robins in the Coventry City goal. Haji Wright should have wrapped up the points when he spooned an excellent chance over the cross-bar late-on, but the clean sheet meant that Simms’ earlier goal was enough to win the game for the Sky Blues.

A Scrappy Affair

The key factor in this game was that both teams had made a lot of changes after playing in Wednesday night. The majority of the players on the pitch had not featured in their respective team’s last match, including both goalkeepers, and it was no surprise that neither side really settled into a rhythm until later in the second-half, when Stoke City were forced to chase the game from a goal down.

Initially, it looked as if Coventry City were better off with the six changes they made to their side than Stoke City did. While it was hard to argue that the Sky Blues were truly in control of the first-half, they had the better chances and really should have taken the lead when Callum O’Hare missed from a couple of metres out with the opposing goalkeeper prone from an earlier save. However, the away side tired as the game wore on and were on the back foot for much of the second-half.

Fortunately, Coventry City had snaffled the lead before they were over-exerted, with Callum O’Hare pouncing on a loose pass from Stoke City’s Ki-Jana Hoever to set up Ellis Simms to finish. Whether it was down to fitness levels or the personnel on the pitch, the Sky Blues rarely had much time on the ball from then on out as Stoke began to pour forward and force some sloppy play from the away side to build pressure.

It summed the game up, however, that there were few chances of discernible quality from then out, with both sides lacking composure in the final third. Whether it was Stoke City getting in good positions and failing to pull the trigger or Coventry City pouring forward on the counter-attack and stumbling over the final ball, this was far from an advertisement for the quality of Championship football.

As much as a team should be looking to play its best football all the time, being able to eke out points when players are fatigued or not quite on song is mightily helpful in keeping the points ticking over. With many of the teams around Coventry City winning during this matchweek, this was a situation where the result had to take precedence and being able to hold on for the win has to be seen as a positive sign of this team’s fortitude as the business end of the campaign looms into sight.

The Value of a Clean Sheet

It sounds simple, but the reason why Coventry City won this game is because they kept a clean sheet. It is something this team hadn’t done in the 12 games prior and while that hadn’t been counter-productive to picking up points, this game demonstrated that shutting out the opposition means only one or two things have to go right at the other end to win matches.

The decision by Mark Robins to restore Ben Wilson in goal, Luis Binks in central defence and Jay Dasilva at left-back were big calls that paid off here despite no-one really asking for them. While Coventry City were fortunate somewhat to come up against a Stoke City side that are in poor form, it was the performance of the back four and goalkeeper during the key phase of the game – around the 60-75 minute mark when the Potters managed to get on top and the Sky Blues couldn’t clear their lines – where they held firm that won the away side the game.

After falling behind, Stoke City began to dominate the ball and got into dangerous areas around the penalty area, however, they were only really able to generate a pot-shot from Lewis Baker and a few set-pieces during that spell. It was a defensive showing reminiscent of last season, with Coventry City dropping into their own penalty area and able to limit the opposition’s ability to work the ball into goalscoring positions.

With Bobby Thomas taking charge in central defence, Luis Binks and Jay Dasilva were largely impressive in staying diligent in their positions to defend the penalty area, while the second-half substitute at right-back, Milan van Ewijk, was a little more proactive in shutting down the skilful Bae Jun-ho on Stoke’s left side and Ben Wilson commanded his penalty area to cut out the threat from crosses. In contrast to the aggressive approach that has been seen for much of the campaign, Coventry City were content to let their opponents have the ball knowing they could defend the truly dangerous areas of the pitch.

It was crucial that the defence were on it here as the midfield and forward players were guilty of fumbling some key opportunities to relieve pressure by either carrying the ball up the pitch or killing the game off with a second goal. While Haji Wright’s spooned late chance was the most notable attacking miscue, there were multiple opportunities throughout the second-half for the likes of Wright, Kasey Palmer, Callum O’Hare and Ellis Simms to take advantage of Stoke City’s desperation in pouring forward but they too often made the wrong choice and allowed the pressure to build.

That is the value of staying strong at the back to keep a clean sheet. All it took to win this game was one poor pass from a Stoke City defender and some quick thinking from Callum O’Hare to grab the three points, whereas the team has had to fight long and hard for many of its recent points, which is a contributing factor to why Mark Robins has had to rotate the team of late.

Ellis Simms Starts To Get His Rewards

It’s now two goals in two games for Ellis Simms and the striker is starting to deliver the all-round performances at centre-forward that he has threatened to for much of the campaign. His finish for the winning goal here was the kind of confident and early effort that in-form strikers tend to produce and having done a good job for much of the game in battling with the opposing centre-backs to get his attacking colleagues into the match, this showing from Simms was a huge step in the right direction.

For much of the past few months, the debate has been whether Ellis Simms was capable of converting some decent, battling showings into goals. Simms’ physicality and mobility at centre-forward has often looked just what this team needs to act as a presence in attack that others can feed on. He has shown over the past two games that he can be more than a foil in attack.

Whether it was in timing a run behind the opposing defence to perfection against Plymouth Argyle last time out or pouncing on one of the few chances the team created here, Ellis Simms is starting to show some encouraging instincts as a striker on top of that all-round work at centre-forward. The concern with Simms at times this season has been how unaggressive he has been in seizing on chances and the hope is that those two goals will demonstrate to him to trust in his instincts as a goalscorer.

Ellis Simms adding goals to his game has looked the missing piece for this team for much of the past few months. At a time when other attacking players are suffering from fatigue, this really would be the perfect time for Simms to step up and carry this team to some crucial points in their play-off quest. Building on that midweek goal with a match-winning effort here seems a good indication that Simms is starting to click into gear.