Coventry City 0-0 Birmingham City: Heroes, villains & player ratings from the Coventry Building Society Arena

Birmingham City picked up an excellent point on the road as they drew 0-0 against high-flying Coventry City on Tuesday night.

It was a resilient performance from Lee Bowyer’s side who finished the game with 10-men after Ryan Woods was shown a straight red card in the 82nd minute.

Heroes

• Matija Sarkic

One of the bright sparks of the campaign and he continues to exceed expectations.

There were worries about him starting the season following Neil Etheridge’s diagnosis with COVID-19 but that seems like a distant memory now.

Etheridge is back and available for selection but Sarkic has found himself undroppable after faultless performances week after week. Tonight was just another to add to the ever-growing list.

• Blues fans

It’s not the longest journey of the season but it’s still a cold Tuesday night in November and over 4,000 made the trip to the Coventry Building Society Arena.

There’s not much more to add, it was an outstanding following and a point is the least they deserved.

Villains

• Scott Hogan

There weren’t many clear-cut chances on the night for Birmingham but the one that they did have fell to Hogan and he blazed over from six-yards.

Troy Deeney knocked the ball down to him from a set-piece but he just couldn’t keep his effort down.

It wasn’t the easiest of chances but he should have at the very least hit the target. If that goes in, it’s the perfect away performance for Blues.

• Leigh Doughty

The sending off of Ryan Woods was one of the most bemusing decisions you’ll see.

It was adjudged to have been ‘serious foul play’ but Woods was never endangering his opponent, he was simply stopping a breakaway.

Challenges like that happen at every level of football week in and week out and you never see red cards shown. It’s not pretty to see but ‘not pretty’ isn’t in the rule book and sadly he’s had a shocker there.

In fairness to Coventry, too, he also missed a blatant pull on their man in the first-half from Dion Sanderson which should have seen them awarded a penalty.

A poor night all round from Doughty.

Player ratings

Coventry City (3-4-1-2): Moore 6; Hyam 7, McFadzean 7, Rose 7; Dabo 6, Hamer 6 (74’ Allen N/A), Kelly 6, Maatsen 7.5*; O’Hare 7 (90’ Walker N/A); Gyokeres 6, Godden 7

Birmingham City (3-4-1-2): Sarkic 8.5*; Sanderson 7, Roberts 7, Dean 7; Oakley 6 (65’ Castillo 7), Woods 6, Sunjic 7, Bela 7; McGree 6; Hogan 6 (86’ James N/A), Deeney 6 (86’ Jutkiewicz N/A)

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