Bristol City 0-2 Coventry City: Sky Blues Continue Title Charge At Ashton Gate | OneFootball

Despite both sides going down to ten men throughout the game, Coventry City continued to race towards the Premier League this afternoon as they ran out 2-0 winners over Bristol City at Ashton Gate thanks to first-half goals from Tatsuhiro Sakamoto and Haji Wright.

As It Happened

Bristol City actually started the better of the two sides, with Sinclair Armstrong registering the first shot of the game inside the first minute, however his long range effort sailed high and wide of the Coventry goal. The forward came closer ten minutes later though as his left-footed strike flew past the post.

Adam Randell, more on him later, was the first name in the referee’s book this afternoon, seeing yellow for his challenge on Victor Torp inside the Coventry half. The first shot on target of the game went the way of the Sky Blues, with Ephron Mason-Clark calling Radek Vitek into action with a smart save.

However, just minutes later Vitek was beaten after Sakamoto rose at the back post to head home the opener and his fifth league goal of the season. With the Robins searching for an equaliser, Joel Latibeaudiere received a straight red card for a cynical foul on Emil Riis who had broken through the Coventry defence. This caused Mason-Clark to be withdrawn in favour of Liam Kitching to sure up the visitors’ defence, Mason-Clark was shown a yellow card as he exited the pitch for attempting to slap George Tanner in front of the referee.

As the first-half drew to a close, Wright calmly tucked the ball into the bottom corner to double his side’s lead shortly before the break. Robins defender Neto Borges received the fourth booking of the game following the goal after taking issue with the Coventry celebrations.

Both sides made a single change at half-time, with Gerhard Struber introducing Scott Twine in favour of Cameron Pring and Frank Lampard replacing Sakamoto with Jake Bidwell. The hosts came out firing once again, winning a string of corners but failing to make them count, before Carl Rushworth cleared the ball only for Randell to miss-control it before giving away a foul and receiving his second yellow card of the day, meaning both sides were down to ten.

Twine registered City’s first shot on target of the afternoon on the hour mark, forcing a superb diving save from Rushworth. The 62nd minute saw a triple substitution for Struber’s side with Max Bird, George Earthy and Delano Burgzorg replacing Armstrong, Mark Sykes and Tomi Horvat.

Rushworth was called into action again shortly after as he denied both Bird and Tanner’s long distance attempts. Lampard looked to his bench once again as Ellis Simms and Frank Onyeka brought Wright and Josh Eccles’ afternoon’s to an end. Torp was shown yellow in the 78th minute following a foul on Borges. The hosts’ final change saw academy graduate Sam Bell replace Riis.

With just five minutes of regular time remaining, Brandon Thomas-Asante was brought on to replace Torp who was walking a tight-rope following his yellow card. Bristol City continued to huff and puff but they just couldn’t blow the house down, as their winless run at Ashton Gate continued whilst Coventry moved eight points clear at top of the table.