Soaring Seagulls end dream for Coventry
AS THE only current Premier League manager to have lifted the FA Cup as a player, we shouldn’t be surprised that Chris Hughton’s vibrant Brighton side were so clinical here.
Hughton knows how much this trophy can mean to players and supporters, having lifted the Cup with Tottenham in 1981 and 1982, and he was delighted by his team’s ‘application’.
The perceived wisdom is that a positive FA Cup run for the lesser lights can distort a Premier League season yet Brighton are confounding that narrative. Since winning away to Middlesbrough in the fourth round, Brighton have gone three games unbeaten in the league and this victory took the undefeated stretch to five games in all competitions.
By the end, the Brighton support were singing merrily about going to Wembley and, in these parts, that remains a significant treat. Brighton had not reached the quarter-finals of the Cup since 1986 and if the draw is kind, a first final since 1983 is in sight.
Hughton made nine changes to the side that drew at Stoke last time around but there was still plenty of menace. Wingers Anthony Knockaert and Solly March darted and weaved from the wide positions and, up front, January signings Jurgen Locadia and Leonardo Ulloa both got off the mark.
As for Coventry, the fairy tale ends. The competition’s lowest-placed side exited but their spirit after falling 3-0 behind should encourage boss Mark Robins that a League Two play-off push can be revitalised. Jonson Clarke-Harris grabbed one and came close to another a few minutes later.
More than 4,000 Coventry fans relished a rare return to a Premier League ground after a torrid 17-year spell since dropping out of the top flight in 2001. They even teased their Premier League opponents with cheery chants of ‘going down’ but there was still time for airings of more pressing issues, with demands for unpopular owners Sisu to leave the club.
‘We’ve had a blip but the supporters have been magnificent,’ Robins said. ‘They are desperate for some success.’ Having defeated Stoke in the third round and won away at MK Dons, Coventry deserved their place here but their league form has fallen off a cliff with three straight defeats.
In the first half, Coventry’s League Two displays appeared to be resurfacing in the Cup. Brighton cut through their lower-tier visitors at will.
Markus Suttner whipped in a corner and Locadia reacted first to a knock-down as he hooked the ball against the bar. Locadia arrived for £14.1million from PSV Eindhoven last month and the Dutchman opened the scoring within 15 minutes of his first start, pulling off a defender to slash home Knockaert’s low cross.
In truth, Locadia should have had a hat-trick, and the pressure of the Premier League, where he will rarely enjoy so many chances, will tell us far more about his elite-level quality.
Brighton continued to create. Connor Goldson rose highest to send a header sailing into the top corner from a Suttner corner.
After the break, Brighton extended their lead further, as Ulloa scored his first goal since returning to the club, glancing in a powerful header from a superb Bruno delivery from the right side. A rematch of the 1983 final with Manchester United awaits.