Easington Sports 0-2 Coventry Sphinx
Marcus Robinson
Coventry Sphinx started the Easter weekend with three more vital points, winning 2-0 away at Easington Sports to maintain the gap between themselves and Rugby Town at the top of the Uhlsport United Counties League Premier Division South.
Goals from Dylan Parker in the first half and Callum Stewart in the second were enough to see Sphinx past the hosts at Addison Road. Sphinx had the better chances but had to dig deep once more to win the physical battle and emerge unscathed from the footballing one too.
Joint managers John Woodward and Shaun Thomas had to be pragmatic about the challenge of two games in three days over the long Easter weekend and started with Kyle Carey and captain Callum Woodward among their substitutes.
Louis Guest assumed the armband in the middle of defence with Callum Whiteside in front of goalkeeper Scott Martin. Joe Pursey and Callum Martin continued at full back, Jack Downes and Luke Downes started in midfield with Max Johnson, and Dylan Parker and Callum Stewart flanked striker Matty Shipman.
Whoever wins the division will have to have won a few games in which they weren’t at their best. Sphinx are by no means an exception to that and this win in Banbury certainly wasn’t that of a very fine Sphinx team firing on all cylinders. They did what they had to do, and, at this stage of the season, that’ll do.
The visitors made a positive start but their play on the ball lacked focus in the early going and Easington settled into the game a little sooner. They had some good possession that culminated in a header over from the penalty spot in the seventh minute of the match.
Sphinx had plenty of energy but weren’t quite clicking in the first 20 minutes, Sports the more assured team with the ball but missing the attacking bite required to make it pay.
Conversely, the away team leant on their incisiveness to kickstart their game. Guest sent a glancing header just wide from a well placed Johnson free kick in the eleventh minute. In the twelfth, a long throw-in from Pursey was flicked on by Shipman and Parker, arriving at the back post, smashed the ball over the crossbar on the stretch.
In the middle of the half Parker’s determination earned him the opening goal. Stewart did brilliantly to hold off a defender and gather the ball after a touch from an Easington player trying to defend a pass that was clipped towards the box.
Stewart’s shot across Easington goalkeeper Adam Doyle was saved but there was Parker again, sliding in at the back post to nudge the ball into the back of the net and give Sphinx a vital lead.
Sphinx got themselves in front and started to look more dangerous in attacking areas but Sports made a few chances too. They hit the side netting in the 29th minute and later sent a volley wide of Scott Martin’s post.
In between, the visitors thought that a pull on Stewart as he went clear in the box should have resulted in a penalty but none was given. The half ended with Sphinx a goal to the good but with more work to do to earn the points.
Even after the respite of half time the match struggled for a rhythm. What it lacked in spectacle it made up for in guts, thunder and occasional desperation. Its fate was decided by two opportunities in the space of three minutes in the middle of the second half.
At one end, a threatening goalmouth scramble ended with a good chance wasted for Easington. At the other, Sphinx turned an unpromising situation wide on the right into the second and last goal of the game.
Substitute Carey showed his strength and ability to gain control of the ball on the wing and turn his marker before swinging a fantastic cross in with his left foot. With players coming together at the back post and unable to get a touch, the ball found its way to Stewart. He lashed in a left-footed volley for 2-0, scoring his 26th league goal of the season.
Though late chances were few and far between and Easington were unable to put significant pressure on Martin’s goal, there was time for Carey and Shipman to have consecutive shots blocked and for tempers to fray deep into stoppage time.
Easington’s Elliot Barton took exception to a foul by Sphinx substitute Jordan Hayward and somehow avoided a red card for violent conduct as a consequence of his reaction. The match was almost over and the result was secure; the flashpoint passed quickly and no lasting animosity was caused.
With another fixture successfully navigated, the next is already upon Sphinx. After an Easter Saturday win in Banbury, they’ll look for an Easter Monday win rather closer to home when they face local opposition in their penultimate away match of the campaign.
The last of those fixtures follows at Godmanchester Rovers on April 15th, with the season coming to an end at the Sphinx Industrial Supplies Arena against Eynesbury Rovers a week later.
Sphinx have continued their winning run since taking over from Rugby Town at the top of the Premier Division South and dealt well with a different kind of pressure. With three games to go it’s tight at the top but their destiny remains in their own hands.
Sphinx team
S. Martin, Pursey, C. Martin, L. Downes, Guest, Whiteside, Parker (Carey), J. Downes (Rawlings), Shipman, Stewart (Hayward), Johnson (Stone). Unused sub: Woodward