Biggleswade United 1-5 Coventry Sphinx
Stuart Guest
Coventry Sphinx negotiated a potentially troublesome and twice postponed tie at Biggleswade United to progress through the Fourth Round of the 2022/23 Isuzu FA Vase.
Despite the home team’s resurgence Biggleswade again proved a happy hunting ground for Sphinx; this 5-1 win means they scored 15 times in their two visits to Second Meadow and 23 times against Biggleswade over three matches this season and last.
Sphinx’s opposition were a very different prospect this time around and the margin of victory against the former United Counties League opponents was a reflection of just how dangerous they can be under John Woodward and Shaun Thomas this season.
Scott Martin played in goal behind a back three of Jamie Draper, Louis Guest and James Bryson, with Callum Martin and Jordan Hayward operating as wing backs. Captain Callum Woodward returned from suspension to join Max Johnson in midfield behind Leo Stone. Matty Shipman and Callum Stewart started up front.
This was a very different Biggleswade United side to the one smashed 10-0 by Sphinx last season, both in terms of its constituent parts and its ability level. Nevertheless, the scar of that result undoubtedly offered motivation as the hosts were right up for the challenge and generated a blood and thunder start to the match.
Sphinx did well to produce the first couple of chances, both from Woodward free kicks. Shipman won a header from the first but was a long distance from goal and didn’t trouble Biggleswade goalkeeper Ollie Leslie.
From the next, Bryson managed to smuggle the ball over the line at the back post but the goal was disallowed for an apparent offside.
The visitors had to weather a significant spell of pressure from Biggleswade but took the lead in the middle of the first half. Stewart got his head in to nick the ball away from a defender and rolled it out to Hayward in the right channel. The wing back’s one-on-one finish was unerring.
The home team went close three minutes later, poking an effort over the crossbar from close range, before Sphinx had another goal disallowed. This time it was Stewart who was thwarted by the offside flag after a lovely ball from Callum Martin.
After a lengthy delay while Leslie was treated for an injury and eventually substituted Stewart hit the post from Johnson’s cut-back, but there was relatively little goal-mouth action in an entertainingly spirited half.
A late flurry saw Sphinx get the rub of the green – Biggleswade had an offside goal of their own disallowed at the end of 45 minutes – and Stewart doubled the lead in stoppage time.
Hayward turned provider to return the favour, supplying the kind of terrific low cross that finishers of Stewart’s calibre tend to swallow whole. He prodded his second in from close range and the visitors had a 2-0 advantage. It truly didn’t feel like a safe one at the break.
But eight minutes into the second half the tie was over. Shipman’s low shot deflected wide for a corner, from which a Martin cross was heading for the top corner and had to be tipped over. Woodward lifted in the second corner and found Guest, who headed it back where it came from and past the substitute goalkeeper to make it 3-0.
A couple of minutes later it was four. A dangerous attack for Sphinx was initially repelled but a block from a defender dropped for midfielder Johnson 25 yards from goal. He stepped forward and curled a beauty into the corner to put the contest away.
The home side came up with a bright response regardless, quickly following a much discussed change of shape with the goal of the game, a superb strike from distance by Conor Inskip that made it 4-1.
The match still had time to ebb and flow once more, with a battle of attrition in the middle of the second half punctuated only by Stone’s difficult header wide before giving way to a late spell in which both teams again looked threatening.
It was the visitors who got the final reward thirteen minutes from the end of a half they largely controlled. Biggleswade substitute goalkeeper Tom Wyant was unfortunate to concede it having denied Hayward. Stewart followed in and his snapshot looked to have fallen victim to a tremendous save, only to loop goalward with Sphinx’s top scorer in tow to make sure on the line.
Sphinx thoroughly deserved their victory, albeit by an unexpectedly comfortable margin thanks to some clinical finishing early in the second half against a team who were by no means four goals worse than them.
The boys in sky blue and white now move into the Fifth Round of the Vase – the same round they reached last season – and will be at home against West Didsbury & Chorlton as they look to go one better and match the club’s best ever Vase run.
But there’s no rest for the wicked. League action returns to Sphinx Drive in the meantime, with a trip to Newport Pagnell Town also on the fixture list before the next round of the FA Vase.
Sphinx team
S. Martin, Draper, C. Martin, Johnson, Guest (Whiteside), Bryson, Hayward, Woodward (L. Downes), Shipman, Stewart (J. Downes), Stone. Unused subs: Adams, Kennedy, Van Den Top