Coventry Sphinx 0-1 Hinckley LR
Stuart Guest
Coventry Sphinx missed a chance to secure their Step Four status by putting in a tame display at home against Hinckley Leicester Road in the Pitching In Northern Premier League Midlands Division.
Hinckley scored the only goal of the game inside the first ten minutes to claim a 1-0 win against a Sphinx team who were disappointed not to have made more of a fist of it, not least after the visitors had a player sent off.
Joint managers John Woodward and Shaun Thomas made two changes to the team after last week's goalless draw at Lye Town, bringing Jamie Draper and Joe Blowers back into the starting eleven.
Draper played at centre back with Ryley Nicholson in front of goalkeeper Charlie Woods, with Joe Pursey and Finlay Shorrock in the full back positions. Blowers got the nod in midfield with Fortune Maphosa and captain Callum Woodward.
Jordan Hayward made his hundredth appearance for Sphinx on the right flank, and Kyle Carey played to the left of striker Harry Wakefield.
The game was decided in the opening few minutes but not before the hosts forced a save from Hinckley goalkeeper Jake Laban, who got a crucial foot in the way to keep out a shot from Blowers after some nice work in the first minute.
The visitors took the lead with six minutes played. Michael Armstrong's excellent strike from outside the box hit the top corner despite catching slightly in the wind that was in Hinckley's faces in the first half.
Sphinx were second best in a dreadful first quarter of the game before Pursey produced an audacious volley from 30 yards out that was dropping in before Laban threw up a hand to tip the ball over his crossbar in the 20th minute.
Pursey went close again in the 27th minute, this time with a cross from the right that took a wind-assisted swing towards the top corner and forced Laban to move quickly and touch it over once more.
The hosts were close to scoring from the subsequent corner but Wakefield headed just wide from Shorrock’s in-swinging delivery from the right.
The striker put in a superb cross of his own with half an hour played. He did well to keep a ball in play wide on the left in spite of the wind blowing it along the touchline and dug out a perfect delivery.
Hayward, attacking from the opposite flank, did well to meet the cross but couldn't hit the target with his header under pressure from two Hinckley defenders.
Maphosa volleyed wide ten minutes before half time, with Sphinx briefly on top of a game that lacked quality all over the pitch.
Hinckley captain Joseph Lyne took centre stage at the end of the first half, dragging a shot wide before ending a series of attempts to bait Maphosa off the ball by appearing to headbutt the Sphinx midfielder.
The referee and his assistant missed the incident and Hinckley went into half time with eleven men on the pitch, and, after Laban saved well to keep Hayward out after incisive work on the right, with a narrow lead.
Sphinx had a lot of the ball in the early part of the second half but didn’t do a whole lot with it. Hayward headed over from a Woodward free kick in the third minute of the period but the first ten minutes were otherwise uneventful.
They were given a golden opportunity to take control of the game. Hinckley’s Dom Brennan was shown two yellow cards just a few seconds apart for dissent as Sphinx prepared to take a free kick outside the visitors’ penalty area but the home team never really threatened to swing the game in their favour even against ten men.
Instead, they laboured. Hinckley settled for 1-0 and Sphinx only fleetingly looked capable of forcing the issue, though there were small improvements after the injection of some new energy from the substitutes’ bench.
The last two chances of the game did go the way of the home team but Laban was untroubled by either of them. Substitute Jack Downes cut across his shot from 25 nicely but the swerve that beat the goalkeeper also took the ball the wrong side of the post.
In the second minute of time added on, Shorrock’s free kick was attacked by defender Nicholson but his header bounced agonisingly wide and the Sphinx were left to rue missed chances and a substandard display.
After a poor result and a hollow performance, Sphinx still have work to do to avoid relegation. They have three matches left, two away and one at home, in which to get themselves over the line.
Visits to Darlaston Town next Saturday and Racing Club Warwick on Easter Monday will be difficult but Sphinx have taken points off both this season.
They also drew the away fixture against their final home opponents of the season. Anstey Nomads will head for Sphinx Drive confident of a win on April 26th and it will take a much better performance to stop them from getting it.
Sphinx team
Woods, Pursey, Shorrock, Maphosa (Downes), Nicholson, Draper (Zito), Hayward (Newey), Woodward (Fuseini), Wakefield, Carey, Blowers (Redhead)