Coventry City 1-1 Bristol City: Bristol City come from behind to draw with Coventry
- Published
- comments
Antoine Semenyo scored his fifth goal of the season for Bristol City
Coventry City and Bristol City shared the points as both sides played out their second successive draw at the CBS Arena.
Jake Bidwell opened the scoring for the Sky Blues after 12 minutes, heading in from close range.
Antoine Semenyo drew Bristol City level just before the half-hour mark, slotting the ball in on the rebound for his fifth goal of the campaign.
Robins forward Andreas Weimann then saw a shot blocked on the line deep in the second half as the two teams failed to break the deadlock.
Coventry - who played out a goalless draw with Cardiff midweek - remain in 13th place in the table.
Bristol City, who similarly drew 0-0 away to Millwall in their previous match, stay 19th and now have only one win in their past 10 as manager Nigel Pearson tries to ease some of the pressure.
It was Coventry who started the better of the two sides with Martyn Waghorn forcing a save out of Max O'Leary inside two minutes.
Left-back Bidwell then put the Sky Blues in front with his first goal of the campaign, after neat play down the right from Gustavo Hamer saw the ball played into the box. While O'Leary did well to deny Bidwell's first effort, the rebound fell straight back into his path and the defender just had to nod the ball in from inches out.
Bristol City have been a threat going forward most of the season and Semenyo equalised a short while later with his first goal since returning from World Cup action with Ghana last month.
The 22-year-old started the move by breaking down the right, and while Nahki Wells' shot was blocked, Semenyo didn't miss as it fell to his feet, slotting the ball beyond Ben Wilson for his fifth goal this season.
With momentum in their favour, Viktor Gyokeres then made a goal-saving header off the line to deny Kal Naismith from turning a corner home and putting Bristol City in front.
Coventry again started brighter after the break as Waghorn saw a shot go wide, while Zak Vyner made a perfectly timed sliding tackle to deny Gyokeres another goal, but it turned into a half with few clear-cut chances.
When Semenyo broke again down the right and cut the ball back into the box late on, it seemed certain Weimann had scored the winner for the visitors. But Callum Doyle was there to make an excellent block to deny the Austrian at the back post, as both sides had to settle for a point.
Coventry City manager Mark Robins told BBC Radio C&W:
"I thought that we were the brighter team to start the game. We came up against a side who have got a really experienced and powerful front three. They've got some quality sprinkled around the team.
"What we did to start the game, well, we took control of it. I thought we were on the front foot. I think that you could tell that both sides were tired - up and down the games, Premier League games yesterday you could tell. It's difficult, but what I've said to them in there is that they've dug in.
"I thought that we were the side that might have gone and won it, especially towards the last 15 minutes I thought that we were OK.
"I thought that they had a breakaway that had the chance that was stopped on the line, I think it was offside so it wouldn't have made any difference anyway, but other than that I thought that we've been OK without being scintillating, without being full of energy - and I think that's probably the main thing."
Bristol City manager Nigel Pearson told BBC Radio Bristol:
"We started a bit slow and disappointing to go behind. There's a bit of ill fortune as well - Max made a wonderful save and it just happened to fall in the right place.
"I was disappointed with the slow start but thereon in I thought we were excellent in terms of our collective determination, effort and some of our play was excellent too.
"We've put a very good home side under pressure for long periods so I suppose either side could have won it, but maybe a draw is relatively fair.
"We won a lot of set plays and put them under pressure and they looked rattled, we just couldn't find that finishing touch. In the second half I suppose it was ebb and flow. Both sides had some good promising spells that didn't really come to much."
Can they identify The Traitors to win £120,000? Claudia Winkleman hosts a game of detection, backstabbing and trust
Detective Strike tackles his first cold case: Watch the brand new series of Strike on BBC iPlayer
