Coventry City 0-4 West Bromwich Albion
By Jemma Tappenden
November 19 2007
After finally beating the away day curse with a stunning result at Watford, third placed West Bromwich Albion faced another away trip to Midland's neighbours Coventry City. Could they notch up a second away victory on the trot in front of the Sky TV camera's at the Ricoh Arena? Full match report follows....
After losing both Kevin Phillips and Martin Albrechtsen to similar knee injuries Tony Mowbray was forces to make two key changes to the side that faced Coventry City in front of the Sky TV cameras. Barnett and Morrison being the two important changes.
Albion started brightly, within three minutes Greening had released Miller down the right who steamed through the Coventry defence to fire just wide of the left post. Six minutes later Gera fed a perfect ball to Teixeira who fired a fierce first time shot at City keeper Dimi Konstantopoulos.
However the game soon took a dramatic twist when City star Misfud was shown the red card for an elbow to Albion right back Hoefken’s. After a lengthy debate over which official had seen what and a long treatment for Hoefken’s, the game restarted.
But the pizzazz with which Albion started was quashed as ten men Coventry revived themselves and began to press. They might have opened the scoring themselves on 18 minutes, Doyle’s right wing corner finding the head of Adebola, who glanced a header across the Albion goal.
The Baggies struggled to get a hold in the game, and their injury lick turned from bad to worse as Morrison carried after over stretching to reach a Dean Kiely throw out. Chris Brunt came on in replacement. Coventry continued to press and Leon Best was only prevented from shooting by a last ditch tackle from Hoefken’s.
As the break approached Albion had their first real chance since the sending off, Teixeira testing the City keeper with a probing solo effort. Gaffer Tony Mowbray said it was the worst half of football Albion have produced all season.
Half Time: Coventry City 0-0 West Bromwich Albion
Iain Dowie brought off Leon Best at half time and replaced him with Kevin Kyle. But the fresh legs were little to deal with Albion’s renewed vigour. The half got off to a relatively slow start, but Coventry who had applied so much pressure in the first half looked worn.
After a host of half chances the Baggies finally broke the deadlock in the 57th minute. Robinson started the move, feeding to Koren and Gera in turn. The Hungarian International passed back to Robinson who slid a perfect ball into the Coventry net to score his first of the season. Barely a minute later Albion had doubled their lead, a mix up in the Coventry defence allowing Teixeria to have a shot on goal. Rarely does the Portuguese star miss from there, and he didn’t on this occasion either.
The Baggies might have made it three on the hour mark, Robinson coming within inches of the post with a 20 yard corker. Just 4 minutes later it was nearly three again, skipper Jonathan Greening with a sweet 25 yard shot which left the City keeper in no man’s land.
But 2-0 it stayed until Teixeira put the game to bed in the 73rd minute. Firing a low hard shot into the left hand corner, Albion were now in total control.
Despite fighting hard Coventry could not match the now high speed Albion. And as if to add insult to injury Koren notched fourth for the Baggies in injury time to make it 4-0.
Full Time: Coventry City 0-4 West Bromwich Albion
Robinson (57)
Teixeira (58, 73)
Koren (90+1)
Attendance: 18,566