Loughborough Students 2-2 Coventry Sphinx
Stuart Guest
Coventry Sphinx threw three points away by conceding two sloppy goals in three minutes against Loughborough Students but won one of them back with a Louis Guest goal to make it 2-2 in the fourth minute of extra time.
Sphinx had taken the lead early in the second half when Roan Newey got the final touch to force the ball over the line but the game was turned on its head inside the last six minutes. The visitors had to dig deep to take anything from an otherwise unspectacular match.
Joint managers John Woodward and Shaun Thomas saw their defensive plans fall apart with Jamie Draper missing out due to illness and Ryley Nicholson pulling up in the warm-up for the second time in a week, while striker Shay Willock served the first of three matches suspended.
Goalkeeper Charlie Woods played behind Guest, Patrick Zito and Joe Pursey, with Jordan Hayward and Finlay Shorrock in the wing back positions. Jack Downes and Iddriss Fuseini continued in midfield. Makeshift centre forward Alex Lock was supported by Newey and Kyle Carey.
The pitch at Loughborough University Stadium was in superb condition and Sphinx initially showed their intention to use it to their advantage. A neat exchange between Carey and Newey gave the youngster a chance to turn in the box but Students goalkeeper Luke Skinner stood tall to make the block.
Loughborough played their way into the game but Sphinx’s press was having an effect early on. With quarter of an hour played, they pinched possession high up the pitch and Lock got onto the loose ball 25 yards from goal. He turned and clipped in a shot that drifted just wide of Skinner’s post.
At the other end, Woods had to save a diving header from a Students corner before the game started to fall victim to a number of small delays that disrupted the rhythm of what deteriorated into a poor first half.
Lock and Carey combined beautifully around the edge of the Students box with half an hour played and Carey teed up Fuseini just outside the edge of the box. The midfielder’s curling shot landed on top of the net.
The hosts soon hit the outside of the net too. A shot deflected into the side netting in the 37th minute with Sphinx now struggling to get a foot on the ball. It was the last meaningful action of an uneventful first period.
It was the home team who started fastest after the break and created the first three chances of the second half.
Woods saved smartly to deny Halim Bangura with a header and Joshua Strouts at his near post before Marcus Gilpin smashed a shot over the crossbar immediately after Sphinx had been thwarted by a controversial offside decision against them at the other end.
Two minutes later, Sphinx had the lead. Shorrock’s in-swinging corner from the visitors’ right was flicked on by Fuseini and the ball dropped in front of goal. Loughborough were unable to clear and Newey was on hand to force it over the line for 1-0.
The home team’s positive response was almost immediate and Hussein Issa was able to get himself into threatening positions. Woods saved his low shot on the hour and then came up with an unorthodox stop with his shoulder to divert a second Issa shot wide of goal after it swerved in the air in front of him.
Much of the game was played in the wide areas of the middle third with only bursts of attacking activity at either end of the field. The Students started to put the squeeze on with six or seven minutes remaining and the match’s conclusion contained all of its excitement.
Loughborough equalised with five minutes left. A free kick was lifted in from the right wing and Archie Harding got across his marker too easily to head the ball past Woods and into the net.
Two minutes later it was 2-1 to the Students. Strouts looked to have elbowed Guest in the face in the build-up, which culminated in the easiest of tap-ins for Quinton Zolani Dlodlo to put the hosts ahead and complete Sphinx’s collapse.
Somehow, Sphinx managed to lift themselves and go again. In the fourth minute of stoppage time, they got their reward in the form of the goal that levelled the game.
Ballinger’s excellent cross from a free kick was kept alive by Damian Kelly, who challenged the goalkeeper and managed to help the ball across goal. Guest was well placed to swivel and fire the equaliser into the net and Sphinx celebrated wholeheartedly for a second time.
Defensive lapses left Sphinx desperately clawing back a point after getting themselves in front on a pitch that suited them and with another gear to find when they were a goal to the good.
After a similar disappointment in midweek against Coleshill Town, it was a relief to grab the late goal and salvage a point. Being harder to score against in the coming weeks is going to be essential.
Thomas and Woodward’s team face another fast turnaround with a Tuesday night fixture right around the corner. AFC Rushden & Diamonds will be their midweek opponents before Lye Town visit the Sphinx Industrial Supplies Arena on Saturday 23rd November.
Sphinx team
Woods, Pursey, Shorrock, Downes, Guest, Zito, Hayward, Fuseini (Ballinger), Lock (Kelly), Carey, Newey (Woodward)