Cardiff with 10 men battle to earn a point against Coventry

Frank Lampard’s Coventry made it three games without defeat as they battled back from a goal down to take a point from a 1-1 draw at Cardiff.

Having fallen behind to a sixth-minute goal from Alex Robertson, the visitors scored inside a minute of the re-start in the second half through Tatsuhiro Sakamoto and then had the added bonus of playing with an extra man from the 47th minute when Cardiff striker Callum Robinson was sent off.

The Bluebirds came into the game seeking a first home win since 2 November. They had not scored at their Cardiff City Stadium for four hours and 47 minutes since David Turnbull had fired home in the 73rd minute of their 3-1 defeat to Blackburn at the end of November.

The long wait finally ended seven minutes into the game when Robertson guided home a far-post header from Cian Ashford. The goal was made by a great run from Callum O’Dowda from deep inside his own half after he had broken up a Coventry attack.

There was a five-minute stoppage in proceedings in the 15th minute of the game when match referee Geoff Eltringham stopped play due to an injury and was replaced by fourth official James Durkin.

Coventry’s first shot came in the 31st minute when Josh Eccles forced Jak Alnwick to go down low to save in the home goal.

There was a dramatic start to the second half with Coventry getting back on level terms within 44 seconds of the restart. Jack Rudoni lobbed the ball into the Cardiff box and Ellis Simms beat Jesper Daland to the bouncing ball, flicked it into Alnwick as he was challenged and the ball bounced kindly into the path of Sakamoto who hammered it home with his left foot.

A minute later there was a further catastrophe for Cardiff when Robinson backed into Bobby Thomas and caught him across the face with his left arm. Replacement referee Durkin went straight to his pocket to pull out his red card.

The extra man and space allowed Coventry to dominate and Alnwick did well to beat away a 25 yard free kick from Victor Torp and then had to look smart to deny Ben Sheaf.

Oliver Dovin then had to pull off a great one-handed save to stop Ollie Tanner from regaining the lead for the Bluebirds and from the corner his fellow substitute Yakou Meite rifled a left footed shot inches wide.