COVENTRY CITY U18'S 3-2 CHELSEA U-18'S by Kev Monks
Andy Hall gave City their third consecutive home victory with a late strike two minutes from time against the fancy dans of Chelsea.
On a dull morning at Ryton, Steve Ogrizovic's team had fallen behind in the 18th minute when a superb through ball found Joe Tullen on the left flank and the forward beat the diving Jonny Tuffey with a low shot from an acute angle.
The lead lasted for three minutes as Kevin Thornton found himself in plenty of space to score from 25 yards.
Both Thornton and reserve team regular Liam Nicell were in fine form,but in the 32nd minute, City's defence were caught ball- watching as Dean Smith rose to head in from a corner.
City never gave up and kept plugging away and in the 36th minute,were awarded a penalty when Ed Brand handled a corner and was sent off. Kevin Thornton took the penalty and duly dispatched it into the net.
Gerry Harvey's team contained a number of good players with the keeper probably the best. However, no team-sheets were available for the game so I have no idea of those involved bar the scorers and the sending-off.
Chelsea, despite their numerical disadvantage were holding the Sky Blues and Steve Ogrizovic brought on Andy Hall and Ben Mackey to add some impetus to the City attack.
Kevin Thornton was booked for a foul as was Andy Gooding,son of former Sky Blue Ray who was watching from the touchlines.
Gary O'Toole fired over from six yards and then Ben Mackey had the ball in the net only for it to be ruled out for what I presume was a foul on the goal keeper.
However, City were not to be denied a victory and two minutes from time, the visiting keeper who looked like he was one of the three over- age players allowed at this level twice managed to get a touch to the ball to deny Mackey. The third time it happened,the custodian made a bad clearance and the ball fell for Andy Hall to drive the ball low into the net from twelve yards and give City a hard-fought victory.
CITY U16'S 4-1 CHELSEA U16'S by Kev Monks
City's first home game at this new Saturday U16 level produced a fine victory for the Sky blues with all the goals coming in the first half.
Games at this level are unofficial with no team-sheets and no yellow or red cards and saw Chelsea have the early initial play before the Sky Blues went ahead in the sixth minute through their number eight who broke through to hammer the ball into the net. He doubled his tally in the 19th minute with a well taken shot.
Four minutes later, the blond haired number eleven for Dave Phillips side finished neatly to put City further ahead and in the 34th minute of this forty minutes each way game, the same player broke through to put City four goals to the good. Chelsea pulled one back in the 38th minute.
Both sides were never able to keep up the momentum of the first period and the only incident of the second period was when referee Mike Bingham asked Chelsea to replace one of their players whose frustrations were getting the better of him.
At Westwood Campus Sports Ground,the Internet Sky Blues beat Internet Millers 2-0 in a friendly fixture.