YOUNG defender Cian Harris received rave reviews from fellow defender Jordan Turnbull after putting in another impressive performance as the Sky Blues were held at home for the third time this season.
The search for a first league win stretched to five matches after Tony Mowbray’s side came from behind to earn a 1-1 draw at the Ricoh Arena on Saturday.
Harry Beautyman ended a neat Northampton attack to fire the visitors in front on the half-hour mark but Marcus Tudgay rescued a point for the hosts with a close range header.
It was the performance of Harris that once again caught the eye and Turnbull believes her has a bright future ahead of him.
“Cian is a special talent,” said Turnbull, who moved to the Sky Blues from He is fantastic on the ball and he will grow to be more physical and have a better understanding of the game..
“I think he did really well and for the majority of the game we looked solid in defence.
“There was one lapse of concentration from the defence as a whole, but that is something we will work on and improve upon for future games. As time goes by we will only get better and the results will follow.”
The Sky Blues began the first meeting between the two sides in almost 50 years brightly with Tudgay heading a Lewis Page cross narrowly over the bar and Marvin Sordell almost marked his first league start since the opening day of the season but his header was saved by Adam Smith in the Cobblers goal.
Northampton almost went ahead when Brendan Maloney’s looping cross was headed goalwards by Alex Revell but stand-in skipper Jordan Willis was alert to make an important clearance off the line.
The visitors did however take the lead with 30 minutes on the clock. John-Joe O’Toole did well to push the ball to Matthew Taylor down the left and his low cross was diverted past Reice Charles-Cook by Beautyman into the bottom right-hand corner of the net.
After the break the home side came out determined to find an equaliser with Tudgay doing well to control the ball with his chest before unleashing a powerful volley at goal which was superbly saved by Smith.
With 63 minutes on the clock Tudgay eventually found the breakthrough by getting on the end of a superb in-swinging cross from the right by substitute Jodi Jones and glancing the ball home from six yards out.
Jones had a great chance to put the Sky Blues in front soon after being played clean through on goal but Smith did well to rush off his line and make an excellent one-handed save.
The visitors almost nicked all three points with five minutes remaining when Matt Taylor connected with substitute JJ Hooper’s near post cross but Charles-Cook produced a superb one-handed save to earn Mowbray’s side another home point.
“I think overall we were strong defensively, solid in possession and believed we should have scored more goals,” Turnbull added.
“We always knew they were going to be a threat with that long ball, but I think at the end we were trying to push for the win, which on occasions left us short at the back.
“Overall we are disappointed not to get the three points as we felt we were the better side for large periods of the game.”
