Desborough Town 0-2 Coventry Sphinx
Stuart Guest
After an enforced break, Coventry Sphinx picked up their second consecutive win to nil and the three points that took them to the top of the Uhlsport United Counties League Premier Division South.
Goals from Callum Stewart and skipper Callum Woodward in the second half were enough to secure the victory away at Desborough Town.
Goalkeeper Scott Martin claimed a clean sheet behind a solid makeshift defence led by Jamie Draper in between Callum Whiteside and Jordan Hayward – both outside centre backs were impressive in the second half especially.
They were flanked by Loz Rawlings and Callum Martin at wing back, with Woodward in midfield alongside Jack Downes and Lewis Noon, and Matty Shipman putting in an excellent shift up front with Stewart.
The match got off to a typically competitive start but Sphinx applied themselves fully to the task in the autumnal Northamptonshire sunshine. They created the first effort of the match from a set piece in the seventh minute, Stewart volleying over after a quick free kick. The strike had a high degree of difficulty but it was a decent shot across the Desborough bows.
For much of the first half, the play primarily took place in midfield in a test of strength between two teams capable of mixing it with anyone. With 16 minutes played, Desborough tried their luck from distance but Martin easily smothered the ball in the Sphinx goal.
The home team seized control of the match in the middle of the first half, putting the Sphinx defence under a sustained period of pressure. Sphinx were enjoying success in possession, evidently dangerous and able to get in behind Desborough, but that possession wasn’t always easy to come by.
In the ascendancy, the home team upped the physical ante and found to their cost that Sphinx won’t be cowed. Thomas and Woodward’s team responded perfectly, holding their own physically and playing their way into supremacy before half time.
They came close to taking the lead with half an hour played. Skipper Woodward got in behind the Desborough defence to receive a bouncing ball with the angle against him. Nevertheless, he was disappointed not to knock the ball over the goalkeeper to open the scoring.
Martin made a vital one-on-one save at the other end of the field as the chances started to flow. Rawlings was the next to worry the hosts, his low shot drifting just wide of the post after Noon had found him with a lovely pass into the right channel.
Rawlings, two weeks on from a brilliant volleyed cross to set up a goal in Sphinx’s previous game, produced another beauty in the 39th minute at Waterworks Field. Stewart got up well and connected with a bullet header to force the Desborough goalkeeper to tip over.
The visitors’ best move of the first half generated a couple of quickfire chances for Stewart. The first was blocked, the second fired into the side netting from a near impossible angle, and a goalless half came to a close.
Sphinx made a good start to the second period, their early pressure culminating in a Callum Martin cross and Shipman’s ambitious header over from the penalty spot in the first minute of the half. Desborough’s attacking players continued to be a handful too, and Sphinx’s defence had to be on their toes.
Five minutes into the second half, a bad foul on Rawlings left the player in a heap and his team-mates incensed. Draper – controversially, given the more vitriolic dissent later directed at the assistant referee but not punished – was sent to the sin bin for ten minutes, leaving Sphinx a man down.
The resulting free kick in midfield led to the opening goal. Woodward curled it beautifully into the penalty area, where Stewart brought it under his spell and was again able to have two goes at it. The second was tucked in from close range and Sphinx had the lead.
But the contest remained close. Desborough took the battle up another notch, matched by the visitors, and Sphinx edged the play even with ten men. Back up to full strength, they made it 2-0 in the 65th minute and never looked like surrendering the points from that moment on.
From a throw-in on the right, Sphinx worked the ball back to Downes thanks to good play by Shipman. Downes found Rawlings, Rawlings fed Stewart, and Stewart clipped a tremendous pass into the penalty area for Woodward. The captain finished confidently into the bottom corner.
Martin made a couple of easy saves either side of some poor Desborough finishing in the middle of the half, as Sphinx eased into what became a comfortable last quarter in which they played some of their best football of the match.
Stewart and Shipman were operating well up front and Sphinx’s back three started to really get to grips with the home team’s attackers, but Desborough rallied in stoppage time and fired wide from 25 yards before a scramble in the visitors’ box almost cost them a clean sheet when a clear foul wasn’t given on the line.
This win and results elsewhere combined to put Sphinx at the top of the league for a few days, a position they also briefly enjoyed last season. There are big games to come, tough challenges to tackle, and a long season ahead. But it’s better to be there than not, no matter how early in the season.
September’s remaining fixture brings FA Vase winners Newport Pagnell Town to Sphinx Drive for what should be a thunderous encounter on Saturday 24th September. Both sides are as competitive this season as they were last, and there was nothing to separate them across the two meetings in 2021/22.
Thomas and Woodward’s boys in sky blue and white should go into the game full of confidence, and with a third straight win as their aim. There aren’t many teams in the division better equipped than the Swans to stop them so only maximum intensity will suffice.
Sphinx team
S. Martin, Whiteside, C. Martin (Fraser), J. Downes (L. Downes), Draper, Hayward, Rawlings, Noon (Stone), Shipman (Platts), Woodward (Billing), Stewart