Coleshill Town 2-2 Coventry Sphinx
Stuart Guest
Two days after a home defeat in the Pitching In Northern Premier League Midlands Division, Coventry Sphinx were in action again. A Monday night visit to Coleshill Town ended in disappointment when the Colemen scored to make it 2-2 in stoppage time, but another away point isn’t to be sniffed at.
Sphinx had taken a two-goal lead into half time thanks to two goals in a minute from Shay Willock and Kyle Carey in the middle of the first half but couldn’t hold out after conceding early in the second.
Joint managers John Woodward and Shaun Thomas were dealt a pre-match blow when defender Ryley Nicholson had to withdraw late due to injury. Vice-captain Louis Guest was drafted in from the bench to play alongside Jamie Draper and Patrick Zito, with Charlie Woods in goal.
Finlay Shorrock and Joe Pursey started in the wing back positions either side of Jack Downes and Iddriss Fuseini in midfield Willock played at centre forward, backed up by Carey and Roan Newey.
The early part of the game at Pack Meadow was unlike the first quarter of Sphinx’s previous game against Worcester City. Both teams were happy to play direct football and made it a battle by design from the outset.
Nevertheless, Sphinx and Coleshill settled into the game. Carey started to drop into midfield to get a foot on the ball and Sphinx – and the spectacle – benefited from that influence.
Woods made the first save of the match, easily fielding a drive straight at him from Coleshill’s Bassit Mandey with quarter of an hour played.
The away team changed the complexion of the match with two goals in the space of a minute in the middle of the first half, both of which frustrated Coleshill from a defensive point of view but offered plenty of evidence that Sphinx’s creative players can turn nothing into something.
They made it 1-0 when Carey rolled a quickly taken free kick to Willock, who picked out the bottom corner from 25 yards with Coleshill goalkeeper Tyrese Warmington getting set in anticipation of a whistle from the referee.
Coleshill were still rocking at the restart when Woods sent the ball forward, Willock competed for a header and Newey nudged the ball in behind for Carey. Warmington came out but the Sphinx forward got there first to lob the ball into the net and make it 2-0.
There was a spell after the goals that could have brought about a third. Willock tried his luck on half an hour but didn’t fully catch his shot, leaving Warmington with a simple save, and the striker was involved again a minute later. He found Carey, who teed up Shorrock for a shot that went wide.
The match grew chippy and fractious towards the end of the half and Sphinx became more frantic on the ball as Coleshill started to put the squeeze on them. In the first minute of stoppage time, Ryan Nesbitt thumped an effort towards goal and only a cracking save from Woods at his near post kept the difference at two.
The key moment in the game came three minutes into the second half. A foul in the Sphinx penalty area resulted in a spot kick for the home team that was promptly dispatched into the bottom corner by Nesbitt, whose strike had enough on it to beat Woods’ dive.
It was exactly what Coleshill needed and they had their tails up. Sphinx’s immediate task was to weather the storm and they weren’t really able to do so as a wave of Coleshill attacks followed.
Woodward and Thomas made a substitution and a change of shape to address the home side’s strategy for the remainder of the second half, halting their progress briefly.
Woods made a comfortable save from a free kick but the chances started to dry up for Coleshill but all Sphinx could do for a while was dig in. They did have one attempt to restore the two-goal lead. A neat flick from Willock gave Carey room to tee himself up for a volley, which dipped just over from the edge of the box.
The pressure on the Sphinx goal grew through the last 20 minutes of the match. Coleman substitute Jack Hallahan struck a volley against the crossbar shortly before an equaliser was disallowed for offside.
Sphinx briefly found their footing but eventually buckled. Shaquille Whittingham just missed the target with a tremendous volley in the 79th minute. Two minutes later he was presented with a much clearer chance and produced a less impressive finish.
By the last couple of minutes, Coleshill were able to keep chucking the ball into the Sphinx box – literally, more often than not – and Woods had to make an excellent late save to tip over a powerful shot from the edge.
What followed was a conclusion to forget for the visitors.
Willock was shown a second yellow card and dismissed in the last minute of normal time. In the second minute of added time, Hallahan set his sights from 25 yards and cut across a fine right-footed shot that curled away from Woods and settled in the bottom corner to make it 2-2.
Conceding so late is a horrible way to drop two points but Sphinx’s away record this season is such that a single point added to the tally on the road has to be considered a positive.
Sphinx were sharp enough in the first half to get themselves into a good position as Coleshill switched off. On another day, they might not have conceded the penalty as early as they did and the whole profile of the second half would have been different.
There are two more big games just around the corner. Sphinx will look to bounce back when they return to Loughborough University to take on Loughborough Students as Step Four clubs for the first time on Saturday 16th November.
The following Tuesday takes them to Northamptonshire for a second attempt to play this season’s away game against in-form AFC Rushden & Diamonds.
Sphinx team
Woods, Draper (Lock), Shorrock, Downes, Zito, Guest, Pursey, Fuseini (Ballinger), Willock, Carey (Woodward), Newey (Hayward). Unused sub: Nicholson