Coventry Sphinx 7-0 Eynesbury Rovers
Stuart Guest
Coventry Sphinx are the Uhlsport United Counties League Premier Division South champions and have been promoted from Step 5 to Step 4. After Rugby Town’s final game in hand was played a few days after Sphinx’s season finished, the table showed a three-point gap and a superior goal difference for the boys in sky blue and white stripes.
If the team felt any pressure to turn ten consecutive wins into eleven in order to get the job done by winning their last fixture, it didn’t show. The eventual runners-up dropping points elsewhere meant nothing as Sphinx ran out emphatic 7-0 winners against Eynesbury Rovers at the Sphinx Industrial Supplies Arena.
The celebrations continued long into the night at the club and beyond, with congratulations rolling in from other teams and their supporters throughout the evening. It was a truly special day to be a part of our club and it was confirmed by a fine win in front of a big crowd. The players handled the occasion superbly.
John Woodward and Shaun Thomas, our joint managers and the masterminds of this historic triumph, started with the Downes brothers in midfield. Jack and Luke played in the middle with captain Callum Woodward behind a prolific attacking trio of Kyle Carey, Callum Stewart and Matty Shipman.
Goalkeeper Scott Martin played behind a back four once more. Joe Pursey and Jordan Hayward started at right back and left back respectively, with Callum Whiteside and vice-captain Louis Guest in the centre of the defence.
The first few minutes of the match lacked rhythm and structure but Sphinx quickly took charge. Guest sent the first attempt off target with a header on the stretch in the eighth minute as Sphinx pushed hard against an Eynesbury side who set their stall out early to slow down the play.
After a few openings but nothing in the way of clear cut chances Sphinx’s quality told in the 17th minute and they took the lead.
Carey was played in on the right and stayed onside. His low pass across goal was impossible to defend and it was an Eynesbury player who got the final touch to turn the ball past goalkeeper Chris Brazil.
The champions elect never looked back. Their work rate was excellent and their attitude impeccable despite the circumstances. There were chances for Woodward and Shipman in the ten minutes following the opening goal but the second was on its way.
It arrived after 27 minutes and Guest was the scorer, squeezing the ball home on the turn after Brazil mishandled the ball with Eynesbury trying to repel a free kick. It was a typical instinctive finish from the defender and set Sphinx on the way to a thumping win.
The last thing the visitors needed was to give them a helping hand. In the aftermath of the second goal, Eynesbury’s Victor Osobu was shown a straight red card for an off-the-ball incident that was officially classed as violent conduct and best left at that.
Eynesbury were swiftly punished with a third goal on the half hour. After battling well on the left, Woodward cut back onto his right foot and whipped in a tremendous cross to the back post. Carey met the ball on the full to power in a header for 3-0.
For a spell after the sending off Sphinx were electric. They generated another chance in the 33rd minute thanks to fantastic work by Shipman. Stewart kept the ball in play, dropped a shoulder and hit the crossbar.
Five minutes later there was finally a touch for goalkeeper Scott Martin, who got involved in a lengthy Sphinx possession, and his team had several more opportunities to put the game to bed before the break.
Stewart went clear and drew a good save from Brazil, before a vicious Carey cross looked as if it had been deflected in off a defender once more. This time, it went wide. Brazil made a tremendous save to deny Stewart after more incisive play by Shipman, and another to keep out a lovely Jack Downes strike from 25 yards in first time stoppage time.
Brazil was Eynesbury’s best player of the first half by a distance and the difference could have been seven goals. Eventually it would be; Sphinx were firing and the visitors succumbed to the inevitable.
Nevertheless, it was Eynesbury who had the first meaningful attempt of a second half that Sphinx began slightly sluggishly. Martin had to tip over a free kick that was nicely struck but quite central, and the home team soon got going again.
Five minutes into the half, left back Hayward produced a sensational run the length of the touchline, cutting the ball back to Stewart at the end of it. The striker fired over from the penalty spot and had to wait for his breakthrough and the division’s golden boot.
Eynesbury had more possession in the quarter of an hour after half time. Sphinx were comfortable but not especially adventurous until the fourth goal sparked them back to their best.
Carey’s fine pass gave Stewart a chance to sneak the ball in on goal, which he tried to do to no avail. The ball went loose eight yards from goal, where Luke Downes reacted quickest to smash it into the net to make it 4-0.
Woodward and Thomas quickly emptied the bench, making a quintuple substitution as the championship party began on the sidelines.
Two minutes after those five changes, one of the substitutes made it 5-0. Leo Stone’s right-footed 20-yarder got a slight touch from Brazil’s glove but it was a fabulous strike worthy of a champion.
By now, Sphinx were coasting. Ten minutes from time there was a sixth goal and the first of two on the day for hotshot Stewart. Under pressure from a defender he got in behind and managed to prod the ball past the Eynesbury goalkeeper and into the net. Brazil came out on top in their next head-to-head but Stewart soon made it 7-0.
Dylan Parker, another substitute, won a penalty with a strong run that the unfortunate offender tried to stop by illegal means more than once before finally succeeding in the area. Stewart calmly swept in the spot kick to conclude the scoring with Sphinx’s 139th goal of the season in all competitions.
The final whistle heralded the club’s stride into uncharted territory but any jeopardy had been banished by a dominant first half and a big lead against ten men at the break.
A swaggering performance capped a sensational run of form and a title chase that we might never fully appreciate. Hunting down Rugby in the manner they did is something this team can hang their hats on for the rest of their lives.
With that and Anstey Nomads’ withdrawal from the Champions Cup match between Premier Division South and North winners, this extraordinary season came to its immensely satisfying conclusion. Off we go into the unknown.
Sphinx team
S. Martin, Pursey (Rawlings), Hayward (C. Martin), L. Downes, Guest, Whiteside, Carey (Parker), Woodward, Shipman (Stone), Stewart, J. Downes (Johnson)