Birmingham 2-4 Coventry: Sky Blues keep play-off hopes alive after comeback win
Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship clash between Birmingham and Coventry at St Andrew's as the Sky Blues rallied from two goals down to claim victory and keep their play-off hopes alive.
Friday 15 April 2022 19:45, UK
Coventry came from behind to defeat Birmingham 4-2 at St Andrew's and keep alive their slim hopes of reaching the Sky Bet Championship play-offs.
Kristian Pedersen's first goal in almost a year put the hosts ahead early on before Gary Gardner doubled Blues' lead in the 39th minute with an unmarked header.
Despite only scoring one career goal prior to this match, Coventry's Ben Sheaf netted twice in the space of nine minutes at the end of the first half to level the scoring.
Michael Rose completed the turnaround for Mark Robins' men when he ran into Birmingham's penalty area and headed past debutant Zach Jeacock, and Callum O'Hare sealed all three points in the dying moments after good work from Martyn Waghorn.
The victory extends the Sky Blues' unbeaten run against Birmingham to eight games.
Pedersen handed Lee Bowyer's side the best possible start in the 12th minute when he climbed highest to head past Simon Moore from a Juninho Bacuna corner on the right-hand side.
Coventry took their time to respond to falling behind, but they begin to ask questions of Birmingham from a string of consecutive corners.
Dominic Hyam saw his shot blocked by Bacuna from six yards before Gustavo Hamer struck the crossbar directly from a corner immediately after.
The visitors were punished from another set-piece close to half-time when Marc Roberts' long throw picked out the on-rushing Gardner, who slotted his header into the bottom corner.
Coventry responded in perfect fashion in the 40th minute when Sheaf tapped home his first goal since February 2020 after Michael Rose headed the ball across goal from Hamer's free-kick.
Sheaf's first goal changed the swing of things and Coventry levelled in the fourth minute of added time through another goal from the defender.
Hamer's threat from set-pieces continued and his delivery was won by Sheaf after competition from Maxime Colin and Gardner at the back post.
In the second half, Scott Hogan struck wide for Blues with an open net on the hour mark before Gardner failed to keep his header down from another dangerous Bacuna corner.
On the back of his goal in last week's victory at Fulham, Rose fired Coventry in front when he was allowed all the time in the world to head home another Hamer corner.
Ian Maatsen went close to adding a fourth moments later after collecting the ball inside the box from Viktor Gyokeres, but the left-back struck the side-netting.
O'Hare wrapped up the victory with his fifth goal of the season when he fired into an empty net after a goalkeeping mistake from Jeacock allowed the attacker to tap home.
What the managers said...
Coventry's Mark Robins: "We've got a situation now where nobody believes outside of the club that we can get near it (the play-offs). There are teams that are in better positions than us but we've got four games to go and we're in with a sniff. That's the biggest thing for me. In terms of what we've been able to achieve in five years is nothing short of outstanding. That's the pressure that you want and at some point you have to have that pressure that makes you feel alive. We've got nothing to lose so let's have a go.
"You see the support and they're delirious today. In certain aspects of the game we were really good. We weren't at our best by any stretch of the imagination and you've got to give Birmingham credit for that. We kept going and that's the characteristic of this team this season. That was there for everyone to see and the supporters love that. You can see the rapport and that's something that's really special and you don't always see that."
Birmingham Lee Bowyer: "We started really well. We were the better side and we were cruising. We think the game has become too easy and let them back in. We needed to manage the game better towards the end of the first half but we didn't. Going in at half-time 2-2 was tough to take. I put it down to being too soft. You can't concede three set-pieces in one game. That's not good enough. You've got to take pride in keeping the ball out of your net, it's quite simple really. For some reason today, we were soft and that's not like us.
"We had chances. I don't think there was much in the game. You look at the scoreline and think we took a hiding, but it wasn't like that. Up until 40 minutes we were in full control of the game. In the second half, it was quite even and we weren't quite in it, but the scoreline looks a lot worse than the performance. Today I thought we were the better side, but they've got the three points and we have none. Just too soft and there's no excuse for that."
