Right, that’s it from me. Here’s Peter Lansley’s match report from the CBS Arena:
Neither side managed to muster an xG in excess of 1, with Coventry failing to register a shot on target. Something will have to give in the second leg.
Well, that’s it for the first course but there is plenty more to chew on in our Sunday, erm, buffet of live action:
Full-time: Coventry 0-0 Middlesbrough
Peep! PEEP!! PEEEEEEP!!! All over. A cagey affair ends goalless, so all to play for in the second leg.
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90+4 min: … wanged straight out for a goal kick by McNair.
90+3 min: One last attack for Boro perhaps. McGree and Giles combine down the left to force a corner …
90+2 min: Hamer pings a first-time ball through to Gyokeres but again the home team can’t fashion a shooting opportunity from a decent position.
90 min: Into injury time we go. There’ll be a minimum of four added minutes.
88 min: The midfielder looks to be OK to carry on but Coventry are temporarily down to 10. Boro faff around too much to take any kind of advantage.
87 min: Hamer, worryingly for the home side, goes down with an injury after clearing the ball.
Updated
86 min: Feels a draw is probably a fair result at this point. Boro certainly had much the better of the opening half hour, Coventry have arguably edged it since though without creating a chance of any note. Boro, on the other hand, have had three decent opportunities.
84 min: Boro again get a little lucky when playing out from the back, Hamer needlessly fouling Hackney on the edge of the area.
83 min: Archer off, Matt Crooks on for Boro.
82 min: Norton-Cuffy dinks in a cross from the right but again it just won’t quite drop for a teammate.
81 min: Hamer lets fly from distance but his fizzing shot pings off a defender. It’s all Coventry at the moment, though.
79 min: The home fans howl for a red card as Akpom lunges towards McFadzean. It’s shouldn’t even be a booking really (looked worse than it was) but the referee produces a yellow card regardless.
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78 min: Coventry work a couple of decent crossing opportunities for themselves but first Bidwell on the left and then Norton-Cuffy on the right can’t deliver with enough accuracy.
75 min: McFadzean clumsily brings down Akpom – just a hint of fatigue creeping into Coventry bodies and minds perhaps.
73 min: Forss and Mowatt combine neatly to get Boro moving forward. The ball is eventually worked out to McGree on the left but the Australian’s pullback can’t find anyone in a Boro shirt.
71 min: McNair and Steffen almost get themselves into a tangle as Boro look to play out from the back. Coventry have their tails up at the mo.
69 min: A healthy 28,874 at the CBS Arena today.
68 min: At the midpoint of the second half you’d be hard-pressed to pick a winner. Boro have gone a bit flat, while Coventry perhaps look more likely to nick one at the moment, though more through force of will than guile.
66 min: Changes for both sides in fact as we have a impromptu timeout with Eccles down needing treatment. Eccles hobbles off to be replaced by Jamie Allen, while Forss is all set to replace Jones for Boro.
65 min: Movement on the Boro bench with Marcus Forss – promoted from this level with Brentford back in 2021 –preparing to come on.
63 min: Hamer slaps an optimistic effort well wide from distance.
61 min: Doyle strides forward from centre-back and finds the Boro defence weirdly opens up for him. The youngster on loan from Manchester City hammers his effort well over the bar, though.
60 min: Hackney does well to pick up a Gyokeres knockdown in the Boro box and smash clear. The Swedish striker is definitely getting more involved though, which could be ominous for the visitors.
58 min: A horrible mistake by Doyle almost lets Boro in but Coventry get numbers back to smother the danger. Meanwhile on halfway, McNair and Gyokeres – a running battle that one – tangle once more, with McNair left needing treatment after an inadvertent Macho-Man-Randy-Savage-esque Gyokeres elbow drop
57 min: Bidwell and Gyokeres combine neatly down the Coventry left but the latter can’t quite make room for a shot.
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55 min: It’s been a frenetic start to the second half, which to my mind suits Cov more than it suits Middlesbrough.
54 min: … McNair swings it in again (a rare example of a centre-back on corners) but again Coventry are able to smuggle it away. At the other end Giles snuffs out a Coventry counter as Eccles looks to get on the end of Gyokeres’s quick free-kick.
