A resilient Cardiff City drew 1-1 with Coventry City at Cardiff City Stadium on New Year’s Day.
Alex Robertson’s early goal put the Bluebirds in front after just six minutes, but was cancelled out just after half time through Tatsuhiro Sakamoto.
Omer Riza named an unchanged side that beat Watford 2-1 at Vicarage Road on Sunday.
The hosts got off to the perfect start by going a goal up. After some great play by Callum O’Dowda beating Bobby Thomas on the left wing, his cross found Cian Ashford at the back post, who headed the ball back across goal for Robertson to guide the ball into the net. City again had the ball in the back of the Coventry net shortly after following Robertson’s corner, which found O’Dowda in the box and then tapped home by Callum Robinson, who was offside.
Goalkeeper Jak Alnwick was called into action for the first time just after the half hour mark to deny Josh Eccles, whose effort outside the area was kept low but the City skipper got down quickly and held on safely. Following some great build up play, which saw Chris Willock played through on the left side again, he cut the ball back to Manolis Siopis on the edge of the box who tried his luck, but deflected out for a corner.
City went into the break with a deserved lead, but concededafter the restart after Sakamoto tapped home from close-range after Alnwick came out to initially deny Ellis Simms. Moments later, Callum Robinson was shown a red card, as the Bluebirds were reduced to ten men.
Alnwick was called into action to keep out a free-kick from Victor Torp, who connected well with the effort but didn’t cause the keeper any issues. Substitute Ollie Tanner came close to restoring the lead for City, finding himself behind the Coventry defence and one-on-one with Oliver Dovin, but the keeper was equal to the effort and pushed it behind for a corner.
It was then Yakou Méïté’s turn to come close from the resulting corner, drilling his left footed effort just wide of the post. The visitors came close shortly before the end, as the ball was played into Simms in the area, which forced a save out of Alnwick, and the ball fell Brandon Thomas-Asante, who headed over from two yards out.
City held on to earn a hard-fought point, and next up for the Bluebirds is a trip to the Riverside to play Middlesborough on Saturday, January 4th, with a kick-off time of 3pm.
Cardiff City: Alnwick ©, Goutas, Chambers, Daland (NG 59’), Rinomhota, O’Dowda, Siopis (Bagan 85’), Robertson (Ralls 85’), Ashford (Tanner 69’), Willock (Méïté 69’), Robinson. Subs Not Used: Horvath, Kpakio, R. Colwill, Kanga.
Coventry City: Dovin, Van Ewijk, Thomas, Latibeaudiere, Bidwell, Sheaf ©, Eccles (Thomas-Asante 73’), Torp (Bassette 78’) Sakamoto (Raphael 80’), Simms, Rudoni. Subs Not Used: Collins, Binks, Dasilva, Allen, Kitching, Tavares.