Coventry City triumphed over Leeds United in front of a raucous Coventry Building Society Arena crowd to keep their top six bid going.
In an end-to-end first-half, Ellis Simms continuing his scoring run by yet again finding himself in the right place at the right time at a corner-kick to head home from centimetres out gave Coventry City what was largely a deserved lead. A second came early in the second-half following a quick break, with Josh Eccles picking out Haji Wright for a delightful flicked finish past Ilan Meslier in the opposing goal for what proved to be the game’s decisive goal.
With the Sky Blues flagging towards the end of the game, Leeds United moved up through the gears and pulled a goal back via Joel Piroe, who stabbed home after Georginio Rutter bulldozed his way through the Coventry back-line. The Dutch forward could have grabbed his team a late point, when he found himself free in the box after a set-piece, but Brad Collins was quick off his line to make a crucial save with his feet to secure the three points for Coventry City.
Physicality In Attack Makes The Difference
This game really was won by Coventry City in the first-half, when they knocked a Leeds United side in red-hot form out of their rhythm and made it an end-to-end contest in which they got their noses in front thanks to yet another Ellis Simms goal. As the latter stages of the second-half demonstrated, when Leeds are able to control and dominate possession, they can cause all kinds of problems for their opponent. Limiting that period of dominance to 30 minutes, and having a two-goal lead at that stage, was crucial, the Sky Blues’ physicality in attack was key in making that happen.
Coventry City were not shy in getting the ball forward quickly in this game, knowing they had favourable physical match-ups between their attack and Leeds United’s defence – which featured two players who have spent most of the season operating in central midfield. Haji Wright was a key outlet for the Sky Blues on the right-wing, consistently getting the better of Junior Firpo in physical duels, while Ellis Simms unsettled Leeds’ central duo of Joe Rodon and Ethan Ampadu constantly under long balls. On top of that, Callum O’Hare and Kasey Palmer were more than willing to battle for first and second balls, which gave Leeds very little breathing room at the back.
Ellis Simms’ opening goal came from a set-piece that further demonstrated the physical mismatch between the two sides. A looping corner-kick delivery from Josh Eccles exposed Ilan Meslier’s lack of confidence in commanding his penalty area, allowing Bobby Thomas to reach the ball first and play it in for Liam Kitching to nod into the path of Simms to score.
It wasn’t just Coventry City’s physicality in attack that stood out in the opening hour of the game, but the pace and energy that meant they were first to loose balls and lightning quick on the counter. It was being able to defence into attack quickly that ultimately won the game for the Sky Blues, the corner-kick for the first goal was won after a quick break after Coventry were defending a corner of their own and the second came directly from a Leeds United set-piece being cleared. It is that combination of physicality, pace and energy that is where this Coventry side excels and recent performances against better teams have highlighted where that can come into its own in breaking up the opponents rhythm and generating attacking opportunities.
Coventry City’s energetic, quick-paced approach wasn’t without its drawbacks, however. The home side turned the first-half into something of a slugging match, by taking risks committing men forward which provided opportunities for Leeds United on the break. With quick, technical attacking players of their own, in Dan James, Georginio Rutter, and Crysencio Summerville, Leeds were able to get in behind the Coventry back-line on a couple of occasions in the first-half, which could have led to scoring opportunities with a better final ball.
While that was the risk with taking a positive approach against a strong team, taking a two-goal lead during the opening hour demonstrated why it suits this Coventry City side to play in this manner. Between Ellis Simms’ work-rate and physical presence at centre-forward, Haji Wright’s physicality and pace on the wing, the energy and craft of Callum O’Hare and Kasey Palmer, there is a massive nuisance factor among that front four, on top of the ability to then take advantage of the openings that creates. That is to say nothing of the forcefulness of Ben Sheaf and Josh Eccles pushing on from midfield and the sheer pace of Milan van Ewijk storming up from right-back.
Josh Eccles Continues To Quietly Impress
Josh Eccles is increasingly impressing for Coventry City with his ability to tie things together in midfield, winning battles, using the ball effectively and covering a lot of ground for the team. This was a stand-out performance from the midfielder, topped off with a fantastic assist for Haji Wright’s crucial goal early in the second-half, but characterised by the sheer volume of challenges that he won.
With Ben Sheaf pushed quite far forward for much of this game, often as far up the pitch as Callum O’Hare, Josh Eccles had an important role to play in covering the space in behind that left open. Eccles made nine tackles and three interceptions over the 90 minutes, including some really crucial interventions to break up dangerous Leeds counter-attacks. The homegrown midfielder was crucial in making the risk Mark Robins took in looking to push so many players up the pitch during the opening hour work.
On top of that, Josh Eccles showed quality with the ball to demonstrate that he can be an effective contributor to the attack. The assist for Haji Wright was a really positive piece of play from Eccles, when it would have been easy to play the safe option to retain possession but instead chose to pick out a team-mate who’d found space with the opposing back-line scrambling to cover. Furthermore, there were a handful of neat turns to open room up for himself in midfield and to get attacks going, even if his job was largely to win the ball and keep it moving.
That ability to combine work-rate with touches of quality has seen Josh Eccles nail down a starting spot at a key phase of the season. With so many players keen to push forward and contribute to the attack, having someone in central midfield to tie things together in the manner Eccles has done over the past few games has been crucial. As the assist in this game demonstrated, Eccles is someone who even has a touch more to offer than just pure work-rate.
Another Non-Clean Sheet
As positive as the first-half performance was from Coventry City, a single goal never looked like being enough to win it given the team’s leakiness at the back. While they were able to get a crucial second to give them margin for error in the latter stages, another failure to keep a clean sheet highlights the key area of doubt surrounding this team’s end of season prospects.
In this game, the failure to keep a clean sheet was a direct result of the effort required to go two goals up. The energy levels that had been required to break up Leeds United’s rhythm were unsustainable, particularly, without suitable replacements on the bench for that front four that had worked so hard for the opening hour. Coventry City were forced to drop deep and narrow to look to limit their opponent’s ability to get the ball into dangerous shooting positions, yet the pressure eventually told with Leeds getting a goal back with around 15 minutes remaining to set up a tense finale.
This Coventry City side just doesn’t seem to be aggressive enough when defending its own penalty area with numbers to be able to grind out clean sheets. Georginio Rutter was able to bundle past Ben Sheaf to get into the box, then Liam Kitching’s clearance lacked force and ended up at the feet for Joel Piroe to finish. The defence just doesn’t look confident in individual battles and isn’t particularly decisive when it comes to clearing the ball. It means opponents always seem to have a chance to create chances or build pressure when the Sky Blues drop deep and that often sees goals go in.
This team lacks a dominant presence in its own penalty area, having relied on it with Kyle McFadzean during last year’s play-off run. The trade-off this year has been that Coventry City have found scoring goals much easier but it seems unlikely that they are going to be able to rely on outgunning opponents over the final games to make the top six. Unless this back-line can find some aggression about them, the concern is that they could be where this late play-off bid falters.
Sideways Sammy 