Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
SAFETY, MARK? KEEP IT GOING..
Robins: Now let’s aim to catch teams above us
Hyam 9, Godden 90+2 MARK ROBINS says it is still not ‘job done’ despite Coventry taking a giant step towards safety while denting Barnsley’s play-off bid.
Goals from Dom Hyam and Matty Godden saw the Sky Blues record back-to-back league wins for the first time this season.
Coventry are nine points above the drop zone with four games left.
But boss Robins still wants his men to finish strongly.
“To put in a performance like that shows what it means to everybody and it puts us in a really good position,” he said.
“The quality in the game is bereft a little bit now because of the stakes but we’ve done what we needed to do.
“There’s still games to go and points to play for and we want to put as much distance as we can to those around us.
“And there’s teams in front of us that we can catch.
“I wouldn’t want anybody thinking it was job done.
“We’ve got to finish this job off, how many points it will take I don’t know and don’t care.” Hyam opened the scoring in the ninth minute with a sweet finish from just inside the box.
A quickly-taken throw-in was chested by Max Biamou into the path of the Scotsman and Hyam lashed low past Brad Collins.
Hyam could have doubled the advantage just before the break but headed over from close range.
That almost proved costly as Barnsley’s Cauley Woodrow steered wide after beating Ben Wilson to a through-ball. The Tykes improved slightly after the break but struggled to create clear opportunities, substitute Dominik Frieser being denied by the legs of Wilson.
The Sky Blues wrapped up the points in added time as substitute Godden cut inside and impressively fired into the bottom corner.
Defeat ended a club record run of six straight away victories for Barnsley and was just their second loss in 17 league matches.
But the sixth-placed Tykes remain in the final play-off position, four points clear of Reading, and boss Valerien Ismael is not panicking.
He said: “The second half was much better from us, but over the 90 minutes Coventry deserved to win.
“The first goal came quickly and after that it was an easy game for them to defend, we didn’t do enough.
“We have put a big effort in so far and I have told the guys to focus on Wednesday at Huddersfield. We are still in a strong position.”
COVENTRY: Wilson 7, Ostigard 8, Mcfadzean 8, Hyam 9, Dacosta 6, Kelly 7, James 8, Hamer 6 (O’hare 59, 7), Mccallum 7, Walker 6 (Gyokeres 59, 6), Biamou 8 (Godden 74).
BARNSLEY: Collins 7, Sibbick 7, Helik 7, Andersen 8, Brittain 6, Palmer 6 (Halme 57, 6), Mowatt 5, Styles 5, Chaplin 5 (Morris 46, 6), Dike 6, Woodrow 5 (Frieser 57, 6).
MOTM DOM HYAM (COVENTRY)