Coventry City 1-0 Southend United
City: Burge. Willis. Sterling, Mason (McCallum 81), Hyam, Kelly, Shipley (Clarke-Harris 61), Westbrooke (Doyle 82), Bayliss. Chaplin, Hiwula. Subs: Addai, Grimmer, Davies, Doyle, Andreu. McCallum.
Southend United: Bishop, Bwomona, Moore, White, Hendrie (Bunn 83), Manton, Yearwood (McLaughlin 72), Dieng. Knightly (Hutchinson 72),, Cox, Robinson. Subs: Smith. Turner, Clifford, McCoulsky.
Att 11,395
Goals: Jordy Hiwula 54
Coventry City ended 2018 with a 1-0 win over Southend United and another double.
The final game of 2018 and Southend United were the visitors to the Ricoh Arena. With Luke Thomas out with concussion, Zain Westbrooke came into the starting line up on a pleasant afternoon.
Westbrooke was busy in the opening fifteen minutes trying to get City attacking the end where the 500 or so Southend fans were.
Southend, in an all orange kit had the first corner of the game in the 19th minute which saw a collision between Willis and John White which gave an outing to Southend's portly physio, who was advised that he may have had more than his quota of mince pies by one wag..
City's passing was good and led to a 24th minute corner. The visitors went up the other and won another.
Chaplin, fired wide from a 33rd minute Westbrooke free kick, when considering the goalkeeper's position, a pop at goal might have been better.
Chaplin did have a go on goal and got in a lovely twenty plus yarder which flew wide in the 43rd minute in a half where neither side managed a shot on target.
The first shot on target came from Tom Bayliss in the 47th minute and his effort from the edge of the area was straight at Nathan Bishop.
Referee Mr Johnson started to flash the cards, giving City two free kicks, the second of which was hacked away for a throw.
Bayliss continued to lead the midfield well and in the 54th minute, he sent Jordy Hiwula through on goal. Hiwula kept his cool and stroked the ball past Bishop to put City a goal to the good.
Both sides won corners before Jordan Shipley limped off and was replaces for the last thirty minutes or so by Jonson Clarke-Harris.
With Dujon Sterling having another fine game, City continued to work and put in a good move which saw Hyam heading over, following a goalmouth scramble with a Willis shot cleared off the line and shouts for handball when Stephen Hendrie appeared to have handled the ball.
Bwomona blasted over at the other end as Southend looked briefly dangerous with Brandon Mason who played well, making another good block.
As" Twist N Shout chants" rang out, Mark Robins sent on Sam McCallum, who has been excellent for City U23's this season for his league debut and Michael Doyle whilst Southend gave Stephen Hendrie a break and took him off for some rest.
With all City substitutes used, Liam Kelly picked up a cut in a clash and after being patched up, returned to duty.
This meant eight minutes were added on and Southend won three corners, got tetchy and forced Lee Burge to save.
However, City remained strong and took the win to end the year with a merited victory.