GOOD afternoon and welcome to this afternoon’s live coverage as Coventry City face Shrewsbury Town in their latest League One fixture.
Team spots for Andy Rose and Ryan Haynes after Tuesday night’s away defeat at Bury.
FULL TIME: Shrewsbury Town 0-0 Coventry City
STOPPAGE TIME: Three minutes of extra time. 0-0.
’89 – Frustration for Shrewsbury as they advance with majority of City players in attacking half. Grimmer’s cross finds no one. Still goalless.
’88 – Beavon shoots from just outside the area. Well saved by Leutwiler. Follow up attempt from Turnbull is directed into the box but Shrewsbury clear. 0-0.
’84 – Vocal home crowd cheering their side on as they earn a corner. Simple catch for Burge in the box. Jones then takes the ball up-field and holds off pressure from two Shrewsbury men. Throw in for City. 0-0.
’79 – Chance for Shrewsbury. Beavon loses the ball cheaply in Shrewsbury end. Ball played up-field. Corner results following a blocked cross.
Dangerous corner. George Thomas eventually gains possession of the ball. He’s fouled. 0-0.
’74 – First Coventry chance in a while Reilly’s shot is blocked but goes for a corner. Reilly’s corner is lofted past everyone. No follow-up effort. Ball now in City’s half. 0-0.
SUBSTITUION: Kwame Thomas is replaced by Jodi Jones. 18 minutes of normal time left.
’68 – Period of City pressure with ball passed around in Shrewsbury’s half. A break through the defence as Haynes takes the ball down the left. His cross goes out of play though. Goal kick. 0-0.
’64 – Nsiala’s free kick hits the wall. Corner follows. Sky Blues struggle to clear the ball. Danger man Dodds gets his head to ball in open space with Burge out of position. Headed wide. Let off for Coventry. 0-0.
’63 – Shrewsbury starting to work their way into the game following a prolonged period of Sky Blues pressure. Free kick now on the edge of the box. Dangerous position. 0-0.
SUBSTITUTION: Humphrys comes off for Shrewsbury Town. He’s replaced by Freddie Ladapo. 0-0.
’58 – First pressure from Shrewsbury this half. Roberts tries to battles pass George Thomas near the corner flag, corner given. Safely taken by Burge. 0-0.
’53 – Free-kick to City in Shrewbury’s half. Dangerous position. Beavon was tackled but up okay. 0-0.
Ball sent in by George Thomas, headed clear. Bigirimana sends it back it but ball taken by Leutwiler. It’s all Coventry. Shrewsbury offering no threat. 0-0.
’49 – Beavon in the centre runs with the ball and delivers a cracking through ball to Kelly-Evans. His shot miles wide. Frustration for City fans. Five huge chance within four minutes. Still goalless. 0-0.
’47 – Now it’s Thomas’ turn. He works his way into Shrewbury’s box quite easily before putting his shot over Leutwiler’s crossbar. Another chance goes begging. 0-0.
’46 – HUGE chance for City not taken. Huge scramble inside the 18-yard box. Efforts from Beavon, Stevenson and Reilly – who’s effort is blocked – all denied. Shrewsbury desperately hanging on there. 0-0.
SECOND HALF: Back underway in Shrewsbury. 0-0.
HALF TIME REPORT:
A SAVED penalty seconds before the end of the first half has kept Coventry City level here at Shrewsbury, though there are concerns for defender Andy Rose who was stretchered off minutes into the game.
Rose clashed heads with City skipper Nathan Clarke two minutes into the game, causing a lengthy stoppage of play while the 27-year-old received medical attention.
He was stretchered off the pitch 19 minutes later to a standing ovation from both sets of fans.
It took eight minutes for Coventry to register their first chance on goal, Jordan Turnbull connecting well with a volley from just outside the box. Town keeper Leutwiler parried the strong effort, though the ball was soon cleared.
The home side struggled to break down Coventry’s defence in the first half and made several sloppy passing errors.
Stephen Humphrys provided Shrewsbury’s first clear effort on goal after 39 minutes when the ball landed at his feet following a deflection from an attempted clearance. Though his shot had Burge beat, it went just wide of the City keeper’s right post.
A prolonged period of Coventry domination then started. Callum Reilly went close when shooting from a tight angle after 44 minutes before George Thomas’ effort was blasted wide when under little pressure.
City were fortunate to not be behind at the half though as a penalty was awarded by referee Robert Jones following a handball.
Tyler Roberts’ effort was poor though, and saved by Lee Burge with the ball quickly cleared.
HALF TIME: Shrewsbury Town 0-0 Coventry City
SAVED! A poor penalty from Roberts who does little to test Burge. Good save nonetheless. We remain goalless. 0-0.
