Coventry Sphinx manager Luke Hopkins was pleased with his side’s 3-1 victory at AFC Wulfrunians on Tuesday night.
On a night where both sets of supporters had cause to grumble with an assistant referee who could not keep up with play and some poor decision making from the referee, Sphinx took a fourteenth minute lead through Luke Williams. The home side levelled ten minutes later, but immediately, Sphinx replied with a curler from Ashley Cain before Williams neatly chipped the keeper with six minutes of the second half remaining.
“We named the same starting 11 as Dunkirk, the preparation wasn’t great, people finishing work and making what can be a horrible journey through Wolverhampton in rush hour traffic, but it was the best it could be,” Hopkins said.
“It took us ten minutes to get into the game, but once we did we were more of a threat than the home team who had periods of play where they saw loads of the ball but it was across their backline.
“We made a few half changes before a free kick in a wide area was put into the box by Ash Cain and Luke Williams got his head on to it to head home 1-0 up.
"Their goal came from our mistake and they broke and it was a good worked goal to be honest, AFC Wulfrunians do play a lot of football at times to be truthful.
"Our second came from Ash Cain who cut in from the wing and from twenty five plus yards, sent a curling shot just under the cross bar to put us back in front and deservedly so.
"“Again, Captain Ashley Jackson and Jackson Downie were running the game and dominating for the first 45 minutes. Half time came and it was at a point where we didn’t want it to as I felt there was more in it for us after having a few half chances through Cutting, Downie and Cain.
"“We came out for the second half and it was all guns blazing at us, they threw what they had, making changes in the middle of the park trying to get a grip on the game, but we withstood the pressure well and with our changes of fresh legs after 2 games in 4 days, it was Gio Dainty travelling the length of the pitch to slide Man of The Match Luke Williams a pace which he finished brilliantly, giving him a brace and showing why we signed him on in the summer with four months of rehabilitation on a knee injury to go."
“The last ten minutes saw us give a chance to get Jack Downes from the under 16’s on to the pitch and give him a taste of adult football.
“Having named the same starting eleven, little partnerships have started to forge and it makes me think even more than if we did not have the month of January off due to postponements, we would have taken our 2013 form into 2014 smoothly and not had to pick it up a poor February.”