Coventry City 4-1 Fulham: Sky Blues hit back to hammer hapless Cottagers
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Matt Godden's controversial 51st-minute penalty against Fulham was the key turning point at the Coventry Building Society Arena
Coventry City produced a stunning second-half fightback to beat Fulham and put their 5-0 midweek routing at Luton behind them.
Mark Robins' rampant Sky Blues went in at half-time 1-0 down after Kyle McFadzean's own goal was allowed to stand despite appearing to be fouled by Aleksandar Mitrovic.
But City turned it round to keep up their 100% home record with a sixth straight win at the Coventry Building Society Arena and hand Fulham their worst league defeat since May 2019.
Viktor Gyokeres equalised straight after the break - the first of three City goals in just 14 minutes - before he wrapped up victory with their fourth, and his second, 20 minutes from time.
In between, Matt Godden also scored from an contentiously-awarded 51st-minute penalty after he had gone down without appearing to be touched by Antonee Robinson.
And on-loan Chelsea midfielder Ian Maatsen scored the goal of the game on 61 minutes.
He lashed home a superbly struck left-foot shot after Fankaty Dabo's right-wing cross had found its way to Maatsen in space in the left corner of the box.
Two-goal Viktor Gyokeres has scored seven of his nine goals this season at home
Gyokeres has now hit nine goals for City this season, one behind Championship top scorer Mitrovic, having now hit a brace in each of his past two home games.
But it did not look it would be another happy day for the Swede when the Sky Blues, without suspended Gustavo Hamer and Covid-hit Martyn Waghorn, trailed at the break.
They had a right to feel aggrieved to be behind on 18 minutes as Mitrovic appeared to grab hold of McFadzean at a corner by the neck, unbalancing the City skipper as he headed into his own net from eight yards.
But Bobby Decordova-Reid made Coventry keeper Simon Moore go full length to save his right-foot shot - and Fulham's pace and slickness on the wet surface made them look more of a threat.
Robins' half-time team talk did the trick in triggering a turnaround.
After Alfie Mawson and the recalled Josh Onomah were caught dawdling on the edge of the box on 47 minutes, Callum O'Hare nipped into tee up Gyokeres to find an unguarded net.
Then, four minutes later, Godden was adjudged to have been fouled and stepped up to send Paulo Gazzaniga the wrong way from the spot.
Maatsen's stunning first goal for the club sent the stadium further into raptures before Swedish striker Gyokeres put the icing on the cake - and he would have had a hat-trick but for brilliant save by Gazzaniga to his left.
Championship top scorer Aleksandar Mitrovic was heavily involved in Fulham's opener against Coventry at the CBS Arena
Coventry City boss Mark Robins:
"I said believe. It's just about belief. Knowing that they were getting in good positions, but also having the belief, the vision and ability to do what we want to do, which was move the ball really quickly and shift them.
"We know where we could exploit and we did that by quick movement, good vision, good execution of passes and a willingness to press and get all over them.
"On the back of the other night it could have easily gone the other way but also I know how good they are. We've got to give Luton credit. We learnt a lot from the other night, it was a slap in the face and a kick up the backside, but we responded really well."
Fulham boss Marco Silva:
"It's something that I don't like to say but I have to apologise to our fans. The second half was wrong. Everything was all wrong from the beginning to the end.
"We controlled the first half, scored early and they didn't create many chances apart from some corners. We tried to change something during half-time to explore the space we knew they can create with their organisation and after that everything went wrong.
"Unfortunately the referee did everything wrong as well because it's a clear dive for the penalty, no foul at all, but it is not his fault we lost. After that we had enough time to react, to do different things, but we have to react in a different way."
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