Coventry City vs Wycombe Wanderers. Sky Bet Championship.
St. Andrew's Stadium.
Report and highlights from the Sky Bet Championship clash between Coventry and Wycombe at St Andrew's, as the Sky Blues were held by the Chairboys in a Football League game for the first time in their history
Saturday 20 March 2021 18:42, UK
Coventry and Wycombe shared the spoils in a St Andrew's stalemate that was of little benefit to either side's Sky Bet Championship survival hopes.
Bottom club Wycombe remain 11 points from safety with eight matches left, while Coventry in 20th saw their cushion above the bottom three cut to four points after a run of just two wins in 12 games.
It was a bad day for both sides with two of the bottom three - Rotherham and Sheffield Wednesday - winning, but Coventry in particular will class this as a missed opportunity.
Gustavo Hamer and Max Biamou wasted gilt-edged chances inside the opening five minutes for the Sky Blues, who also lost skipper Liam Kelly and right-back Fankaty Dabo to injuries during the game.
The shortening gap to the relegation zone will be of concern to Coventry boss Mark Robins, given 22nd-placed Rotherham have three games in hand and a superior goal difference to the Sky Blues.
Time appears to be running out for Wycombe, meanwhile, although they created the best chance of a sterile second period with substitute Fred Onyedinma's low strike well saved by Ben Wilson.
Coventry should have led inside 65 seconds, Wycombe's defence asleep as Dabo's low cross picked out the unmarked Hamer but he dragged a poor finish wide from 12 yards.
The Chairboys had an even bigger let-off on five minutes as Anthony Stewart's miskick allowed Biamou to race clear, but Wycombe keeper David Stockdale stayed big to save well one-on-one.
Biamou was guilty of wasting another chance when he delayed his strike from Sam McCallum's ball over the top, allowing Stewart to recover to pressure the forward, who sliced wildly wide.
Stewart seemed to be at the centre of everything and he enjoyed Wycombe's first chance when a free-kick dropped to him 12 yards out, but his goalbound shot was blocked by Michael Rose.
Poor decisions in the final third were costing Coventry and they made another before the break as Callum O'Hare got free in the area but tried to square instead of shoot and the chance was gone.
The injuries to Dabo just before half-time and Kelly after the break seemed to disrupt the hosts' rhythm as both sides struggled to create any opportunities of note in the second half.
Each team made a raft of replacements in a bid to find a priceless winner and it was Wycombe who came closest as Onyedinma's 20-yard daisy-cutter forced Wilson into a full-length dive.
The final chance fell to Coventry as two of their substitutes almost combined, but a stretching Tyler Walker just failed to get the touch needed to divert Matty Godden's off-target effort on goal.
Coventry's Mark Robins: "There's teams that have lost above us and they will start to feel the pressure because they are teams that will not have thought they would be anywhere near trouble.
"For us, to finish outside the bottom three would be a huge, huge success this year. We've got one of the bottom three budgets in the league, so that's where we're supposed to be. So if we outperform our budget we are going to be all right and we will have had a brilliant season, but we're good enough to do it as long as we keep calm and keep playing the way we can."
Wycombe's Gareth Ainsworth: "It's not over yet, no chance, we are still going to be battling hard and who says we can't win every game we've got left? These things do happen. Usually a point and a clean sheet away from home in the Championship is brilliant, but we need wins and we were trying to go for it at the end.
"The lads gave me their best, we just lacked a little bit of quality at times, but I think we restricted Coventry's quality as well. It was a game of few chances. Effort, we'd be right up in the league, but unfortunately it's about goals and technique and we've just got to make sure that we keep giving everything we've got until that last kick because you never know what could happen."
