Coventry Sphinx 3-0 Godmanchester Rovers
Marcus Robinson
After a tricky start to the 2022/23 season Shaun Thomas and John Woodward’s Coventry Sphinx won 3-0 in their third consecutive home match. Narrow defeats to Rugby Town in the league and Bedworth United in the Emirates FA Cup left the team with regrets and frustrations – it was important, sooner rather than later, to send someone away from Sphinx Drive soundly beaten.
Godmanchester Rovers were the visitors for Sphinx’s first home victory of the new Uhlsport United Counties League Premier Division South season and can consider themselves unfortunate. Sphinx deserved to win but Godmanchester’s quality wasn’t represented by the final score.
For their part, Sphinx might reflect on a comfortable win on the back of a good performance that was nevertheless flawed. Crucially, they started well in searing heat and got an early goal. After 180 goalless home minutes, it was just the springboard they needed.
Woodward and Thomas were without suspended defender Louis Guest, so Jamie Draper shifted into the middle of the back three with Callum Whiteside to his right and James Bryson to his left in front of goalkeeper Scott Martin. Callum Martin and Loz Rawlings continued at wing back outside a midfield of Jack Downes, Callum Woodward and Callum Stewart.
Mason Platts was drafted in to make his first competitive Sphinx start and played up front with striker Matty Shipman. Both were quickly involved as the home team tore out of the blocks at the Sphinx Industrial Supplies Arena.
They piled on the pressure early and Godmanchester were forced onto the back foot from the first minute. In the fifth, Stewart slotted a pass through to Platts in the right channel and goalkeeper Finley Iron watched on as his shot was dragged wide of the far post.
Sphinx took the lead in the sixth minute. Downes clipped the ball forward towards Shipman with his back to goal. His marker’s header went straight up in the air and Shipman pulled the ball down and turned it around the corner for Stewart. Iron got plenty on it but the Sphinx forward is deadly in those situations and managed to squeeze the ball over the line to make it 1-0.
Visibly boosted by the advantage, Sphinx continued to go for the jugular. A few minutes after setting up the opening goal Shipman received a quickly taken free kick from Rawlings but got under his shot. In the 13th minute, Sphinx’s pressing won the ball back and it was dropped in behind for captain Woodward. His shot went wide.
The home team looked dangerous in attack and Godmanchester were open at the back in the first half, but between the penalty areas the visitors were giving every bit as good as they got. In the 14th minute an ambitious chipped effort from the left sailed over goalkeeper Martin and wide, a reminder that the visitors were more than just lively on the ball.
The second goal in a match is always important and never more so than on this occasion. It came after a spell in which Godmanchester were on top, moving the ball well in attacking areas but unable to craft a real chance to test Martin in the Sphinx goal. The home team were making mistakes in possession and it took another goal to settle them down.
Shipman scored it after receiving a Woodward throw-in and playing a clever one-two with Platts, who pulled it back to the striker on the penalty spot. He added a goal to his assist with a low finish with which Iron again made contact. It had too much power to stop it finding the net and Shipman was off the mark for the season.
Energised by his goal, Shipman set about scoring another and was desperately unlucky not to manage it before the break. He made himself half a yard for a shot in the 33rd minute only for Iron to make the save. Platts kept the attack alive and lifted in a cross, which Stewart headed over.
Clearly a handy side in possession and willing to attack in numbers, Godmanchester certainly kept the Sphinx defenders honest but Scott Martin had their next effort covered had it not found the side-netting, and the home team were by now doing more serious damage at the other end.
Just before half time a low cross from Platts produced a brilliant shot from Shipman on the stretch. He applied enough power to beat the goalkeeper but the angle and the pace of the delivery were against him. His strike cannoned back off the post. Stewart’s shot on the follow-up was deflected over.
Sphinx again made a decent start to the second half. It was evident that Shipman, Platts and Stewart had Godmanchester’s number but also that the visitors could easily get a goal that might change the momentum.
Scott Martin held a tame effort on 47 minutes and Sphinx replied with a terrific move involving Shipman and Stewart. It ended with a flicked pass through to Platts, whose firm strike one on one was saved well by Iron.
Rawlings was the next to see his attempt to kill off the game thwarted by the Godmanchester goalkeeper. With Sphinx on the break and Shipman involved again, the ball eventually arrived at the same time as the Sphinx wing back. Iron saved his low header.
Whiteside and Draper made important blocks to keep the difference at two either side of a Sphinx change just before the hour. The latter was followed up by a curling shot over the angle before Platts was withdrawn and replaced by Leo Stone, who took over in the hole to push Stewart further forward.
Godmanchester quietly put together a really good spell after the first Sphinx substitution. Draper came into his own in the middle of defence to keep them at arm’s length, though, and the home side still had a significant threat of their own.
In the 74th minute another substitute, Luke Downes, got on the ball and initiated the best move of the game. Stone played a reverse ball to Shipman, whose shot was blocked. A third sub, Lewis Noon, took the corner and Stewart again had to stretch to meet a header that was too difficult to keep down.
A minute later Shipman was causing problems again, this time finding Stewart in the left channel. He fizzed a pass across goal for Stone, who got a toe to it but just couldn’t get there in time to poke it into the open goal.
But Stone’s first Sphinx goal was in the post. Sphinx again made the best of a throw-in, with Callum Martin taking it and receiving the ball back from Stewart. Stone was waiting for the delivery and was on hand to prod in the home team’s third goal of the afternoon.
Godmanchester were lucky to escape at least a yellow card when Stewart got across his man and was fouled just outside the penalty area in the 80th minute. Despite the angle favouring a left-footed player, Stewart confidently took the free kick himself and swung it just over the angle.
Two minutes later it was Jack Downes giving Rovers something to think about. His incredible first touch preceded a near-post cross to Stewart, whose only option was to turn it towards goal by way of an audacious volley. Iron stood up to it well with a reflex save.
There was still time for Stone to hit the post under pressure but the points had been wrapped up by his first goal. Sphinx took their tally to six points thanks to two wins from three league games, giving their start to the season a very different complexion than a defeat would have created.
It was, in that sense, a vital victory. But it wasn’t a vintage performance, and in all but chance creation and finishing one might argue that it was the most perfunctory of the three at home so far. In that kind of heat, it’s understandable.
Nevertheless, changes in midfield strengthened Sphinx’s control of the middle of the pitch, where Godmanchester, for all their ability on the ball, had played out most of their possession. The scoreline might flatter Sphinx, but the win does not.
Sphinx team
S. Martin, Whiteside, C. Martin (Billing), J. Downes, Draper, Bryson, Rawlings (Noon), Woodward (L. Downes), Shipman (Francis), Stewart, Platts (Stone)