Coventry City 1 - West Bromwich Albion 0

Date: Wednesday 21st December 2022 
Competition: Sky Bet Championship
Coventry:
6.3
(3-4-2-1) Wilson, Rose, Doyle, Panzo, Burroughs, Hamer (Kelly, 84), Sheaf, Bidwell, Allen (Palmer, 64), O'Hare (Tavares, 90), Gyökeres
Unused subs: Moore, Waghorn, Kane, Dabo
WBA:
4.9
(4-4-2) Palmer 7.3, Furlong 3.9, O'Shea 4.9, Pieters 4.8, Townsend 4.4, Wallace 5.9, Yokuslu 6.3, Swift 4.6 (Diangana, 90), Phillips 3.6 (Molumby, 56 5.1), Rogic 4.6 (Gardner-Hickman, 66 5.3), Thomas-Asante 5.4 (Dike, 66 5.4)
Unused subs: Button, Ajayi, Grant
Manager: Carlos Corberán  4.9
Scorers: Gyökeres (93 pen)
Referee: Keith Stroud (Hampshire) 5.0
Attendance: 22,519   Home Fans 4.9   Away Fans 6.3

Brendan Clegg:

Overall you’d have to say that was probably a fair result. Coventry were simply the better team for about 70 minutes of the match and Palmer made a handful of crucial stops to keep us in it.

As for us, I felt for the first time Corberan got his first 11 wrong and then failed to get his subs right. Our balance was off all evening but this isn’t a crisis. We still nearly nicked a point and had a couple of big chances to take all 3 but losing that way to an avoidable penalty is a bit of a sickener.

To summarise the game, Coventry matched us up but had players in midfield who were quicker and ran very hard. It was obvious after about 20 mins that Rogic and Swift away from home against a good side is a bit ambitious… we were overrun and Corberan had to switch things and swap Wallace and Phillips to try and change momentum.

Rogic should’ve finished his chance though with power and Wallace should’ve been more composed after a great break from a corner - going a goal up would’ve changed the game.

I thought TGH for Swift or Rogic was the obvious HT change but nothing was done and Cov came out on top.

To continue our imbalance Phillips made way for Mulumby who went central and Swift went wide left. It stemmed things a bit but then TGH and Dike came on for BTA and Rogic, with TGG going left wing.

So in 10 mins we’d gone from Rogic-Swift in the same 11 to TGH-Mulumby. A bit of a waste and a missed opportunity as Coventry tired but we’d gone a bit too negative to hurt them. I also felt BTA was hard done by as he’d been a pain and, on this showing again, offers more all round than Dike at the moment.

We looked a threat from set plays but otherwise struggled and through our imbalance appeared more likely to make mistakes.

The penalty at the end was a sucker but avoidable via a better earlier challenge and better judgement from Pieters - they got a bit of luck but we’d used all ours up.

A pisser but we still looked okay. Hopefully Corberan learns from it quickly.

  • Palmer - 7 Our best player on the night.
  • Furlong - 6 Okay, lacked options.
  • O’Shea - 6 Generally okay.
  • Pieters - 6 Some good passes but clumsy penalty cost us.
  • Townsend - 6 Tough night but plugged away.
  • Okay - 6 Mostly did a good job shielding things.
  • Swift - 5 Not as influential but kept going
  • Wallace - 6 Looked a threat but we didn’t find him enough.
  • Rogic - 5 Some good touches but not in it enough and should’ve scored
  • Phillips - 6 Might’ve been leggy but was solid.
  • BTA - 6 Felt he deserved longer with better balance behind him.
  • Mulumby- 5 Hard work but little impact
  • Dike - 5 Didn’t threaten
  • TGH - 5 Not a left winger but energetic