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| COVENTRY CITY 1-0 CREWE ALEXANDRA BY KEV MONKS Roland Nilsson's Sky Blues moved up to fourth in the table, with a single goal victory over Crewe.. The win was nothing more than City deserved for a battling performance in a wet night at Highfield Road. As with the games at Rotherham and Walsall, City created the majority of the chances whilst the visitors relied on the counter-attack. Coventry who forced a string of corners early on, took the lead after 29th minutes when Youseff Safri was hacked down by former Macclesfield and Stevenage defender Sodje. Lee Hughes was given the task of taking the spot-kick and he cooly scored to give City a deserved lead. For the second home league running, there was violence at half-time but on this occasion it involved the mascots with Sky Blue Sam landing a right hook on the Crewe mascot who took great exception to the aggressive nature of the City elephant and eventually stormed off in disgust. This was after the Crewe mascot had been forced to dodge a hail of missiles thrown from the West Terrace With Konjic and Gary Breen solid in defence and the midfield giving their all, attacks from the visitors were something of a rarity but when called upon Andy Goram, replacing Magnus Hedman who was reported to have injured his back, calmly dealt with the threats of Ashton, Lunt and Rodney Jack. Again, the dearth of goals is worrying. Chances are being created but are not being converted into goals Lee Carsley, Bothroyd and Mo Konjic all should have made the margin of victory greater than what it actually was. Lee Hughes had his best game for a while and appears to have resolved his differences with Roland Nilsson. So yet again, the Sky Blues finished another match unbeaten and long may it continue, even if it is by a single goal. ATT 15 788 away fans 600 TEAM 30 Goram,3 Hall,5 Shaw,6 Breen,22 Konjic,8 Carsley,11 Chippo,27 Safri,7 Thompson,21Bothroyd (28 Delorge 63),9 Hughes SNU 33 Montgomery,2 Edworthy,14 Quinn,25 Martinez RATINGS 30 Goram 8/10 Solid and calm under pressure 3 Hall 7/10 Better game 5 Shaw 7/10 good game, despite not playing in his favourite positions 6 Breen 8/10 Good consistent game 22 Konjic 8/10 Solid at the back and good going forward 8 Carsley 8/10 Some good running and good tackling 11 Chippo 7/10 kept trying to go forward 7 THOMPSON 9/10 A fine performance,good passing and some excellent running 27 Safri 8/10 Battled well 21 Bothroyd 7/10 Tried hard 9 Hughes 8/10 Far better game than of late, hopefully the penalty will boost his confidence 28 Delorge 6/10 Offered little to the attack e |