Coventry Sphinx 1-5 Shepshed Dynamo
Martin Sutton
Coventry Sphinx produced their worst performance of the season just when they needed it least, losing heavily at home to Shepshed Dynamo and leaving themselves with work to do to avoid relegation from the Pitching In Northern Premier League Midlands.
Sphinx were second best from start to finish as a second goal for the visitors on the stroke of half time preceded a second-half collapse. The final score was 5-1 and it didn’t flatter the visitors, who bounced back impressively from their own defeat to Rugby Town a few days earlier.
Joint managers John Woodward and Shaun Thomas brought Will Edjenguele back into the defence with Jamie Draper joining the long list of Sphinx injuries. Joe Pursey, Louis Guest and Finlay Shorrock completed a back four in front of goalkeeper Keelan Fallows.
Luke Downes started in midfield alongside Jack Downes and captain Callum Woodward, who moved back into a more familiar role after a solid but unwelcome outing in goal in the previous match. Jordan Hayward and Cam Moore flanked Leo Brown up front.
Dynamo started as they meant to go on, forcing Fallows into a smart save in the first minute. Sphinx’s poor start soon cost them and Fallows was beaten with five minutes played. Jack Lynch’s low left-footed effort found the bottom corner from outside the penalty area and the visitors had the lead.
Sphinx looked to respond. Woodward’s free kick in the eighth minute was met by Edjenguele, who guided the ball towards goal. Shepshed goalkeeper Brandon Ganley made the save and a follow-up from Jack Downes was blocked too.
The visitors were already on top, moving the ball crisply, but it might have been a different game had Sphinx been able to capitalise on their brief spell of causing problems from set pieces at the right end. Woodward’s free kick in the tenth minute was another but Guest’s thumping header went over the crossbar.
Despite those two chances, the home team were doing all the defending. Second balls weren’t going their way and they were losing the midfield battle, so it was very much against the run of play when they equalised after 26 minutes.
Sphinx broke quickly after clearing a Shepshed corner. Hayward won the ball and fed it forward for Brown in the left channel. Brown ran his man, faced him up and beat him in the box, cutting back onto his right foot to power a low shot past Ganley for 1-1.
Sphinx were back under pressure straight away but gradually grew into the fight. Good feet from Jack Downes gave him the chance to slip a ball through for Brown, whose shot was saved this time, and both Edjenguele and Guest came close to forcing in a Woodward corner as the ball curled towards the back post.
The teams exchanged chances in the few minutes before time. Good battling by Shorrock led to Woodward shooting over from 25 yards before a neat piece of skill at the other end produced a shot for Dynamo that was diverted over by a corner.
It’s hard to make the case that a team taking the lead before going on to win comfortably was a turning point, but the goal that resulted from another corner was certainly a kick in the teeth on this occasion. Taken from the Dynamo right, it curled right under the crossbar and was headed in from close range by Niall Prenderville in the fourth minute of first-half stoppage time.
The second half started badly and Shepshed grabbed another early goal. Just before the hour a free kick was lifted into the box and an own goal made it 3-1. The visitors were good value for the lead but Sphinx made it easy for them and were well beaten even with half an hour remaining.
Tyler Haddow, Ashton Demulder and Leo Wood came off the bench and gave Sphinx a different kind of threat but the moments of danger for Dynamo were few and far between. After their own ambitious shot over in the middle of the half, Brown fired over on the turn from a long free kick into the box.
A badly defended throw-in led to a low shot dragged wide by the visitors in the 74th minute but they didn’t have to wait long before scoring their fourth on the counter-attack.
Sphinx’s corner went wrong and they were caught out as Shepshed broke. The home team were wide open at the back and were punished for getting into a three-on-one situation by a clean square pass for Shaun Ruzvidzo and a composed finish past Fallows to make it 4-1 with seven minutes remaining.
Haddow zipped a shot just wide in the 89th minute but the final chance of the game went to Dynamo and it was another gift. Three minutes into stoppage time they were awarded a penalty for a foul by Guest. Kyle Dixon hit the spot kick straight down the middle to bag Shepshed’s fifth and final goal.
To say this was a dismal night for the club would be an understatement. Sphinx started the game within striking distance of Shepshed and in apparently better form, but the outcome was a sound and deserved thrashing at the most inopportune time.
There are now three games remaining to get out of trouble and there’s nothing easy about any of them. Sphinx have a buffer but they’ll have to beat title-chasing Anstey Nomads, a Boldmere St Michaels team who beat them earlier in the season or play-off contenders Hinckley LR if they’re to avoid needing it.
Boldmere visit the Sphinx Industrial Supplies Arena on Saturday 20th April in between two visits to Leicestershire.
Sphinx team
Fallows, Pursey, Shorrock (Wood), L. Downes (Haddow), Guest, Edjenguele, Hayward, Woodward, Brown, J. Downes, Moore (Demulder). Unused subs: Castellano, Van Den Top