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Coventry come from 2-0 down to beat West Brom 3-2 and extend lead at top of Championship

Coventry City come from 2-0 down to beat West Brom 3-2 and extend their lead at the top of the Championship table.

Aune Heggebo put the Baggies ahead on 9 minutes. Against the run of play, West Brom won the ball deep in the Coventry half and Mikey Johnston sent his cross for Heggebo to tap home past Carl Rushworth.

Soon after, the woodwork was struck, Victor Torp smashing the ball first time from the edge of the area and his effort thumps off Rushworth’s crossbar with the goalkeeper beaten.

Heggebo then doubled West Brom’s lead just after the half hour mark. Mikey Johnston was played onside and his cross was met by Aune Heggebo, scoring via the inside of the post.

Just before half time, Coventry got one back, Tatsuhiro Sakamoto with in a cross and an unmarked Josh Eccles with downward header beyond Josh Griffiths.

Shortly into the second half, Jayson Molumby, already on a yellow, was sent off for pulling back Josh Eccles on the halfway line. Marching orders from referee Andrew Kitchen.

56th minute and Coventry went level, a cross was headed back across the face of goal, and Ellis Simms nodded past Josh Griffiths.

Coventry then took the lead for the first time in the game, with just over 30 minutes remaining. A corner was headed to Victor Torp, on the edge of the area where, and volleying an effort to make it 3-2.

The result means it’s 43 goals scored, 15 conceded, one defeat in the Sky Blues’ opening 16 matches. Ahead of the 3pm kick offs, they go 8 points clear. West Brom meanwhile are 15th with 21 points from 16 games played.

Steve Ogrizovic (Ex-Coventry City goalkeeper on BBC CWR): “First and foremost another brilliant result and a brilliant comeback, you almost expect it at this point, another three goals as well, this team just keeps scoring.

“You can’t afford to give teams two goal head starts and I think the game hinged on the sending off, West Brom were good before that, Coventry sensed that it knocked the wind out the sails and took it to them.

“A very entertaining game, not everything was perfect, a lot was, but they have to make sure they’re solid moving forwards.”

Coventry head coach Frank Lampard told BBC CWR:

“You’re going to get tested, you can’t play this many games in a season and have it all your own way, or not expect a team like West Brom to have the quality to capitalise on moments.

“I think we fully deserved it in the end, and from being 2-0 down, that shows the level of resilience in the group.

“I believed at half-time that we wouldn’t lose the game against 11 because of the way we finished the first half, Josh’s goal was great for him from not having played so much.

“And it was Josh’s turn which gets the second clear yellow card, which was a red – a shame for them but at the same time it was good play from us, but then you’ve got to deal with 10 men which is a challenge because they sink, but we gave them real problems because we moved the ball to the sides great and did everything we wanted to do.”

Lampard, per Sky Sports:

“Outstanding. I thought we played well all of the game but just made a couple of mistakes that are not normally our thing this season.

“But the reaction to keep playing in the first half, even with the feeling of 2-0, sometimes can take the wind out of yourselves. I thought our players were very positive with that.

“The goal before half-time, which we deserved, helped because that gave the players belief. I spoke a lot about that at half-time and then my feeling was that we would go out and get something out of this game.

“I’m delighted with the way they’ve completed that game.

“I think the red card helped in terms of taking away a counter attack threat, which was their threat mainly in the first half, but it was a red card and that’s just football.

“It was a clear one, so then you’ve got to deal with that and deal with people expecting you to break them down. But I thought we did that really well.

“We had a 20-minute spell where we obviously scored the two goals. But I think even with 11 men on I would have fancied us in the second half because of the way we were approaching the game.”

West Brom boss Ryan Mason told BBC WM:

“We played a really good first half, created some excellent moments, showed good personality and quality as well, and scored two really good goals.

“But at this level – and I think at any level – if you go down to 10 men then it’s going to be very hard.

“We weren’t able to get through that initial period after we went down to 10 men, the crowd were up, they were able to get some momentum and were getting in our box a lot.

“We stayed in the game and gave ourselves a chance to get something out of it but didn’t really create anything from some of the set plays that we had.”

Mason, per Sky Sports:

“Obviously very frustrated. With the way the game panned out as well. Something we have to accept, learn from, and try and improve for sure.

“We probably created the better chances (before the red card), scored two really good goals. Obviously they’re a good team, they were going to have moments and momentum and periods in the game where they got in the final third and put a lot of crosses in.

“The two goals we scored were really good and we knew that we could hurt them and we showed that today, but to go down to 10 men for such a long period of time in this stadium and the moment they’re in, it was always going to be difficult to see the game out.”

Here’s how fans reacted as Coventry come from 2-0 down to beat West Brom 3-2 and extend lead at top of Championship…

@TheRainbowStand:
Molumby – idiotic
Mason – not good enough

@JDWBA2: Those subs again were shocking btw, Taking Heggebo off and sticking Grant up top expecting him to hold anything up. Taylor lasting as long as he did was bizarre. #wba

@joejb45: Manager got it spot on for every minute of the 11v11. Weā€™ve been let down by the usual suspect. But improvement in the last two, and if we can actually keep 11 on the pitch we may have the makings of a decent team #wba

@Adhith_17: I know weā€™re in a ā€˜transitionā€™ season but god are we dull to watch even excluding the Molumby fiasco. How we didnā€™t get any pace in the entire window with no attacking threat is baffling #wba

@AlbionAmsterdam: Heggebo has every right to clatter Molumby in training on Mondayā€¦ #wba

@Fifty_YearStorm: Played 16. Lost 7. Only 16 goals scored & minus GD. Bottom half of the table. Over a third of the season pissed up the wall in a year where the league is as weak as itā€™ll ever be. Nowhere near good enough. #wba

@_Deez_Games: Ā£45 well spent lads šŸ˜Š

@JonW1995: I think everyone went and sat in the stands to watch in solidarity with Molumby for the sending off. Until the last few minutes, we just watched our box for most the second half šŸ˜© Getting nothing out of a 2-0 lead is always poor, hopefully we can at least build on HeggebĆøs goals

@JudeScrivener: Iā€™m a big fan of molumby, but today is on him not Mason. Coached a near perfect first half, let down by sloppy defending. Stupid red and the game is lost. Think we shouldā€™ve had a striker on earlier but even so.

@KevinUnitt: Honestly never known @Coventry_City be so relentless in my lifetime, and it grinds teams down, even good ones like that who work us out and play a defined style. We never ever stop probing. It breeds fear that becomes self-fulfilling. Weā€™re going to be very hard to stop now #pusb

@terry_obrien86: WHAT A FCUKIN’ WIN!!! Every week, I have tears in my eyes just thinking about how special this season is becoming! #PUSB.

@Gilberss84: Whats sums us up atm is Simms bagging which must have meant so much to him but sacking off celebration, getting the ball and getting back to go again. Mentality of these lads is something else. Lovely stuff. #PUSB

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