53 min: End to end stuff now – another corner, this time to Boro as McGree, who has been a lively presence throughout, forces the home side on to the back foot. It’s fired in and headed out by McNally for another …
52 min: Coventry swing in another corner but again can’t make much of it, McFadzean ending up bundling the ball out for a goal kick.
51 min: Coventry’s turn to force a corner as Gyokeres makes a nuisance of himself at the far post. Headed clear by Boro but it’s been a lively start to the second half.
49 min: … smuggled clear by Coventry, who are then disgruntled by the lack of a free-kick as Gyokeres tangles with Hackney.
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48 min: Akpom skips past Kelly and burrows into the box. Three defenders crowd him out but it’s a Boro corner …
46 min: Huge chance! Far, far too easy for Boro to create half a yard on the edge of the box, McGree clips in a cross and Akpom heads wide. That was a let-off for the home side.
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Peep! Off we go again with the sides unchanged.
Half-time: Coventry 0-0 Middlesbrough
Peep! PEEEEP!! And that’s half-time. It’s been a smouldering affair rather than one that has really caught fire but absorbing all the same.
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45 min: One minute of added time to play at the end of the first half.
43 min: Steffen looks to take the air out of Coventry’s building head of steam by delaying a free-kick. And then delaying some more. It irks the home fans but does the trick and he gets rid quickly enough to avoid a booking.
42 min: The ball is in the net … but the flag is up. Akpom slips in Jones in the right channel and the winger is able to beat Wilson this time, but he had just set off on his run a second too early.
Updated
40 min: Norton-Cuffy, impressing on the Coventry right, lets fly from distance but it’s blocked and Gyokeres can’t fashion himself a chance from the loose ball.
38 min: Coventry’s best moments have come from broken play but this time they’re able to out something a bit more structured together and work themselves into a position to win a corner. Boro clear with ease but the last 10 minutes have been much more even as a contest.
36 min: Eccles and Hackney tangle after a tackle but it’s barely classifiable as handbags. A small washbag perhaps.
35 min: As the ball breaks loose Hamer skips past a couple of challenges in midfield but McNair makes a fine block to prevent his progress.
33 min: Another fine save from Wilson as Coventry are opened up for a second time. Jones cuts in from the right and looks to beat the keeper on the near post but he makes a smart save from close range. Another corner … headed away by Josh Eccles.
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31 min: And having just said that the home side build up a head of steam and Matt Godden just fails to divert a shot on target with his head. Does feel that at some point Cov will need to turn this tie into a bit of a wild scrap but there’s plenty of time for that I suppose.
30 min: Well, you could argue that Coventry’s approach has worked in a way – they’ve restricted Boro to one chance, albeit a very good one, in the opening half hour. But they’ve created literally nothing themselves.
29 min: … which Kelly nods awkwardly wide at the back post.
28 min: In a rare foray forward, Norton-Cuffy attacks Ryan Giles on the Coventry right and wins his team a corner …
26 min: Boro swing in their first corner of the game. Via a deflection it finds Paddy McNair at the back post but the former Manchester United man has no time to react and the ball pings away off his shoulder for a goal kick.
25 min: Great stat from Sky – touches in the final third in the last 10 minutes: Coventry two, Middlesbrough 31 …
23 min: Coventry have been happy to let Boro’s centre-halves have the ball on halfway, which is causing some irritation in the home stands.
22 min: Both sides go long … too long. Wilson pings a clearance straight through to Zach Steffen in the opposite goal, Boro clump a forward pass aimed at Akpom straight out of play.
20 min: One-way traffic at the moment here but just the one chance created by Boro so far.
Updated
18 min: Passive is the word I’d use to describe Coventry at the moment.
17 min: Hayden Hackney skips past a Coventry challenge and slips Jones in. Doyle is out to tackle but the Boro midfield is just beginning to tick now.
15 min: Doyle clips Jones on the touchline and is also slightly lucky to avoid an early booking.
14 min: Just after that Akpom chance there are optimistic calls for a Boro penalty on the right as Isaiah Jones tumbled under Bidwell’s challenge. Nothing doing, goal-kick.
Updated
12 min: Oh my word, how has that stayed out! Some nice possession stuff from Boro has Coventry under the cosh for the first time and eventually McGree slips the ball to Akpom, who is clean through on goal. Wilson rushes out to block the shot which loops up … and kisses the bar before dropping down. Coventry scramble away but that was a huge scare.
