Coventry City 1-1 Gillingham
City: Burge, Willis, Hyam Sterling, McCallum, Meyler (Bakayoko 59), Thomas, Westbrooke (Bayliss 66), Shipley. Hiwula, Enobakhare (Wakefield 93). Subs: Addai. Grimmer, Davies, Chaplin.
Gillingham: Holy, Ehmer, Zakuani, Hanlan , Eaves, Burke, Fuller, List (Lopes 71), Rees, Byrne, Ogilvie (King 87). Subs: Hadley, O'Neill, Charles-Cook, Campbell, Oldaker.
Att 26,741
Goals: Bright Enobakhare 67, Tom Eaves pen 92
Coventry City are still not back to winning ways with their 1-1 home draw over Gillingham at the Ricoh Arena.
Going into the game, the Sky Blues had off-loaded three of their biggest wage earners in Michael Doyle. Abu Ogogo and Jonson Clarke-Harris and brought in Charlie Wakefield from Chelsea and taken David Meyler on loan from Reading,
Meyler was named captain and started whilst Wakefield was on the bench in a game where Mark Robins made four changes.
On a sunny but cold afternoon with plenty of spaces in the stands due to those not taking up many of the 12,000 plus free tickets, City attacked the South Stand for the first half.
The Sky Blues had plenty of chances and possession thanks to Meyler playing some neat passes against a Gillingham side in their blue and black home kit
Playing just one up front in Jordy Hiwula, who is not a striker by any means meant that it was always going to be difficult to create chances.
City created a number of corner thanks to good work from Luke Thomas and Jordan Shipley but they were all cleared and it was only a good save from Lee Burge which stopped Tom Eaves from netting with a header.
Gillingham might have had a penalty when Hyam, in his 50th appearance for City, shoved Hanlan but the referee thankfully missed it and gave them a corner instead.
Enobkahere and Dujon Sterling, who played in a blood shirt without a number, did well as did Thomas even if the loanee from Derby County was guilty of wasting a number of chances.
Gillingham relied on the counter attack and could have gone ahead when Tom Eaves fired wide just before the half ended.
A good number took the interval as their cue to leave and missed a second half that saw Thomas flashing a shot wide, Sterling and Thomas again having shots blocked for a corner in the 51st minute that Hyam who was clearly being held, headed wide.
It needed changing and so Robins sent Amadou Bakayoko on in place of Meyler, who for me had looked promising on his debut and Tom Bayliss for Westbrooke.
In the 67th minute, the game came to life when Bakayoko had a shot blocked by the keeper and it came out for Bright Enobakhare to stroke in to the net.
It was now “Love City, Hate Sisu” or Otium from those still in the ground*, which included Cov Kid Callum Wilson and they saw Bakayoko wasting a good chance to wrap the game up in the 84th minute.
The missed chances proved costly as in the 89th mnute, Lee Burge came out to deal with a poor back pass and conceded a penalty. Burge needed treatment but got up and was sent the wrong way by Tom Eaves, who scored to make it 1-1.
Gillingham went looking for the win as Charlie Wakefield came on for his debut and the game ended in a draw.