OADBY TOWN 2-1 COVENTRY SPHINX BY KEV MONKS
Sphinx
O'Neill, Robbins, Fraser, Stevenson, McAteer, Long, A.Williams (Rawlings 67), Bilic, J.Cudworth (Hopkins 82), L..Williams, Muldoon (Gaggini 82)
SNU Razza, Bryce
Oadby
Connolly, Smith (Russell 41),Oswin, Parry, Pickering, Tuttle, Phull (Gent 73), Lucas , Tidy (Heskey 50), Tosh, Young.
HT OTFC 0-1 CSFC FT OTFC 2-1 CSFC
Goals Adam Parry 40, Danny Fraser 68, Sam Young 86
Booked Pickering, Cudworth, Bilic, Robbins, Hopkins
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Football can be a cruel mistress and Coventry Sphinx fell victim to some poor officiating and poor defending which led to a defeat at Oadby Town tonight in a Midland Alliance fixture.
On a rainy, cold, night at Topps Park, the game had not long kicked off when the referee, incurred the wrath of the Sphinx bench and support for not dealing with some early tackles from the home back four.
Junior Williams forced Connolly to save with his feet in the eleventh minute and a minute later, his shot from six yards, following a cracking cross by Luke Williams was cleared off the line by the left hand of Connolly as the Sphinx management and support appealed for a goal.
A Sphinx free kick saw the ball bouncing around the penalty but in the 40th minute, the ball went forward to Andy Tidy who flicked forward to Adam Parry who beat O'Neill to send the ball into the empty net.
Being level with the play, it was easy to see that Parry was four yards offside, something even some of the home fans agreed on, but with the assistant on the stand side looking the other way and not spotting the positions the Oadby players were in when the ball was first played, the goal stood.
Sphinx got straight into Oadby at the start of the second half. Luke Williams sent over two crosses with the second leading to a corner that the hard working Jamie McAteer headed over.
After O'Neil had dived to his left to save from Tosh, Sphinx, grew in stature with Danny Fraser, Tom Muldoon and Luke Williams continuing to do the good things they had been doing and in the 68th minute, McAteer played a ball on the edge of his own area out to Danny Fraser. A good ball sent Luke Williams on his way down the left. Fraser kept running and got the ball back to drive a shot across the goalkeeper and into the net.
Danny McSheffrey went for changes sending on Tom Rawlings, Luke Hopkins and Casey Gaggini but four minutes from time, the Sphinx bench were livid when a free kick was awarded to the home side.
The referee, who was talking to Robbie Stevenson, allowed the kick to be taken quickly. The ball came to Sam Young on the edge of the area and his low shot flew into the net much to the delight of his team-mates who got a victory that had looked unlikely early on.