Coventry City 1, Birmingham City 0: Andy Walker's Sunday Mercury verdict

Feb 22 2009 by Andy Walker, Sunday Mercury

“Some linesmen would give it, some wouldn’t, but he was quick with his flag so it looked like he was very decisive anyway so I’d like to think he called it right.”

Meanwhile, McLeish’s opposite number Chris Coleman believed his side deserved to make it four games unbeaten.

“We deserved it, we created a lot of good chances and we could have maybe won it by more,” added Coleman. “Birmingham had their moments but overall we deserved the three points and I was delighted.

“We weathered it, we stayed strong and over the whole 90 minutes we created the better chances. There was a lot of enthusiasm in the performance and, to a man, I thought we were magnificent.”

McLeish made one change to the side who beat Nottingham Forest last weekend as Cameron Jerome came in for the injured Kevin Phillips.

Meanwhile, teenage goalkeeper Dean Lyness, a second-year academy scholar, was a surprise inclusion on the Blues bench after Colin Doyle was ruled out with a stiff back.

Promotion rivals Wolves headed to sunny La Manga this week in a bid to get their campaign back on track but after Blues’ terrible start it was as if it was they who were in holiday mode.

With just 23 seconds on the clock, Leon Best’s flick-on found Clinton Morrison clear on goal only to have his low shot kept out by the legs of Maik Taylor but, as it turned out, the Sky Blues had only another 36 seconds to wait for a goal.

Blues failed to heed the early warning as Dann managed to beat Ridgewell to prod home Danny Fox’s corner.

Blues looked shell-shocked and it took them until the 15th minute to muster even half a chance when a one-two between Bent and Seb Larsson on the edge of the area saw the Swede fire straight at keeper Keiren Westwood from distance.

Cov edged the first half and had opportunities to extend their lead before the interval. Maik Taylor had to be alert to keep out Fox’s deflected free kick and deep into first-half injury time David Bell poked a sitter wide from eight yards after Aron Gunnarsson had failed to cleanly connect with Leon McKenzie’s low cross from the left.

As Blues continued to struggle to find ways of breaking down Cov, McLeish removed Lee Carsley, due to a neck strain, to introduce the attacking threat of Hameur Bouazza, which allowed the creative Keith Fahey to move into his favoured central midfield position.

However, Blues remained a goal down at the break after Westwood had brilliantly changed direction to keep out Larsson’s tricky deflected free kick.

Coventry suffered an early second-half blow when lively McKenzie, who fell unchallenged to the ground clutching his left ankle, was stretchered off in agony. However, the loss didn’t stifle Coventry’s momentum too much and Maik Taylor had to be at his best to deny Best from close range on at least three occasions.

McLeish’s next attempt to gets things going was to remove Jerome for Carlos Costly – a decision roundly booed by the 4,248 Bluenoses in attendance.

The visitors did themselves no favours as highlighted by a poor Bent throw that allowed Best to counter-attack and set up Jordan Henderson whose shot was well-blocked by the back-tracking Larsson.

Sinclair’s ruled-out goal sparked debate at the death but it didn’t matter as, despite a late spell of pressure, Coventry clung on to complete a 1-0 double over their West Midland neighbours.

Coventry City (4-4-2): Westwood, Wright, Turner, Dann, Fox, Bell, Doyle, Gunnarsson, McKenzie (Henderson 54), Best (Simpson 83), Morrison (Eastwood 90). Subs not used: Marshall, Beuzelin.

Blues (4-4-2): Maik Taylor, Larsson, Martin Taylor, Ridgewell, Murphy, Sinclair, Bowyer, Carsley (Bouazza 33), Fahey, Bent, Jerome (Costly 71). Subs not used: Lyness, Johnson, Traore.

Coventry star man: Aron Gunnarsson.

Blues star man: Maik Taylor.