Penalty: To Shrewsbury.
’45 (+16) – Reilly delivers a free-kick from the left which meets the head of Turnbull. His header goes wide of Leutwiler’s right post. 0-0.
’45 (+14) – Big chance for George Thomas who comes under no pressure while running towards the 18-yard box. Eventually shoots when entering, his shot goes way wide though. Poor effort. 0-0.
’45 (+10) – City in control of the game. Shrewsbury making multiple sloppy simply passing errors when advancing, home crowd vocal. Still 0-0.
SUBSTITUTION: ’45 (+7) – Shaun Whalley comes off for Town after going down just before a City free-kick. Alex Rodman comes on in his place. Lengthy pause while substitution is made – boos from City fans.
’45 (+4) – Free kick between the goal-line and half-way line. Searching kick from Whalley. Nsiala needed to be another three foot tall to connect with the ball though. Shrewsbury’s first chance in a while. 0-0.
’45 (+3) – Shrewsbury enjoying very limited time in City’s half during this second part of the first half. Growing frustration among the home fans. Coventry failing to take their chance yet though. We remain scoreless. 0-0.
STOPPAGE TIME: The fourth official has indicated there will be a minimum of 19 minutes of stoppage time.
’44 – Huge let off for Town. Reilly advances into the box with the ball following a big contest just outside. Moves to the right. Clear chance. Blasts his effort over the bar. City the much stronger team so far.
’41 – City immediately react to Humphrys’ effort as Beavon finds himself in plenty of space on the edge of the box. He shoots hard to the right of Leutwiler who’s forced to make a good save.
Stoppage while Beavon reaches his feet after an awkward fall when contesting for the ball.
’39 – First clear chance of the game for Shrewsbury. A deflection of a clearance falls straight to the feet of Town’s Stephen Humphrys. He shoots from just outside the D. Shot goes just wide. Had Burge beat, not the post. 0-0.
’37 – Calum Reilly with a great cross in from the right-hand corner of the 18-yard box. Ball easily gathered by Leutwiler, no City presence in the box where the ball was delivered. 0-0.
’33 – Chance for City. Throw in taken by Nathan Clarke. Ball bounces around the box before falling to Turnbull on the edge of the box. His volley is struck perfectly and causes Leutwiler all sorts of problems but he saves. First clear chance for City. 0-0.
’32 – Still no stand out chance for either side. Both teams advancing into opposition half with no problem. Both struggling to break into the 18-yard box though. 0-0.
’27 – Town keeper Leutwiler with a poor kick from inside the 18-yard box. Chance for City with a throw in close to the corner flag.
Pressure from throw-in. Though ball rolls out for a goal kick. 0-0.
’25 – Tyler Roberts proving troublesome for the City defence. No clear cut chance as of yet but he’s lurking. Burge with two poor clearances up-field, much to the delight of home fans. 0-0.
’21 – Chance for Stuart Beavon just inside the 18-yard box to keeper Leutwiler’s right. Ball high up in the air. Beavon cannot fully connect on the volley though. Leutwiler gathers the ball. 0-0.
’19 – Rose has been taken off the field on a stretcher to a standing applause from both sets of fans. Confirmation Ben Stevenson is coming on to replace him. Game paused for 18 minutes before resuming. Lengthy stoppage time period expected at the end of this half.
SEVERE STOPPAGE: The clash of heads between Andy Rose and Nathan Clarke has left Rose on the floor for some time. Paramedics currently attending to Rose. Expect a lengthy period of stoppage time at the end of the half. Times on our blog will read as the scoreboard at the far end of the ground.
’15 – Another stretcher has been carried onto the pitch by paramedics. Both City and Town players keeping warm in their own half by completing drills.
’13 – Growing concern for Andy Rose who is still down. Medical team did pick him up on the stretcher though quickly placed him back on the ground. Game stopped for 12 minutes now.
‘3 – Minutes into the game and a clash of heads sees Andy Rose down in the City penalty area. He was involved in a clash of heads with City skipper Nathan Clarke. Currently being attended to, has been now for six minutes. Ben Stevenson set to come on in his place.
CHANGE: A late starting line-up change for the Sky Blues. Gael Bigirimana comes in for Kevin Foley.
KICK-OFF: We’re underway in Shropshire! City kicking from left to right from our view. Regular updates to follow, refresh the page to keep up to date with how the Sky Blues are getting on.
PRE-GAME: Nearing kick-off here in Shrewsbury. Beautiful clear skies when we arrived at the ground earlier this afternoon. Such sunshine has now disappeared. Slight drizzle in the air before kick-off. City fans positioned away to my right. Five minutes until kick-off. Looks like roughly 200 or so CCFC fans in attendance.
