Coventry Sphinx 3-2 Coventry United
Marcus Robinson
Coventry Sphinx’s 2021 ended with an away loss against Coventry United. What followed was a fantastic year that came to a conclusion on Boxing Day with a 3-2 home win against the same opposition.
Sphinx could and should have scored more than three goals and certainly shouldn’t have conceded twice, but they picked up three important points without hitting top gear in the final Uhlsport United Counties League Premier Division South fixture of 2022.
Joint managers John Woodward and Shaun Thomas rewarded Leo Stone with a start after a superb performance off the bench at Belper United, with Max Johnson and captain Callum Woodward completing the midfield trio behind Matthew Shipman and Callum Stewart.
Scott Martin played in goal and had in front of him a familiar back three. Jamie Draper, Louis Guest and James Bryson started at centre back with Callum Whiteside at right wing back and Jordan Hayward on the left.
Sphinx were dominant throughout the first half and really should have had the game killed off by half time. They made a good start and purred in the first quarter of an hour, albeit with the final ball not quite happening for them.
A drilled Woodward corner was headed powerfully over by Guest in the fifth minute. The skipper then curled a free kick over from 25 yards shortly before his team opened the scoring after 15 minutes.
Stewart’s tenacity kept the attack alive in the left-hand channel and he strode forward before reversing a pass to Stone. The attacking midfielder’s low cross was prodded through the legs of the goalkeeper by United captain Riley Davoile and Sphinx had the early lead.
Five minutes after the goal the visitors were extremely fortunate not to have goalkeeper Kris Roscoe sent off. Stewart raced clear and Roscoe left his penalty area to clean him out. Given the denial of an obvious goalscoring opportunity and the nature of the foul itself, a red card should have been the inevitable outcome.
But Roscoe was still in goal with a yellow card to his name to punch away the free kick, taken by Stewart. Stone had a shot deflected wide a few minutes later as the game started to lose its shape.
Stone and Stewart were involved again as Sphinx made it 2-0 in the 29th minute. The home team’s press won them the ball back in the United half and Stewart made headway on the right before feeding Stone on the edge of the box.
Stone beat a couple of defenders and checked back onto his left foot, firing in a shot that bounced off the base of the post and evaded a dozing Roscoe on the rebound. Stewart does not sleep and tucked the loose ball in from close range.
With half an hour played, Sphinx were well on top and looking for another goal. Shipman had to add all the power to a header that he could only divert wide of the post, and Roscoe was out again late in the half. Shipman got to the ball before him and Stone’s chip looked bound for goal until it was smartly headed off the line.
Stewart got in behind from a free kick, turned, and went for goal only to be denied by a Roscoe save before the half ended as it began, with a deflected Stone shot going wide – this time at the end of an excellent passing move – and Guest thumping a header over from a driven Woodward corner kick.
At the end of the first half Sphinx were competing for everything, displaying exactly the attitude that was required at 2-0. The visitors momentarily lost some discipline, ending the first period with a number of late tackles as they sought a way back into the match.
As it happened, it was a surprisingly tame second half from Sphinx that allowed the away team a foothold. They were slow to get out of the blocks and made rather harder work of this win than was necessary.
The visitors pulled a goal back three minutes into the second half and it was another own goal. A corner was partially cleared and delivered back into the box, and the ricochet off a defender took it past Martin in the Sphinx goal to make it 2-1.
Sphinx quickly regained the initiative, albeit briefly. A pass into the right channel released Stewart and he cut back onto his left foot and rolled the ball across goal for Shipman. Roscoe saved his low shot to keep the difference at one.
But the crucial third Sphinx goal came from the resulting corner. Woodward delivered to the back post from the right and Bryson got above his marker to head in from close range, ultimately putting the game beyond the away team’s reach.
The scoring was completed by the visitors who again pulled a goal back, this time with a Renato Prifti shot from the edge of the penalty area with almost an hour played. Three minutes later they were reduced to ten men thanks to a boot that connected with the face of Stewart on Sphinx’s right flank.
Johnson took the free kick and delivered for Bryson, whose header was from a prohibitively long way out and drifted over. But Sphinx had to dig in against ten men and were tested throughout the last quarter of the match.
With 15 minutes remaining United’s Davoile whipped a free kick just over Martin’s crossbar from 25 yards out, the culmination of a spell of pressure from the visitors. There was still time for Roscoe to deny Shipman after a threaded pass from Sphinx substitute Dylan Parker but the hosts were hanging on in stoppage time at the end of a game that should have been buried long before.
Nevertheless, the latest win over Coventry United ended 2022 in fine style. It’s been an exceptional calendar year for Sphinx, with league form through the second half of last season and the first half of 2022/23 right up with that of the best teams in the division.
We now look towards 2023 with excitement about what the new year will bring. Sphinx carry into it a strong position in the league, and will soon face the next rounds of both the Birmingham Senior Cup and the FA Vase.
Happy New Year and thanks for your support in 2022.
Sphinx team
S. Martin, Draper, Hayward (J. Downes), Johnson (C. Martin), Guest, Bryson, Whiteside (Kennedy), Woodward (L. Downes), Shipman, Stewart, Stone (Parker)