Cardiff City vs Coventry City. Sky Bet Championship.
Cardiff City StadiumAttendance18,660.
Report and highlights from the Sky Bet Championship clash between Cardiff City and Coventry City at the Cardiff City Stadium as Joel Bagan and Mark Harris scored late in the second half to seal victory for the Bluebirds
Tuesday 15 February 2022 23:01, UK
Second-half goals from Joel Bagan and Mark Harris enabled Cardiff to make it back-to-back home wins as they beat Coventry 2-0.
Three days on from notching his first goal for the club, 20-year-old wing-back Bagan opened the scoring in the 72nd minute and Harris sealed the win three minutes from time.
Back at the ground where a week earlier they had put four goals past relegation rivals Peterborough to move 12 points clear of the danger zone, Cardiff started well and went close to an opener after only three minutes.
Bagan floated in a deep cross from the left and Max Watters headed down in front of Coventry goalkeeper Simon Moore. The ex-Bluebird went back into his goal and then flung himself forward to catch the bouncing ball and just about stop it from crossing the goal line.
Having spent the first 10 minutes weathering a bit of a home storm, Coventry got into their stride and worked dangerman Callum O'Hare into the action.
Having picked up a loose ball in the centre circle he drove all the way to the edge of the Cardiff area before firing off a shot that flashed inches wide of the right hand upright.
Three minutes later O'Hare had two shouts for a penalty in the same move. Viktor Gyokeres found space on the right and played the ball into the box for O'Hare to run onto.
He found himself sandwiched between two defenders and went for an elaborate dive between the pair of them. He got up to find Alex Smithies had lost possession of the ball and chased it down, only to find his ankle tapped by the 'keeper.
Referee John Busby waved play on in both incidents and the only other attempt on goal came at the other end in the 34th minute when Watters ran onto a ball over the top and hammered a left-footed volley that was only kept out by Moore's head.
Three minutes later Watters was replaced by Jordan Hugill and demonstrated his dismay by sitting in the dug-out for the whole of half-time and the rest of the game.
Hugill should have broken the deadlock in the 54th minute when a brilliant piece of work down the right by Cody Drameh cut Coventry wide open.
The wing-back put the ball into the path of the onrushing Hugill, but the striker got the ball caught under his feet and his shot was easily saved from 10 yards.
Bagan cut inside on the left edge of the box and fired an unstoppable shot into the right corner to give Cardiff the lead.
Then Harris outstripped the defence on the right and fired home.
Cardiff's Steve Morison: "I've just got to use my words correctly this time or I will get annihilated - [Watters] just wasn't good enough. Is he upset? Yes. Do I want him to be upset? Yes. Does he need to realise what it takes to be a Championship striker? Yes. Will we go through it with him and talk about it again? Yes. You can't play up front in this team, any team in the Championship, and not have a physical edge to your game. The ball can't keep coming back.
"Within all that, he could have had two goals. He could have scored a header in the first minute, I thought it was a goal as soon as it went to him. Then when he goes through, I'd already planned to take him off, but then I was like 'Oh what am I going to do now, he is going to score!' Because he is a goalscorer. But I think you could see the difference as soon as Jordan [Hugill] come on."
Coventry's Mark Robins: "The fact for us was we were below par in terms of energy levels. This game was fitted in because of Covid in the Cardiff camp earlier on in the season. That played then would have been a different story. Us at full tilt and full energy is a different story. We didn't do enough even though we had a lot of possession in the first half. There was nothing really in the game or goalmouth opportunities.
"We knew we were below par in terms of energy in the second half but there wasn't a great deal we could do because those are the numbers of players available to us. That's the frustration. We were a goal down when our big chance came. Viktor Gyokeres did everything right in heading it down and the goalkeeper just catches it with his foot. Bad luck, good luck, you have to take the chances. We conceded again before the end, but we just didn't do enough."
