Walsall Wood 2-2 Coventry Sphinx
Stuart Guest
Coventry Sphinx overcame two first-half injuries to come away from Walsall Wood with a creditable 2-2 draw in the Pitching In Northern Premier League Midlands Division. On another day, they might have seen out their late lead for all three points.
Goals from Alex Lock and Shay Willock saw the visitors come from behind in an entertaining second half but an immediate equaliser for the unbeaten home team ensured that the spoils were shared.
Joint managers John Woodward and Shaun Thomas brought Callum Ballinger into midfield alongside captain Callum Woodward and Jack Downes. Kyle Carey and Stan Dube played off striker Willock but the game plan went out of the window when both sustained injuries early in the match.
An unchanged back four in front of goalkeeper Keelan Fallows consisted of Joe Pursey, Jamie Draper, Patrick Zito and Callum Martin.
Sphinx started in good nick in the competitive opening minutes. The match was open but scrappy to begin with and certainly not pretty. The visitors quickly came to feel they were getting little change from the officials but were by no means second best.
Carter Lycett fired the first Walsall Wood chance well over the Sphinx crossbar before a Jamie Lee Soule strike from outside the box got a nick off a defender to take it wide for a corner with 17 minutes played.
Sphinx were underdogs but their attitude from the start was excellent. They weren’t carrying anyone and all eleven players showed a willingness to put their bodies on the line. There was defending to do in the middle of the half but they handled the task well. When Lycett got a shot away and hit the target, Fallows was there to make a diving save to deny him.
The away team had a say too. Willock threaded the ball out to Carey in the right channel but the angle was against Sphinx’s top scorer and he dragged the ball across goal without troubling Wood goalkeeper Andy Wycherley.
Five first-half minutes gave Woodward and Thomas a puzzle to solve. Dube picked up a knock in Sphinx’s half and had to be replaced by Andre Williams before Carey went down after picking a pass to Willock just outside Walsall Wood’s box and had to come off. Alex Lock was introduced in his place and put in his best Sphinx performance in difficult circumstances.
Sphinx’s strategy was spiked before the first half was over and they looked a little disjointed as the home team had most of the ball in the last minutes of the half, but there wasn’t a great deal of pressure on Fallows’ goal before the whistle went at 0-0.
The first real chance of the game went the way of the visitors in the first minute of the second half. Williams found a pass to Willock and the former Wood loanee cut back onto his right foot before curling a shot just beyond the far post.
Walsall Wood took the lead five minutes into the half. After a foul outside the Sphinx box, Ashley Carter’s driven shot from the dead ball kicked up off the bottom of the wall and squirmed into the corner of the net. With unwanted changes made and a deficit to overcome, the visitors were up against it.
Draper finally cleared from under the bar five minutes after the opening goal, denying Walsall Wood a second goal with the ball bouncing around in the six-yard box after a corner. Sphinx started to push for an equaliser around the hour mark and the game began to stretch.
In the 71st minute, Willock caught a left-footed volley flush and the visitors were convinced the block inside the Wood penalty area was made with a hand. They also believed substitute Jordan Hayward was fouled in the build-up to a vital save by the foot of Fallows at the other end soon after.
Lock’s all-action performance in midfield – and everywhere else – was rewarded with Sphinx’s equalising goal in the 77th minute.
When they get the ball down and move it in the opposition half, Sphinx are more than capable of doing damage. A smart passing move culminated in some superb hold-up play in the box by Willock and a pass to the substitute, whose turn and shot into the bottom corner was celebrated with gusto.
Scores levelled, it was Sphinx who did the hunting. Nine minutes after equalising they took the lead and it was a terrific confidence-boosting finish from Willock that made it 2-1.
Williams and Willock were all alone in the attacking third and the former Leicester Road man did a fantastic job of keeping the play alive before Willock chopped back and blasted the ball in off Wycherley’s post.
The lead was brief. Kaiman Anderson made it 2-2 less than a minute later, heading past Fallows from right underneath the Sphinx bar. It was a frustrating goal to concede but Walsall Wood are yet to be beaten in the league in 2024/25 and the ability to bounce back from conceding is one of the reasons why.
In the end it was Sphinx who had to hold on to a point. Walsall Wood had a couple of opportunities in stoppage time. The first was another Anderson header saved by Fallows, the second a shot sent high and wide by substitute Matt Funge.
Although they were disappointed to concede an equaliser after going ahead so late in the day, Sphinx can be satisfied that a determined performance earned them a decent point. Every player was willing to risk getting hurt for the shirt and it was great to see.
Sphinx have enjoyed a positive start to the season and ended August with a trio of good results in the league. Five points from a possible nine is a decent return and they've had to work hard for every one of them.
Attention now turns to knock-out football once more. Sphinx will play their second ever Isuzu FA Trophy tie when they meet NPL Midlands rivals Sporting Khalsa in First Round Qualifying at Sphinx Drive on Saturday 7th September.
Sphinx team
Fallows, Pursey, Martin (Hayward), Downes, Zito, Draper, Ballinger (Guest), Woodward, Willock, Carey (Lock), Dube (Williams). Unused sub: Omotola