10 min: Gyökeres gets his first touch … but it’s a duffed attempted backheel on the edge of the area. Coventry are just beginning to get a foothold now though.
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8 min: Akpom spins away in midfield and Brooke Norton-Cuffy – City’s other teenager, on loan from Arsenal – pulls him back and is perhaps a touch fortunate to avoid a booking.
7 min: … swung in dangerously to the near post by Gustavo Hamer but no one in sky blue can get a decisive touch and Boro clear.
6 min: Jake Bidwell finds space on the left as Coventry look to break. His attempted cross slams off a defender and goes out for the day’s first corner …
4 min: The home side get their collective foot on the ball for the first time but Callum Doyle – one of two 19-year-olds in the Coventry XI – plants his pass out of play. Fair to say it’s been a nervy start.
3 min: City captain Liam Kelly brings down Akpom in midfield as the teams look to settle. Boro’s subsequent free-kick is lumped straight out of play.
1 min: Boro’s Cameron Archer – a revelation since joining on loan from Aston Villa in January – looks to get free down the left channel but strays offside.
Peep! Off we go then, Boro get things under way.
The players are in the tunnel at the Coventry Building Society Arena … and out they come into the sunshine. It’s not really a venue you think of as “intimidating” for away teams but it does look in fine fettle today with the stands pretty rammed.
Here’s Michael Carrick talking to Sky Sports pre-match: “We’re not taking anything for granted. Coventry are a really good team. Expect the unexpected.”
And here’s Mark Robins: “We want to enjoy it and do what we normally do, play the game not the occasion. It’s going to be an intriguing game.”
There are plenty of ways to frame this contest but perhaps the most obvious is that it’s a battle between the Championship’s two leading scorers. Viktor Gyokeres seems certain to be in the Premier League next season one way or another after 21 goals and 10 assists for City, while Middlesbrough’s Chuba Akpom – after a much-travelled and largely goal-free start to his career – has caught fire this season, scoring 28 times from his role just off the front man.
In truth, though, this is a clash of styles. Boro have been freescoring from all areas – only runaway champions Burnley scored more – but porous at the back: even 16th-placed Stoke had a better defensive record. Coventry, meanwhile, have been all about solidity, Ben Wilson’s 20 clean sheets this season the most in the division.
The teams
Coventry (probable 3-5-2): Wilson; McNally, Doyle, McFadzean; Norton-Cuffy, Hamer, Kelly, Eccles, Bidwell; Godden, Gyokeres. Subs: Moore, Panzo, Allen, Wilson-Esbrand, Sheaf, Maguire, Dabo.
Middlesbrough (probable 4-2-3-1): Steffen; Smith, McNair, Lenihan, Giles; Mowatt, Hackney; Jones, Akpom, McGree; Archer. Subs: Roberts, Fry, Barlaser, Dijksteel, Forss, Crooks, Bola.
So both XIs are unchanged from the 1-1 draw at the Riverside on the final day of the regular season but there are a couple of important returns on the Boro bench – forward Marcus Forss, who has missed the last three games, and centre-back Dael Fry, who has been out since March.
Preamble
Ah the play-offs. It’s really not a stretch to say that in terms of sheer excitement and drama these really are the best fixtures in the British football calendar.
A quick recap of the weekend so far: Things kicked off on Friday night with promotion dreams being broken by 4-0 thumpings north and south of the border: Peterborough’s extraordinary win over 96-point Sheffield Wednesday surely consigning the Owls to another season in League One (save for something even more remarkable happening in the second leg) and Partick denying Queen’s Park a return to the top flight after 65 years.
On Saturday Sunderland came from behind to beat Luton in their first leg, Hamilton came back from 3-0 down on aggregate to beat Alloa 5-3 in the Scottish Championship and the main event was the madcap National League final at Wembley where Notts County somehow scraped past Chesterfield on penalties after a 2-2 draw.
So expectations are high for this one. Middlesbrough and Coventry finished fourth and fifth respectively in the Championship, but there’s no doubt about who are the form team. Mark Robins’s City side have lost just once since 3 February – a run of one defeat in 17 games that saw only the top two pick up more points. Boro, on the other hand, have someone stuttered of late after at one point looking like threatening the automatic spots. Michael Carrick’s team have won only twice in their last eight games.
It should be a good ‘un. Kick-off is at 12noon BST.
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