Six Under-18s players started for the Sky Blues at Nuneaton Town's Liberty Way as the Tykes take the points...
A young Coventry City Under-21’s side were beaten 2-1 by Barnsley in the Professional Development League Division 2 North.
Six Under-18s players completed the City starting line-up as James Maddison’s penalty was not enough to secure a share of the spoils for City.
The Sky Blues were on the back-foot when the ball hit the trialist’s hand in the area and the referee pointed to the spot on 19 minutes. Nana Boake-Yeadon found the left corner to open the scoring despite Ryan Allsop guessing the right way.
The Sky Blues were almost back in the game shortly after when Marcus Tudgay played in Shaun Miller, but the striker missed a glorious chance as he fired his one-on-one at the ‘keeper.
Rhys Dates then almost doubled the visitors’ advantage but his curling effort from the left was well saved by Allsop.
The final action of the first-half saw Barnsley skipper booked for a late challenge on James Maddison and Barnsley’s Brad Abbott also saw yellow just after the break for a strong challenge on Jacob Whitmore.
The first real chance of the second-half fell to the Tykes, when Abbott burst into the penalty area but his chipped effort flew narrowly wide of the right-hand post.
On 65 minutes though, the Sky Blues were level. George Thomas found Maddison in the area and he was brought down by Abbott. The referee gave the second penalty of the game, and Maddison stepped up to send Christian Dibble the wrong way with a cool finish to the right.
Unfortunately, the lead didn’t last long. Eight minutes later, the Tykes were back in front courtesy of another set-piece when the trialist was booked for a foul on the edge of the box and Digby slammed the resulting free-kick past the wall into the bottom corner.
The Sky Blues could have nicked the point at the death but Kyle Spence’s shot from inside the area forced a great save from Dibble from a tight angle to end City’s recent good form of back-to-back wins.
Teams
Coventry City: Allsop; Barnett, Di Kelly-Evans, Harries; Whitmore, C.Thomas (Spence 81), Trailist, G.Thomas; Maddison, Miller, Tudgay.
Subs: Addai, Maycock, Sambou.
Barnsley: Dibble; Towner, Smith, Rumens, Hana; Jennings, DIgby, Maris (Francis 78); Dates, Boakye-Yeadon (McHale 81).
Subs: Proctor.