Coventry Sphinx 4-1 Milton Keynes Irish
Marcus Robinson
Another Saturday, another different challenge thrown at Coventry Sphinx and passed with flying colours. After a run of clean sheets, Sphinx fell behind early to the team immediately below them in the Uhlsport United Counties League Premier Division South and were a goal down at half time.
With Jamie Draper unavailable there was a start for Loz Rawlings, who came in at right wing back while Callum Whiteside moved into goalkeeper Scott Martin’s back three with Louis Guest and James Bryson.
Jack Downes and Max Johnson started in midfield with captain Callum Woodward, and Cally Stewart joined Matty Shipman up front for Shaun Thomas and John Woodward’s side.
Sphinx made a lively start and showed plenty of intent to get opponents Milton Keynes Irish – who started the day in third place – facing their own goal.
They had the first couple of chances of the match. With six minutes played Stewart hit the byline and fed the ball in-field for Woodward, who clipped it to the back post. Rawlings could only head over on the stretch.
In the 14th minute Stewart was creating again, this time for himself, and his excellent tricky footwork took him into a dangerous position in the box. He got a low shot away and the Irish goalkeeper had to make the save low at his near post.
There was a goal from the ensuing set piece but it was the away team who scored it. Irish hit the hosts on the break and a shot from the edge of the penalty area squeezed through the fingertips of goalkeeper Martin and dropped over the line to give the visitors the lead.
Sphinx hadn’t been short of effort but they did need to tighten up on quality. When they did, they found the door slammed in their faces by a combination of determined Irish defending and a number of refereeing decisions that went against them. The visitors were sharp, never far off a Sphinx touch, but two good penalty shouts went begging in the middle of the first half.
First Stewart’s feet again caused problems and he appeared to be tripped in the box before the ball squirted away to Jack Downes, who fired over. Ten minutes later, the Sphinx forward’s shorts were clearly pulled but the protests were waved away once more.
Woodward and Guest had attempts on goal in between the two incidents but Sphinx were left to regain their composure and get the job done by grafting their way back into the match.
The visitors weren’t without opportunities of their own but were dealt a blow shortly after their best move of the match resulted in a Martin save at his near post. The Irish goalkeeper had been struggling with a knock and had to be replaced with six minutes remaining of the first half.
The game restarted and Shipman headed over from a whipped Whiteside cross, and then Stewart shot into the side netting after deftly pulling in another fine delivery from the Sphinx captain.
Woodward’s team were on edge, frustrated with how the game was going and with the decisions that hadn’t gone their way. They needed half time. Before they got there they offered a glimpse of what was to come after the break when a powerful Guest header was cleared off the line deep into stoppage time.
To say the match changed after half time would be an understatement. Sphinx were unplayable for the first quarter of an hour of the second half and turned 0-1 into 3-1 before the hour mark.
Shipman had a shot blocked at the end of a nice move five minutes into the half and his looping header from a Bryson cross was tipped over by the visitors’ substitute goalkeeper in the 52nd minute.
Sphinx scored from the resulting corner, the first of three goals in four electrifying minutes at the Sphinx Industrial Supplies Arena.
Captain connected with vice-captain for the equalising goal. Woodward’s corner sat up beautifully to be attacked by Guest, whose crashing header gave Irish no chance to keep out his first goal of the season.
A couple of minutes later the home team had the lead. Tidy work from Shipman and Rawlings on the right led to another blocked shot, this time from Woodward. It bounced back to him and he hooked it over his shoulder to find Stewart. The forward’s athletic header had too much on it for the goalkeeper, who couldn’t stop it going in off the far post.
The visitors thought Stewart was offside but there was a defender playing him onside in both phases of play. Their complaints were still ringing in the air just seconds later when Hayward thumped in Sphinx’s third.
Shipman flicked on a pass forward. Stewart angled his own header into the left channel for Hayward, who took the ball on his chest and showed excellent balance and strength to keep control of it under pressure. After two goals in the previous match, he drove another into the bottom corner to extend the lead.
The home team showed no mercy. Dylan Parker, on as a substitute, struck over from 25 yards in the 61st minute, five minutes after the third goal. Two minutes later, Shipman sent Rawlings clear in the right slot with a clever pass, and the evergreen wing back cut across his clipped centre and almost inadvertently found the top corner of the Irish goal.
Parker combined with two of the scorers with a shade over 20 minutes remaining. He and Stewart were heavily involved in a tremendous attacking move that culminated in a chance for Hayward, who blasted one towards goal but couldn’t keep his effort under the crossbar.
Sphinx were relentless without scoring throughout the middle of the second half. Then they scored.
Stewart made it and scored it, his tenacity in the press benefiting Sphinx yet again. He charged the last man in the middle of the pitch and blocked his clearance, giving himself and Shipman the chance to counter-attack.
Shipman took over and raced forward on the left before rolling a perfect pass across the face of goal for Stewart. Stewart took it in stride and smashed a first-time shot into the roof of the Irish net for his second goal of the game and a comfortable 4-1 lead for his team.
In the remaining minutes, Martin made a simple save and Sphinx substitute Jack Kennedy took centre stage, teeing up fellow sub Leo Stone for a cracking turn and shot that forced a save at the other end, and crossing well for a Stewart header that did the same with five minutes remaining.
The spectacular explosion of goals that won the game for Sphinx early in a stunning second half only really tells half the story. Thomas and Woodward’s team were on top for long stretches of the first half and dominant throughout the second, limiting Irish to very little in the way of chances.
In overcoming adversity in such emphatic fashion, Sphinx consolidated their position in second place and stayed in touch at the top of the division. There is one more league match to negotiate in November before the Isuzu FA Vase Third Round tie at Belper United in early December.
Seven days after beating Milton Keynes Irish at home comes an away game at Cogenhoe United, whom Sphinx defeated twice in the league last season. That doesn’t mean they’ll do so again, but the most recent performance suggests that any team in this league will need to be at nothing short of their very best to beat Sphinx in this form.
Sphinx team
S. Martin, Whiteside, Hayward (Stone), J. Downes (L. Downes), Guest, Bryson, Rawlings (C. Martin), Woodward, Shipman (Kennedy), Stewart, Johnson (Parker)