TASTY O’HARE DOUBLE FIRES SKY BLUES
COACH Dennis Lawrence planned to treat himself to a Nando’s supper to celebrate Coventry’s crushing win over Sheffield United.
The Sky Blues were without manager Mark Robins and assistant Adi Viveash after positive Covid tests on the morning of the match and found themselves 1-0 down after Sander Berge’s header.
But goals by Viktor Gyokeres, Callum O’Hare (two) and Matty Godden wrapped up victory.
“Well, what I would like to do is be able to enjoy some Nando’s and think about Wednesday when it comes,” joked first team coach Lawrence.
“I’m sure over the next few days it’ll be communication with the manager, contact with Adi and we’ll assess and prepare the game again together.”
The Blades were ahead after a quarter of an hour when Billy Sharp’s shot flashed across goal, before the returning Conor Hourihane hoisted a cross to the back post which was met by the towering Norwegian Berge to power a header into the top corner.
But the Sky Blues equalised through a Scandinavian of their own.
Jack Robinson misjudged a hopeful punt forward and Swedish striker Gyokeres found himself through on goal, before keeping his cool to slot magnificently past Wes Foderingham.
Referee Jeremy
Simpson presented Hourihane with a chance to score after adjudging former Blade Simon Moore to have picked up a back-pass, while Gustavo Hamer was thwarted by Foderingham when put through on goal following some brilliant interplay between O’Hare and Jamie Alen.
Coventry amassed 27 shots against the Blades and hit a post twice as they ran riot at the CBS Arena.
The Sky Blues were ahead for the first time seven minutes after the break when Gyokeres broke down the right. His effort was pushed on to a post by former Rangers’ goalkeeper Foderingham, but O’Hare got the better of the Blades stopper to bundle home his second goal of the season.
Gyokeres then turned provider, feeding O’Hare who took one touch before rolling his classy finish past Foderingham.
The rout was complete after 67 minutes when Ian Maatsen’s magical footwork evaded a crowd of defenders on the edge of the box, slipping in O’Hare to square for Godden to tap home his first goal in almost two months after appendix surgery.
It was a day to forget for the Blades, who had lost just twice in 16 games under manager Paul Heckingbottom and conceded as many goals in 90 minutes in the West Midlands as their past 11 games combined. “Bad day at the office, got beat by the better team, no complaints,” said the Blades’ boss. “We got beat 4-1 and Wes was man-of-the-match.
“I will look at the goals we conceded and we didn’t half give them a helping hand, we had too many players who had a bad day on the same day and when that happens it is going to be really difficult.”