Hamer stars in stalemate between Coventry and Watford

It ended as a stalemate at St Andrew’s as Watford held out to a draw against hosts Coventry City.

Coventry dominated the opening 45 minutes. In transition, the hosts played into the Hornets’ weak-point, counter-attacking at any given opportunity. Watford full-backs Adam Masina and Jeremy Ngakia constantly hit diagonal passes, as well as crosses from deep, which were well dealt with by Mark Robins’ outfit.

From soaking up pressure deep, the Sky Blues had the first attempt on goal. Maxime Biamou, goalscorer in Coventry’s midweek fixture against Nottingham Forest, nearly made the breakthrough after beating Watford’s offside trap. However, he sliced his attempt wide of the post.

Watford grew into the game slowly. Troy Deeney won his side a free-kick from 25-yards-out, which was taken by Ken Sema, but the deadball scenario came to nothing.

Xisco Munoz’s men continued to grow into the game. Marko Marosi’s first test of the encounter came after 15 minutes. It came from a cross/shot attempt from Andre Gray, with the Slovakian having to back-peddle smartly to divert the ball over the top of his crossbar.

Coventry’s key man Gustavo Hamer came close for Coventry as he found himself in loads of space in the box. His headed effort forced a collapsed save from Daniel Bachmann.

Hamer was involved once more, swinging in a free-kick from the right. The ball in was delicious and begging to be attacked. The ball was flicked on at the front-post towards the back, where Dominic Hyam was awaiting. The centre-back failed to guide the ball towards goal with any conviction.

The hosts continued to look the most likely to make the breakthrough. Robins’ side had clearly worked on attacking from wide areas, as a ball was swung yet again but by Julien Da Costa this time. Biamou’s header was a matter of inches wide.

Callum O’Hare, one of the brighter performers of the afternoon, went close in the latter stages of the first-half. The former Aston Villa man cut inside onto his favoured right-foot in an attempt to pick out the top right corner. Bachmann’s handling was top tier yet again, keeping hold of the strike, taking the pressure off his defence.

To finish off Coventry’s flurry of first-half chances, Hamer went close again. In transition again, O’Hare orchestrated a counter-attack, before finding his midfield partner with a back-heel, but the Dutchman’s long-range effort was skewed wide of the post.

Five minutes into the second-half, the Dutchman went close yet again. This time, the midfielder opened his body up for the strike, similar to O’Hare’s first-half effort, but the ball was too close to Bachmann’s reach.

The visitors were extremely underwhelming throughout, but they were the ones who came the closest to scoring the opener. Captain Troy Deeney rattled the crossbar from a glancing header. It was carnage in the penalty area, with the ball falling to Sema. The full-back attempted an acrobatic finish, but the shot was blocked.

Substitute Stipe Perica fired over the bar in the dying moments of the match for the Hornets, lashing over an effort just outside the 18-yard-box. The strike lacked zero conviction and pretty much epitomised this afternoon’s showing.

Neither side were able to break the deadlock in this afternoon’s tightly contested affair. It’s Coventry’s sixth 0-0 of the campaign and in all honesty, it’s two points dropped for the Hornets.

Coventry City manager Mark Robins was pleased with his team’s performance:

“I think we’ve got to be pleased with the performance – if we can perform like that for the rest of the season we will be fine.

“The disappointment for us is that we can’t give players anticipation. There were easily three chances in the first half that we should have capitalised on.”

Watford boss Xisco Munoz reflected on his team’s performance post-match:

“We must improve on different things but now is the moment for us to stick together and continue working hard.

“We are working – we have had this problem before and we have this same problem now. We need to continue to believe.

“Players need to give their maximum in games to try to score. The Championship is long – we need to continue to working hard, we need to get better performances.”

One of the Coventry coaching staff roared when the full-time whistle blew; a signal of how vital the point was for the hosts. However, the visitors will be frustrated with their performance. Xisco Munoz’s side hardly posed any threat not made any clear-cut chances until right at the death. The one positive Watford can take is the discipline they showed in keeping a clean sheet and that it didn’t finish in defeat.

Goals|: N/A

Coventry XI: Marko Marosi, Julien Dacosta (Pask, 66’), Michael Rose, Leo Ostigard, Dom Hyam, Sam McCallum, Matty James (C), Gustavo Hamer (Gyokeres, 85’), Callum O’Hare (Shipley, 85’), Jamie Allen, Max Biamou.

Unused subs: Tom Billson, Kyle McFadzean, Josh Eccles, Wesley Jobello, Will Bapaga, Fabio Tavares.

Watford XI: Daniel Bachmann, Jeremy Ngakia, William Troost-Ekong, Francisco Sierralta, Adam Masina, Tom Cleverley, Nathaniel Chalobah (Hughes, 73’), Ken Sema, Ismaila Sarr, Troy Deeney (C), Andre Gray (Joao Pedro, 67’)

Unused subs: Rob Elliot, Craig Cathcart, Ben Wilmot, Marc Navarro, Phillip Zinckernagel, Stipe Perica, Joseph Hungbo

Yellows cards: Francisco Sierralta, Andre Gray

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