Honours even as Derby and Coventry share points in dramatic 2-2 draw

Apr 10 2011 by Mark Woodward, Sunday Mercury

COVENTRY City picked up a point at Pride Park – but they left wondering how it wasn’t all three.

The Sky Blues produced a scintillating opening 40 minutes of first-half football and stormed into a two-goal lead thanks to strikes from Aron Gunnarsson and Marlon King.

But it all slipped away in the final five minutes of the first period.

Steven Davies headed home to reduce the deficit and then Robbie Savage passed in a penalty after King had upended Jamie Ward in the box.

Somehow, having overrun Nigel Clough’s side, Andy Thorn’s men had to go in at half-time all square.

Thorn said: “I don’t want to dwell on it because we played some terrific stuff. We’ve changed a lot in a very short space of time.

“There are things we have to tighten up but even at 2-2 we spoke in the dressing room and I said to them that we were not going to settle for that. I would rather win 6-4 and have a proper go.

“Our attitude and application for 85 minutes of the game was bang on – really, really good – but we had a five-minute sloppy spell and got punished for it.

“We’ve come into Derby’s backyard and we gave a very good account of ourselves and we are disappointed to be leaving Pride Park with a draw.

“There were so many positives to pick from the game. We’ll look at the negative things as a staff but there were so many positive things in this game.”

The caretaker-manager team of Thorn and Steve Harrison stuck to their attacking principles and the diamond formation with Gary McSheffrey just behind the front two and Sammy Clingan just in front of the back four.

Nathan Cameron came back in at centre-back so Richard Keogh could move to right-back in place of the injured Jordan Clarke.

And, within a minute of the start, City were on top and McSheffrey was causing the Rams all sorts of problems as he found space to turn and run at their back four.

He had a great chance in the opening 60 seconds from Lukas Jutkiewicz’s cross but shot over and, less than a minute later, more good football from saw Jutkiewicz head wide from Chris Hussey’s centre.

If supporters thought the Sky Blues looked good last weekend in their 2-0 win over Watford, this looked even better.

In the tenth minute, McSheffrey picked up the ball in midfield and was allowed to run 25 yards before he shot just over from the edge of the area. It appeared to be a matter of when rather than if Thorn’s team would take the lead.

McSheffrey and Jutkiewicz both watched efforts deflected out for corners and the second led to the opening goal in the 16th minute.

Gunnarsson and Cameron challenged for the cross and keeper Brad Jones fluffed his catch – not for the only time in the game – and it looped out to Gunnarsson who produced a fantastic overhead kick.

For a short spell, Derby began to come into proceedings and Keiren Westwood, who played despite feeling ill before the match, made one good save from Steven Davies to keep City’s lead intact.

Jutkiewicz went close from another McSheffrey delivery in the 37th minute but Jones made a very good, brave save.

However, two minutes later, Coventry did make their possession and good play tell. McSheffrey teed up Keogh on the right and the full-back chose to shoot from a tight angle, which Jones could only parry back into the box. King followed up but saw his effort blocked. He did, however, have the wherewithal to keep his nerve and when he was given a second bite of the cherry he slotted home.

It sparked a celebration with Thorn on the sidelines and some observers felt that was a show of support for the caretaker manager.”

But City’s joy quickly disappeared. The Sky Blues conceded a free-kick on the left-hand side and Steven Davies was given too much space to fire home from Ben Davies’ cross in the 41st minute.

And, just three minutes later, King made a striker’s tackle on Ward in the box and referee Russell Booth, who sent King off earlier in the season, awarded a penalty.

Westwood did his best to psyche out Savage but the seasoned midfielder did just enough to slot the spot-kick under the Republic of Ireland international’s body and into the corner.

The second half was a much more even affair as City struggled to create the chances they had in the first.

That said, the Sky Blues did have two efforts cleared off the line – one from Keogh and one from King – while Jutkiewicz fired into the side-netting from a tight angle.