Coventry Sphinx 0-2 Rugby Town
Stuart Guest
Coventry Sphinx’s home form continued to desert them in a dismal 2-0 defeat against Rugby Town at Sphinx Drive.
Sphinx have been pulled back into trouble at the bottom end of the Pitching In Northern Premier League Midlands Division and successive losses at the Sphinx Industrial Supplies Arena have laid bare the enormity of the challenge ahead for joint managers John Woodward and Shaun Thomas.
With Thomas serving a touchline ban, Woodward was also without suspended defender Patrick Zito and selected Jamie Draper, Ryley Nicholson and Kyle Burke as his back three in front of goalkeeper Charlie Woods.
Iddriss Fuseini returned to the starting line-up in midfield with captain Callum Woodward and Jack Downes. Jordan Hayward started at right wing back, Finlay Shorrock at left wing back, and Kyle Carey off striker Harry Wakefield.
Joe Pursey and Sam Lockley were named on the bench after injuries alongside Jac Redhead, Joe Blowers and Harvey Smith.
There were concerning parallels between this game and the previous loss at home against Coleshill Town. Sphinx started slowly, were quickly punished, and seldom looked capable of recovering.
This time it was Daniele Reka who put the visitors in front with just six minutes played. Rugby spent the game pumping the ball forward and on this occasion it should have been cleared before Reka capitalised on hesitant defending by slipping a neat finish past Woods.
Sphinx barely mustered a retaliation. They were second best in a scrappy opening quarter and their performance got worse before it got better.
The home team did have some possession briefly but their first half performance was as flat as anything they’ve produced since promotion to the eighth tier. Against opposition with anything about them, the contest would have been done and dusted by half time.
Wakefield provided Sphinx’s only moment of quality before the break. With two minutes left in the half, he tried to take the leather off the ball with a free kick. For all its power, it was just wide of Paul Hathaway’s left-hand post. The home team headed in at half time with it all to do.
Sphinx improved early in the second half. For the second game in a row they were denied a penalty when Hayward was fouled in the box, and Smith came on for Downes and was one of the few bright spots with a solid return to football after a long time out.
But the hosts shot themselves in the foot in the middle of the second half and Rugby took advantage to put the game beyond Sphinx’s reach.
The visitors delivered a warning when a curling shot from outside the box was clawed away from the top corner by a sensational Woods save. Two minutes later a similar position paid off.
Jahvan Davidson-Miller received the ball centrally in the 67th minute, turned sharply and fired a volley past Woods. It was a fine finish from a Rugby point of view but Sphinx’s defending left much to be desired.
Woodward was next to go close with a free kick for the Sphinx. His low curling effort was nicely placed and had to be saved well by Hathaway to preserve Rugby’s clean sheet with eight minutes left.
The Sphinx captain was involved in the team’s best attacking move of the day, clipping a clever pass into the penalty area, where Smith did brilliantly to bring it down but was on the stretch as he prodded the ball goalwards. Hathaway was there to tidy up once more.
Wakefield had a shot blocked with four minutes to go at the conclusion of another decent attacking move from Sphinx.
They were fighting at the end of the game but it was too little, too late. Playing from a goal down from the start of the game is a difficult task even when the attitude is right.
The gap between Sphinx and the relegation zone has been cut to seven points. Rugby occupy the third spot in the bottom three having played a game more than both Bedworth United and Sphinx.
After a fantastic run to start 2025, Sphinx have given themselves every reason to have to look over their shoulders and any lingering notion that the job’s done will have been well and truly skewered by another defeat to a team in the relegation zone.
The ignominy of completing that particular set for the season should be a rude awakening for Sphinx, a team with undoubted quality and a proven ability to win matches at this level but in the midst of a run that threatens to catch them out.
It certainly isn’t going to get any easier. Sphinx face a visit to Claines Lane to take on Worcester City on Saturday 15th March before a vital home game against Grantham Town on Tuesday 18th March. Losing to all of the bottom three at home this season would be very bad news indeed.
Sphinx team
Woods, Draper (Redhead), Shorrock (Blowers), Fuseini (Lockley), Nicholson, Burke, Hayward, Woodward, Wakefield, Carey, Downes (Smith). Unused sub: Pursey