From Kov Evening Telegraph
LOCAL derbies don't get much more blood and thunder than Easter Monday's clash with Leicester City whose game plan had little to do with football.
In fact, much of the post-match talk was centred on Patrick Kisnorbo's nasty over the top challenge on Andrew Whing, which resulted in the visitors being reduced to ten men for the last 23 minutes of the game when the centre-back was issued with a straight red card.
Elsewhere in the match, the Foxes edged out the Sky Blues 23 fouls to 21 in a scrappy, whistle-happy affair at the Ricoh Arena.
But at least the home side could take credit for the fact that they fought tooth and nail to the end of a frustrating afternoon that saw them come back from a goal down and dominate much of the attacking play, albeit to no avail as they failed to put the ball in the back of the net for a second time.
While far from condoning the actions of Kisnorbo, Coventry manager Micky Adams felt the type of game was everything he expected and wanted against his former club.
"It's a local derby - that's what you want," he said referring to the rough and tumble nature of the match which stemmed from the fact that the Foxes went into the game looking to spoil City's play at the expense of playing any decent football themselves.
"You want a competitive, hard-fought game from both teams. I expected it to be keenly contested.
They had great support at the game and so did we, so I never thought it was going to be a spectacle by any means, but at least we tried to do the right things at the right times."
However, Adams's defence, which saw the return of Richard Shaw after three games out in the cold, was caught short in the ninth minute when Marcus Hall found himself marking two men, resulting in Leicester's right-back hitting a low finish past Martin Fulop to give the visitors the lead.
"I don't see how Richard Stearman can run that far without being tracked," added Adams about his former player.
But Stern John got City back on level terms two minutes later when he latched onto a Dele Adebola ball into the box and poked the ball past Paul Henderson as it bounced.
"I anticipated the ball well, although I thought Dele was going to miss it," said the Trinidad and Tobago international who recorded his third goal in four games to take his season's tally to 10.
"I thought the keeper was going to come and smash me but when I didn't see him I thought I might as well try to go and have a go and get a toe to it.
"The keeper stayed on his line and that gave me a good chance to get in and it was probably just a striker's instinct.
"I had one disallowed shortly after and I thought that was on side, so I would like to see that again because me and Wisey made eye contact and he played the ball in for me and I just had to flick it in, but the referee said no."
The Sky Blues' were thwarted by Leicester's resolute back four, in particular the centrebacks, including Kisnorbo who tussled and tugged at Adebola throughout his 67 minutes on the pitch - a fact that was frustratingly rarely punished by the referee.
But City struggled to capitalise on their extra man advantage while the astute substitution of Elvis Hammond for Iain Hume, saw the fresh striker hold the ball up far more effectively to take the pressure off the visitors when they did manage to get the ball back at their feet amid the late rally.
"We have got to be brighter in those situations," admitted Adams. "We have got to pass it quicker and get the ball wide, which we failed to do. But, having said that, we still created chances.
"The best ball is not always straight up the middle of the pitch because although they had lost a central defender, their back four was still in tact, so if they were going to be a man short it was down the sides."
But time after time the keeper hoofed the ball upfield rather than feed it out to the fullbacks, and the one occasion he did, to Andrew Whing, he raced up the pitch and hit a delightful ball to the back post where John just lifted it over the bar.
Even Dennis Wise, who lapped up a bucket load of stick from the 5,000 plus travelling fans, couldn't find his way through with an acrobatic bicycle kick that rattled the bar.
"We threw the kitchen sink at them in the second half and then their keeper made a brilliant save from the one I had in the box, so it was just one of those days," added John.
"We gave it everything we had but just couldn't break them down.
"They set out to kill the game and that's what they did."
