Coventry City 1-2 Burnley: Scott Parker grateful for his warrior Jaidon Anthony

By Harry Wright

COVENTRY CITY 1

Wright 5

BURNLEY 2

Anthony 16, 46

Scott Parker spoke of his pride for his Burnley side who moved to the top of the Championship with a come-from-behind win over Coventry City.

Haji Wright controversially opened the scoring after five minutes, before Jaidon Anthony scored either side of half-time to make it 27 games unbeaten for the Clarets.

The Clarets’ promotion rivals both slipped up as Leeds United drew against relegation strugglers Luton Town, and Sheffield United fell to a 1-0 defeat against Oxford United.

Speaking after the game, the Burnley boss was delighted with his side’s reaction.

Proud

“Immensely proud, a tough place to come, we knew that coming into the game,” said Parker.

“A team right in form.

“The stadium was bouncing as well, pretty alive for large parts of the game.

“We go a goal down early on, albeit a clear offside goal, which was disappointing.

“Reacted superbly well, get ourselves back in the game, well-worked goal and then showed our quality in the first half.

“I thought it was a very good first half.

“We come out of half time, chased a bit of a lost cause, which epitomises what this team is about.

“We were only sitting here last week with a 1-0 swing in this game, these games always turn out to be like that and at that point, any coach sitting here saying that it’s tactical, or it’s technical, you just need to roll sleeves up and you need to go to places and dig.

“For the majority of this year, these players have got that really, and that makes me very proud of them.”

Match action

Burnley’s victory also handed Coventry back-to-back league defeats for the first time since Frank Lampard took charge of the Sky Blues in late November.

The former England midfielder was also sent off after full time for confronting referee James Bell at fulltime.

Jack Rudoni was one of four recalled to the starting XI by Lampard, and it was his shot that was tipped onto a post by James Trafford before Ephron Mason-Clark’s shot was blocked.

The ball kindly fell to Wright to swivel and smash home from close range, despite replays showing he was in an offside position.

Parker’s side were level just past the 15-minute mark when Josh Cullen nipped in front of Brad Collins, who had replaced Oliver Dovin following his season-ending ACL injury at Bramall Lane.

Cullen squared to Lyle Foster, whose improvised flick on allowed Anthony to slot into an empty net.

Wright could have put the hosts back in front had he connected with Jay Dasilva’s sumptuous cross.

LEAP: Coventry’s Ephron Mason-Clark

Second half

A calamity in the Sky Blues’ back line gifted Anthony his second just after the break.

Liam Kitching failed to connect with his header back to Collins, who had come out of his penalty area, and Anthony pounced on the loose ball before rolling into an empty net.

Burnley went in search of a third through Foster.

The South African wriggled his way into the box before shooting straight at Collins.

Josh Laurent was next to go close to a third, but Collins parried his effort away.

Coventry were unable to threaten the stubborn Burnley defence other than a handful of Milan van Ewijk long throws.