Coventry Sphinx 5-0 Desborough Town
Stuart Guest
Hot on the heels of a 5-0 away win on Saturday, Coventry Sphinx were back at the Sphinx Industrial Supplies Arena in the search for three more valuable points in the Uhlsport United Counties League Premier Division.
Sphinx had won 5-0 with five different scorers twice in recent weeks and did so again against Desborough Town on a soggy night in Coventry, completing a handsome double over a side much improved from last season.
Joint managers John Woodward and Shaun Thomas tweaked the team after the win at Lutterworth Town and started with a back three of Callum Whiteside, Louis Guest and James Bryson in front of goalkeeper Scott Martin.
Jordan Hayward played at left wing back with Loz Rawlings on the right. Jack Downes and Luke Downes joined skipper Callum Woodward in midfield, with Matty Shipman and Callum Stewart again paired up front.
The first four minutes were frantic and might well have defined the 90-ish that followed. Shipman made the Desborough goalkeeper produce a save after just 15 seconds as Sphinx made a decent start.
Yet it was the visitors who were given the next chance to take the lead. They were awarded a penalty in the third minute, a decision that was controversial to say the least. It could have been a costly one, were it not for Martin in the Sphinx goal. He made a remarkable save low to his right to keep out the spot kick from Iain Blaikie.
Desborough kept up the pressure early on. Martin was called into action again to prevent the ball going in off Guest’s head in the sixth minute, and the game eventually settled into a pattern of even play and questionable decisions going the way of the away team.
Sphinx have made a habit of scoring early in their recent wins and went a goal up in the twelfth minute of this match. Stewart has racked up plenty of assists to go with his goals this season and he slipped the ball into the path of Shipman. In the form he’s been in, scoring from this particular one on one was never in doubt.
The final score might make it appear to have been an easy evening for Sphinx but that really wasn’t the case. They tried to get Desborough turned early in windy conditions throughout the first half but there was very little further action in either penalty area as a dip became a lull became a dirge.
The second half was anything but. Sphinx turned on the style and translated their edge into genuine superiority after the break.
With his team more on their game, Woodward stepped onto a shot that whizzed over the angle of the goal in the 54th minute. Five minutes later the home side doubled their lead and it was another midfielder, Jack Downes, whose determined run back into the box made it happen.
His cross fell to Guest, up from a set piece, and the central defender’s shot came back off the post. Stewart followed in to smuggle it over the line and the assistant referee had the best view in the ground to award the goal.
Desborough’s immediate but misplaced frustration resulted in a ten-minute sin bin they could scarcely afford with half an hour to go and a facing a two-goal deficit. Sphinx battered the visitors with the man advantage and made them pay severely for Blaikie’s absence with a third goal in the 66th minute.
Woodward’s precise free kick teed up Guest for a thumping header past the goalkeeper and into the net to make it 3-0. Guest has scored a string of headers of late, each more powerful and dominant than the last. This one was a beauty.
Thomas and Woodward were again able to turn to their bench in the relative comfort of a 3-0 lead. One of the substitutes was making a debut for Sphinx, albeit not his first. Wide player Sam Jackson returned to the club in February and came on for Rawlings with 18 minutes to play.
Jackson’s shot on the turn was blocked four minutes into his first appearance back in a Sphinx shirt but his team were cruising regardless.
They finished the job with two late goals, both made and scored by Jackson’s fellow substitutes. In the 88th minute, a quite superb Sphinx move was finished off by Adams, whose deadly shot across the goalkeeper into the far corner was another moment of quality marksmanship in his already prolific return to the side.
Subs Max Johnson and Leo Stone were big contributors, with Johnson’s play keeping the attack going and Stone playing a deft one-two with Adams before his strike made it 4-0.
Stone grabbed a goal of his own to round off the scoring in injury time. Another terrific Sphinx passing move ended with an Adams shot that was blocked by the goalkeeper. Stone followed up to prod in the fifth and Sphinx ended the night on a high.
After successive victories, Sphinx stayed in touch with second in the division and still have games in hand. It promises to be an exciting March for the teams at the top, with more than a couple of them still in the hunt for promotion.
The month begins with another massive week for Thomas and Woodward’s boys in sky blue and white, starting with a trip to fifth-placed Milton Keynes Irish and the return game against Lutterworth at the Sphinx Industrial Supplies Arena.
There are no fewer than eight games scheduled for March in the league and the Birmingham Senior Cup, as this incredibly demanding season continues.
Sphinx have been up for the challenge. Let’s see what they’ve got left in the tank.
Sphinx team
S. Martin, Whiteside, Hayward (C. Martin), J. Downes (Johnson), Guest, Bryson, Rawlings (Jackson), Woodward, Shipman (Adams), Stewart (Stone), L. Downes