Coventry Sphinx 6-0 Lutterworth Town
Stuart Guest
Drawing against Milton Keynes Irish is a perfectly adequate result rather than something a team needs to bounce back from, but it felt like a blip Coventry Sphinx would rather do without.
The team has responded really well to setbacks this season – the big ones and the small ones – and did so in emphatic fashion with a 6-0 home win under the lights against Lutterworth Town in the Uhlsport United Counties League Premier Division South.
There were only ten days between league fixtures against the Swifts, and a 6-0 at home so soon after a 5-0 away is a just reflection of Sphinx’s superiority across 180 minutes.
With Jamie Draper and Callum Whiteside unavailable, joint managers John Woodward and Shaun Thomas brought Jordan Hayward in at wing back and moved Callum Martin into the back three with Louis Guest and James Bryson. Scott Martin continued in goal.
Sam Jackson made his first start in the right wing back spot, while Jack Downes and Max Johnson came into the midfield alongside captain Callum Woodward. Matty Shipman returned to play up front with Callum Stewart after missing the draw in Milton Keynes.
Sphinx performed a familiar and useful trick, scoring in the first ten minutes to take the lead and then again a few minutes later to put themselves firmly in the driving seat.
They immediately revealed their determination to put on a show after the weekend stalemate, and made a really positive and lively start. Shipman had an early shot blocked, and Hayward’s pace allowed him to collect a lovely pass by Johnson only to have his shot saved by Warren Butlin in the Lutterworth goal.
Hayward made a big contribution to Sphinx’s early advantage. In the eighth minute, his mis-hit left-footed shot after fine work out wide squirted out to the back post where Stewart was following in to tap in the opening goal.
The left wing back then had a shot from the edge of the penalty area saved as Sphinx, now 1-0 up, swarmed all over the opposition. After quarter of an hour Bryson went close, volleying over on the turn after Guest’s header from a corner had kept the ball in a perilous area for the visitors.
Three minutes later it was 2-0 in remarkably similar circumstances to the first goal. Hayward again sent a shot wide of the back post, and again a team-mate was there to exploit it. This time it was Shipman who arrived, tucking in confidently to double the lead.
Sphinx were dominant without ever having to hit top gear. Shipman also fired over on the turn after a deliberate Hayward pass in the 20th minute. Jack Downes, shining in midfield with Woodward and Johnson, had a shot saved and held and would go even closer after a Hayward shot was blocked.
His drive in the 28th minute was heading for the top corner with power but for an excellent fingertip save by Butlin that flicked it onto the crossbar. Johnson was next as Lutterworth withered, curling over from just inside the box after half an hour.
Four minutes before the break, Sphinx bagged their third goal and made sure of the result. The move began with a clever throw-in from the crafty Woodward.
Downes claimed a pre-assist for his tremendous pass into the left channel for Shipman, and the striker’s pin-point cut-back found Jackson. He buried the chance to score the first goal since his return to the club and give his team a commanding lead at the break.
The home team started the second half as they ended the first, and almost made it 4-0 in the first minute of the period. Shipman was unable to convert from close range after a sharp Stewart header had kept the ball in play.
Five minutes into the half, Shipman had a header saved by Butlin before Lutterworth created their only opening of the match. Guest won the aerial challenge in front of goal and Scott Martin grabbed the ball to snuff out the opportunity.
Stewart sprung the offside trap just before the hour mark and was found by a neat pass over the top. He took the ball round Butlin and was fouled by the Swifts goalkeeper – not for the first time this season. The referee pointed to the penalty spot and Stewart took the kick himself, blasting it low to Butlin’s right to put Sphinx four goals to the good.
Woodward and Thomas made all their changes at 3-0 and 4-0, and the substitutes immediately took centre stage. In the 62nd minute, with Sphinx cruising to a comfortable win and three vital points, Jamal Adams teed up Dylan Parker for a shot that went just wide.
Parker made it 5-0 with a cracker of a goal in the 70th minute. Adams was involved again, this time retaining possession with patient play on the left. Lutterworth had a couple of goes at clearing his pass along the edge of the box but eventually Parker was able to pounce on a loose ball and hit a low 25-yard shot into the bottom corner. Butlin had no chance again.
Unfortunately for the goalkeeper, the same can’t be said of goal number six. With ten minutes to go, Parker again tried his luck after Johnson nudged the ball to him in the same position. He didn’t catch this one so cleanly but Butlin let it squirm through his hands and into the net for 6-0.
Johnson’s late assist capped a fine individual performance in the middle of the park and he had a pop of his own with five minutes to go, screwing it just wide. Parker, Leo Stone and Luke Downes also had shots on goal as the game coasted to its conclusion, but six goals on the night was how it ended.
There’s a tough run ahead of Sphinx so wins of this nature won’t be the expectation in the rest of March.
After the Birmingham Senior Cup tie against Coventry City, Sphinx take on a sturdy Rothwell Corinthians side who’ve already beaten them once this season. A visit to Long Buckby quickly follows, then it’s back to Sphinx Drive to face Histon and Cogenhoe United in the space of four days.
This win over Lutterworth left Sphinx with ten league matches to play. It might look a lot to the teams around them on whom they have games in hand, but it means we’re heading into the final stretch.
Those fixtures will fly by and before you know it we’ll be playing the last few in April. Who knows what the incentives might be by then?
Sphinx team
S. Martin, Bryson, Hayward, J. Downes, Guest (Stone), C. Martin, Jackson (Rawlings), Woodward (L. Downes), Shipman (Parker), Stewart (Adams), Johnson