Coventry City 1-1 Crawley Town
Coventry City: Burge Willis. Grimmer , Davies (Stevenson 46), McDonald, Haynes, Doyle, Shipley (Devon Kelly-Evans 82), McNulty. Nazon, Beavon (Ponticelli 68). Subs: O'Brien. Stokes. Maycock, . Biamou.
Crawley Town: Morris, Young, Connolly, Yorwerth, Evina, Payne, Bulman (Djalo 83), Randall. Boldewijn )McNerney 82), Roberts, Camara (Meite 75), Subs: Mersin, Lelan, Doherty, Lewis,
Goals Jordan Roberts 41, Marc McNulty 73
Att 6,381
So life without Jodi Jones in a Coventry City shirt started with a 1-1 home draw against Crawley Town.
The news that Jones had ruptured his ACL in the 1-1 draw at Stevenage, plus the injury to Liam Kelly, who was pre-game in the family zone rather than preparing for the visit of Crawley Town at the Ricoh Arena on a bitterly cold afternoon, was a bitter blow and one that does nothing to help City's chances of getting the promotion out of this hell of a division at the first attempt.
Mark Robins, who had given a good, honest account of himself at a Sky Blue Trust meeting on Thursday night, named a City side which had Jack Grimmer, Stuart Beavon and Duckens Nazon in it against a Crawley side managed by Australian Harry Kewell, whose side had Mark Randall booked for a hefty challenge on Jack Grimmer after two and a half minutes of play. That gave City a free kick which Glenn Morris pushed away for a corner.
Duckens Nazon, who tried but often found himeself blocked by a Crawley team who defended in numbers, fired high and wide in front of the handfuls of visiting supporters which was less than sixty in a crowd given as 6.381 which looked about the 5,500 mark.
Good work from Stuart Beavon led to a 14th minute corner and he was involved four minutes later. In a move which saw
Nazon striking Morris' right hand post from the enge of the area.
Tom Davies was next to be booked on the half hour mark as the moon came out in a game where City were having the better of the play but unable to do anything major in the final third.
Both sides won corners and Roberts fired over.
However. four minutes, before the break and Crawley took the lead when the ball came over from the right and Jordan Roberts, who had a fine game, was left unmarked to score from ten yards.
Ben Stevenson came on for City at the break but the Sky Blues should have been two goals down when Roberts played in Boldewijn for a shot which bounced off the crossbar, a couple of minnutes into the second half.
Nazon won City a 50th minute corner which McDonald headed wide.
Jordan Shipley was starting to get more into the game and was Marc McNulty who forced Connolly to clear off the line for a corner which Grimmer blasted over.
Grimmer won City the first of two corners in the 58th minute before Roberts had a free kick pushed round by Burge .
Jordan Ponticelli came on in the 68th minute of a game which needed a goal.
And in the 73rd minute, it happened when Ryan Haynes crossed, Nazon played it on and the ball fell for Marc McNulty to turn and lash the ball high into the net from eight yards.
Crawley started to time waste with even their physio involved as the City support tried to rally the team.
Devon Kelly-Evans came on for Shipley before Nazon volleyed over.
McNulty ran though and was blocked as six minutes of stoppage time were announced.
Both sides had by now settled for the point and a draw it was.