Sporting Khalsa 2-2 Coventry Sphinx
Stuart Guest
Coventry Sphinx claimed a valuable away point for the second consecutive match, twice coming from behind to draw 2-2 with Sporting Khalsa in the Pitching In Northern Premier League Midlands Division.
Sphinx were good value for the result and created plenty of chances as they played more than their part in a terrific encounter in Willenhall, where their historical record leaves a lot to be desired.
The return of goalkeeper Charlie Woods allowed joint managers John Woodward and Shaun Thomas to name a familiar line-up. Jamie Draper, Patrick Zito and Kyle Burke formed a back three, with Jordan Hayward and Finlay Shorrock out wide.
Iddriss Fuseini and Jack Downes were joined in midfield by captain Callum Woodward. Kyle Carey played off striker Harry Wakefield and the pair caused problems for the Khalsa back line throughout the game.
Both teams wanted to get forward quickly in a closely matched opening quarter of an hour. Khalsa started to get a foot on the ball and opened the scoring in the 16th minute.
Sphinx were opened up by a simple pass and Andre Landell calmly took the ball round Woods before sliding it into the empty net to give Khalsa the lead.
After falling behind, it was essential for the visitors that they didn’t let the game get away from them. Scoring immediately after the restart was the best possible way to go about avoiding that.
They won a corner from kick-off and Woodward’s delivery from the Sphinx left arrived at the back post by way of a Khalsa touch. Draper was there to head in his first goal in the eighth tier.
It was a good response in a game full of quality and serving up lots of action at both ends. Five minutes before the break, Khalsa’s Jayden Campbell cut inside and went for goal with his left foot. Woods had no trouble gathering his scuffed effort.
The temperature was rising and Sphinx felt aggrieved at the end of the first half when Fuseini was booked for his part of an incident that ultimately left him on the deck with a knee in the back of his head.
The break came at the right time to take the sting out of the growing animosity and the second half was entertaining for all the right reasons.
The home team had lots of early possession but Sphinx carved out the first opportunity. Carey’s clever flick around the corner sent Hayward in on goal and he got there before Brandon Ganley but knocked it past the post as well as the Khalsa goalkeeper.
Woods was called into action early in the half and kept a Kieron Whittaker strike out with an excellent save at the foot of his near post. Carey got under a tricky chance a couple of minutes later and sent it over after fine footwork from Fuseini took him into the Khalsa box.
Carey was playing a blinder and really came into his own when Khalsa started to control the possession and Sphinx’s threat was primarily on the counter. Some great wing play culminated in a pass across the face of goal for Hayward, who shot wide with the ball slightly under his feet.
Hayward hit the target with 25 minutes remaining. Exchanging passes with Shorrock just outside the Khalsa penalty area, the wing back caught his left-footed strike nicely and drew an equally good save from Ganley in the Khalsa goal.
Carey was soon at it on the right wing again and found substitute Luke Shearer with a cross beyond the far post. Shearer’s effort was blocked as Sphinx built up some pressure on the home goal. Shorrock’s right-footed effort from 25 yards out was saved and held by Ganley with 72 minutes played.
Draper headed just over from a Shorrock corner in the 76th minute. Khalsa scored their second goal by the same route four minutes later when Kristian Green’s free header found the net at the near post. The visitors were frustrated by how easily they’d conceded again.
The away side didn’t quite manage the same swiftness of response as they had in the first half but they did, gradually, react as required.
With one minute left on the clock they felt they should have had a penalty when Shearer was tripped in the Khalsa box. In stoppage time, fellow substitute Roan Newey’s ambitious overhead kick dropped onto the top of the net.
Time was running out for Sphinx but they never stopped pushing for their second equaliser and Shearer scored it in the fourth minute of time added on.
Sphinx were desperate to find an equaliser but it didn’t show in Downes’ play on the right. His pass into the box was measured despite the pressure of the situation, and substitute Harvey Smith smartly let it run by him.
Shearer collected it and curled his right-footed shot beyond Ganley and into the bottom corner to make it 2-2 with his first Coventry Sphinx goal.
While a win would obviously have been the preferred outcome, Sphinx left Noose Lane happy to have picked up another very satisfactory point away from home.
The quality of the performance was even more pleasing, and Thomas and Woodward can also point to their ability to get injured players back onto the pitch off the bench as another positive.
Shearer has had a short spell on the sidelines and both Jac Redhead and Ryley Nicholson returned as late substitutes after long lay-offs.
Sphinx are back at the Sphinx Industrial Supplies Arena for two home games in a week, first against Sutton Coldfield Town on Tuesday night and then against Coleshill Town on Saturday afternoon.
Sphinx team
Woods, Draper, Shorrock (Smith), Fuseini (Shearer), Zito (Redhead), Burke, Hayward, Woodward (Newey), Wakefield (Nicholson), Carey, Downes