Mark Robins’s Coventry City sealed a 1-0 League One win against Phil Parkinson’s Sunderland thanks to a Matt Godden winner at St Andrews.
Coventry City manager Mark Robins was thrilled to seal a win against promotion rivals Sunderland on Sunday while keeping all-action Black Cats dynamo Luke O’Nien on the periphery, while speaking to the Sky Blues’ official website.
A weekend clash between two of the most in-form sides in English football was settled inside 90 seconds.
An early Matt Godden strike was the only goal of the game as Phil Parkinson’s Sunderland drew a blank at St Andrews.
The North East giants certainly weren’t helped by a rare off day for their Mr Reliable. O’Nien conceded possession countless times against Coventry and, just to add insult to injury, it was his unwitting deflection which saw Max Power’s prospective equaliser ruled out for offside.
Parkinson’s opposite number was still full of praise after the game however for Sunderland’s answer to the Duracell bunny.
“O’Nien is like a battery, he just keeps going, so (left-back) Sam (McCallum) had it all going on today,” said Robins, who turned down the chance to replace Jack Ross at Sunderland before they appointed Parkinson instead.
“That said, we defended magnificently well and saw the game out and got the much-needed, hard-worked, three points.
“(The disallowed Power goal) was two yards offside and we all knew it was offside, we haven’t got VAR thankfully, but the officials came to the right decision in the end.”
It was Power who fired home a dramatic 97th minute equaliser against Fleetwood Town in midweek but, once O’Nien had strayed offside in the penalty area, there was to be no repeat of those heroics away at Coventry.
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