Max’s a sinner but he can still face Saints...
COVENTRY City will be without two key players in the coming weeks due to lsuspensions.
The weekend’s goalless draw with Accrington Stanley proved to be a costly affair for the Sky Blues who not only dropped valuable points at St Andrew’s, but also fell foul in the disciplinary department.
Fans’ favourite Max Biamou was shown a straight red card for an alleged elbow on Stanley defender Mark Hughes, reducing Mark Robins’s City to ten men for the last 22-plus minutes.
Centre-back Kyle McFadzean also picked up his fifth yellow card for the season, which means he’s also facing a suspension.
Biamou will serve a three-match ban for his sending-’off, which was deemed violent conduct.
The 28-year-old fans’ favourite, however, will be available to play in tonight’s EFL Trophy game against Southampton Under-21s at St Andrew’s before his suspensions kick in. That means the striker will miss Saturday’s FA Cup trip to Colchester United, the following week’s ‘home’ clash with Rochdale and the muchanticipated away day at Sunderland on November 23.
McFadzean, meanwhile, can also play in tonight’s game and is available for Saturday’s FA Cup tie at the JobServe Community Stadium.
His one-match suspension will be served against Rochdale a week on Saturday.
The reason why the defender can play in the FA Cup, while Biamou cannot, is because his five bookings have accumulated in League games and will, therefore, be served in a League fixture.
Red cards, however, carry over into all competitions except the EFL Trophy, which is a standalone tournament.
On a more positive note, the Sky Blues will welcome back right-back Fankaty Dabo this week after he served his one-match ban at the weekend for collecting five yellow cards.
City are currently third in their Southern Section EFL Trophy qualification Group D with three points from their opening two games against Walsall and Forest Green, both of which ended up 0-0 with the Sky Blues taking a bonus point from their penalty shootout victory over the Saddlers.
League Two Forest Green top the group with five points and are due to play second-placed Walsall (on four points) next week.
Coventry, therefore, need to win to ensure they remain in contention to qualify for the knock-out stages of the competition they won at Wembley Stadium in 2017.