A timely win for Coventry

IT will take more than a laboured victory over League One strugglers to transform Coventry’s struggling fortunes, but the midlanders are currently grateful for small mercies.

This has been a tortuous campaign for Iain Dowie, the club’s manager, where the dizzying highs — including a Carling Cup win at Manchester United — have been outweighed by some dismal lows. Fighting relegation in the Championship and having only just averted bankruptcy, the FA Cup provided a welcome distraction.

Dowie was grateful to the officials at the Ricoh Arena, admitting his side were on the right end of a couple of “crucial” decisions. Stephen Hughes and Michael Mifsud sealed the Sky Blues’ victory, but both goals had more than an air of good fortune about them. Paul Robinson was harshly adjudged to have handled Michael Doyle’s shot on the edge of the area. The resulting free-kick was driven into the bottom corner by Hughes.