Coventry City 1-0 Plymouth Argyle: Controversial Haji Wright goal secures Sky Blues win
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Plymouth Argyle's players were left incensed by Haji Wright's goal for the hosts
Haji Wright's controversial goal helped Coventry City beat Plymouth Argyle and move above the Pilgrims in the Championship table.
Coventry had the better of a goalless first half in which Ben Sheaf missed a couple of decent chances.
Argyle improved after the break as they went close through Finn Azaz, Luke Cundle and Lewis Gibson.
The goal came with 15 minutes to go as Milan van Ewijk broke down the right and got to the byeline, where the ball appeared to go out of play just before he pulled it back to Wright, who blasted home from close range.
The goal was given despite Argyle's protestations as Coventry scored at home for the first time in almost two months.
The Sky Blues move from 20th to 15th in the table, while Argyle replace them two places above the relegation zone as Steven Schumacher's side still hunt for a first away win of the season.
Sheaf's blocked shot after seven minutes was the best attempt of an even opening half hour that Coventry slightly edged.
Kaine Kesler-Hayden's deflected cross from the right forced Coventry goalkeeper Brad Collins into a smart save 12 minutes before the break while Collins beat out a Morgan Whittaker free-kick soon after.
Sheaf had two great chances to break the deadlock in the space of two minutes just before half-time - first he curled an effort narrowly wide, before he pulled away at the far post and did well to control Jake Bidwell's floated free-kick, but his close-range effort was well saved by Michael Cooper.
The Pilgrims started the second half better as Ben Waine, Azaz and Cundle all had efforts in the opening 10 minutes before Gibson blazed a volley over the bar from a 69th-minute corner.
But Wright's goal will be the talking point of the night. It would surely have been chalked off had there been VAR, and it brought on a glut of home chances as Argyle chased an equaliser.
Substitute Ellis Simms twice missed good opportunities while a dangerous Callum O'Hare pass across the face of goal was cleared off the line by Gibson as Coventry got a first home win since 4 October.
Coventry City manager Mark Robins told BBC CWR:
"We made it tight, we could have been streets ahead and really should have been streets ahead had we played with that little bit more zip.
"But ultimately Saturday, Tuesday, some players are finding their feet with the frequency of games, but the level as well.
"I thought we worked hard, I thought there were some passages of play that were almost good but not quite what we're after.
"I feel like we deserved to win it, I don't think they had too much in the game, they had one or two efforts where it was a little bit tense, but I thought we did really well to keep them down to zero."
Plymouth Argyle manager Steven Schumacher told BBC Radio Devon:
"We should be talking about two teams who've given 100% effort to try and win a game and we're not once again because of a poor call.
"When you see our team react the way they did, I think every player ran towards the officials. A couple of them stopped in the box, which we shouldn't have done, in the build-up to it because it was out and they could tell and they could see it.
"I don't know what view the referee's got, but the linesman's right there, it's right on his side, so it's not as though a post or anything's in his way, and in those instances he's got to get those decisions right because they've cost us the game.
"That one decision has been the deciding factor, and it shouldn't have been.
"But overall, without that, I thought our performance probably wasn't our best, it wasn't really good enough, we didn't show enough quality to score or create enough big chances, so that's on us and it's something we need to do better at."