Coventry Sphinx suffered for not having played for five weeks when they went down to a 4-2 defeat at Stratford Town tonight.

 

Danny McSheffrey or Gary, according to Stratford’s press sheet, was again without centre half Terry Ward and Liam Kay who was unavailable and he watched on as his side went a goal down after only 31 seconds of play at the DCS Stadium in Knights Lane, when Mark Smith was allowed to find space to get into the penalty area and beat Carl O’Neill with a low drive into the bottom corner of the net.

 

Jeremiah Richards hacked down Craig Goodbody in the tenth minute and was cautioned. He then committed three further fouls, but only got a talking to by the referee, not the second yellow card that the Sphinx support were demanding.

 

With the Sphinx players always on the back foot it was Richards who increased the home side’s lead when he was first to react in the 28^th minute, when Mark Smith’s shot was parried by O’Neill.

 

Four minutes later, Richards struck again when he finished off a rebound after his initial shot had been blocked.

 

The mood amongst the Sphinx support in a gate officially given as 134, got worse five minutes before the break when man of the match Tom Warmer, curled in a free kick from 20 yards.

 

The Sphinx management had their say at the interval and against a Stratford side who had replaced Richards, they were a lot better in the second half.

 

Stratford only had only real chance that saw Smith’s shot saved by the feet of O’Neill and with Sphinx now dealing with the Stratford midfield, they started to push forward.

 

In the 68^th minute, there was something to cheer for the Sphinx support when substitute Josh Ruff displayed some great skill to skip into the penalty area and pull the ball across for Kelvin Phillips to give Gary Jay no chance with a hard hit finish.

 

Jay dealt with a Phillips twenty-five yard free kick and another free kick from Callum Woodward but four minutes from the end of normal time, he was picking the ball out of his own net when a long free kick was met at the far post by his own defender in Chris McHale who diverted the ball into the net.

 

Sphinx are at home to Loughborough University on Saturday. Kick off at Sphinx Drive is at 3pm.

------------

Sphinx: O’Neill, Goodbody, Doherty (Kimberlin 64), Rhodes, Haywood, McAteer, Muldoon (Woodall 46). Woodward, Kinder (Ruff 60) , Philliips, C.Wilson King. Not used: McSheffrey, Daffern.

 

Stratford: Jay, Faulds, Pearce, McHale, Spittle, Warmer, Alsop (Tilbury 74), Byrne, Smith (O’Garro 61), Richards (Gardner 46), Masters. Not used: Hardie, Move.
 

Att: 134