Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship match between Coventry and Sunderland at the Coventry Building Society Arena as goals from Jamie Allen and Viktor Gyokeres helped Mark Robins' Sky Blues close in on the play-off places
Saturday 25 February 2023 17:24, UK
Coventry maintained their push for the Championship play-offs with a 2-1 win over Sunderland at the Coventry Building Society Arena.
Jamie Allen scored the opener after 25 minutes, guiding in his second goal in as many games after a pull-back from Viktor Gyokeres, who slid in a second to cap an excellent performance on his 100th appearance in a Sky Blues shirt.
Manchester United loanee Amad Diallo curled in a beauty to halve the deficit in second-half stoppage time, but it was nothing more than a consolation for Tony Mowbray's team, who missed out on the chance to jump into the play-off places having extended their run of not winning away at Coventry in the league since April 1985. They now sit ninth.
The Sky Blues, meanwhile, climb to 11th, five points outside the top six with 13 games to play.
With valuable points up for grabs, the tempo was high from the start. Both teams tested the water with half-chances early on, with Danny Batth sending alarm bells ringing when he leapt above Kasey Palmer to send a header onto the crossbar.
Sunderland soon took control of possession, but that meant little to Coventry - who had won 11 of the games this season where they had had under 50 per cent of the ball.
Shortly after Gyokeres had raced onto a misplaced pass and lifted a shot over the bar, he marked his 100th appearance for the Sky Blues with an assist, by driving into the box and pulling the ball back for Allen to guide in the opener.
The Swede then went alone as the hosts looked to double down on their advantage, sending a low shot skidding inches wide of the left-hand upright.
Much of the second period passed without incident. Coventry defended well and severely restricted Sunderland in the final third, and then doubled their lead when Gyokeres pounced to guide home a cross from substitute Matt Godden for his 15th league goal of the campaign.
The visitors did finally make their breakthrough when Diallo controlled a cross and beat Ben Wilson with a sublime looping effort, though it was not sufficient to spark a dramatic equaliser.
Coventry's Mark Robins:
"He [Gyokeres] is not finished there, that's for sure. He is going to be hungry for more goals between now and the end of the season. He deserves everything he gets because he works really hard. You've got a squad that is working hard to create chances for him. It's a team game. You can't do it on your own but sometimes he can turn a game and do something out of nothing.
"We thoroughly deserved the three points. They had the lion's share of possession but we worked really hard to create the chances. It was a really tough game and a hard-earned three points. They are one of the best sides we have played here. From our perspective, this result puts us in a really good position. It has been a long time coming, trying to get consistent wins."
Sunderland's Tony Mowbray:
"There were lots of positives for us but you've got to put the ball in the opposition net. Negatives were that we probably weren't positive enough around the opposition box.
"We came up against a team who play transitional football, they've probably got one of the best strikers in the league, you can feel his threat on the transition but there's no pressure on us, we're happy enough that the team perform at the level."
Coventry are next in action at 7.45pm on Tuesday February 28, when the face Preston at Deepdale, in match live on Sky Sports Football Red Button.
Sunderland, meanwhile, return at 3pm on Saturday March 4, when they face Stoke at the Stadium of Light.
