Cardiff City 1-1 Coventry City: Frank Lampard’s side fail to capitalise on player advantage in draw

Frank Lampard's Coventry made it three games without defeat as they fought back from going behind to take a point from a 1-1 draw in Cardiff.

After falling behind to an Alex Robertson goal in the sixth minute, the visitors scored within a minute of the second-half restart 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 looking for a first home win since November 2. They had not scored at their Cardiff City Stadium for four hours and 47 minutes since David Turnbull scored in the 73rd minute of their 3-1 defeat to Blackburn in late November.

The long wait finally came to an end seven minutes into the match when Robertson guided in a header from Cian Ashford's far post. The goal was scored by Callum O'Dowda's superb run from deep in his own half after breaking down a Coventry attack.

There was a five-minute break in proceedings in the 15th minute of the match when match referee Geoff Eltringham stopped play due to 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 back on level terms within 44 seconds of the restart. Jack Rudoni threw the ball into the Cardiff box and Ellis Simms beat Jesper Daland with the bouncing ball, firing it into Alnwick when challenged and the ball bounced kindly into the path of Sakamoto who smashed it home with his left foot.

Another catastrophe for Cardiff followed a minute later when Robinson reversed into Bobby Thomas and hit him in the face with his left arm. Substitution referee Durkin went straight to his pocket to draw his red card.

The extra men and space allowed Coventry to dominate and Alnwick did well to punch away Victor Torp's 25-yard free-kick and then had to look smart to deny Ben Sheaf.

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

The administrators

Omer Riza from Cardiff:

To follow…

Frank Lampard from Coventry:

To follow…

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