Coventry City 1-0 West Bromwich Albion: Baggies' winning run ended by Sky Blues

Coventry celebrate their late winner against West Bromwich AlbionImage source, Rex Features
Image caption,

Coventry are within one point of the top six in the Championship, with a game in hand on the teams above them

Viktor Gyokeres' stoppage-time penalty sent Coventry City up to eighth in the Championship and ended West Bromwich Albion's five-game winning run.

Gyokeres, the division's leading scorer, was fouled in the box and sent Alex Palmer the wrong way from the spot for his 11th goal of the season.

Before then, the Sky Blues had come closest to a winner when Jonathan Panzo headed against the crossbar.

Victory took the home side to within one point of the play-off places.

Coventry had the better of a goalless first half, showing little sign of a hangover after surrendering a three-goal lead against Swansea on Saturday.

Callum O'Hare, Ben Sheaf and Gyokeres all shot wide during a positive opening spell, while Gustavo Hamer twice forced Baggies goalkeeper Palmer into good saves either side of half-time.

At the other end, Tom Rogic and Jed Wallace were denied by Callum Doyle's last-ditch clearance and Ben Wilson's save respectively. Wilson was also on hand to keep out Darnell Furlong's effort following a second-half goalmouth scramble.

Improving Albion looked on course for their fifth clean sheet in six Championship games before Gyokeres fell under the challenge of Erik Pieters at the end of a mazy run into the box, and the Swedish striker coolly converted the resulting spot-kick.

Coventry City manager Mark Robins told BBC CWR:

"The players were outstanding, but then they were outstanding on Saturday too until we let in three goals and drew a game that felt like a defeat.

"But we got back to keeping clean sheets - and we were unlucky not to score more against a side who've won five on the bounce.

"It's up there with one of our best performances of the season. People are getting excited and that's great, but expectations should not be going through the roof.

"We have a great bunch of players but we don't have the depth of squads other clubs have. That's not a complaint. It's just down to circumstances."

West Bromwich Albion head coach Carlos Corberan told BBC Radio WM:

"They were better than us in the first 70 minutes. We had more control in the second half, but it was an awful way to lose the game. We tried to clear the ball but could not.

"We lost to one of the basics of the game. Now we have to recover for the Boxing Day game.

"I do not know if it was a penalty or not but there were a couple of moments in the first half that may have made the referee want to whistle."

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