Coventry City 2-0 Birmingham City: Callum O’Hare double wins Midlands derby for Sky Blues

Callum O’Hare scored his first Coventry City goals in more than 19 months as the Sky Blues comfortably beat Wayne Rooney’s Birmingham City at the CBS Arena.

He then dribbled his way sideways across the box before slamming home the clinching second goal on 77 minutes.

It was a fifth successive away defeat for Blues boss Rooney, whose side have picked up just five points from his nine games in charge – and have not earned a single point on their travels since 19 August, two months prior to his appointment.

Blues weakened by loss of defenders

Although Blues were weakened at the back by injuries, it could have been worse but for a string of saves by keeper John Ruddy.

Added to the expected loss of Ethan Laird, who was ruled out on Thursday with a groin injury, Blues were also without two more defenders – Cody Drameh, Laird’s expected replacement, as well as Dion Sanderson.

That meant only a second start of the season for Marc Roberts, and recalls for Wales international Jordan James and striker Lukas Jutkiewicz, who was named skipper on his return to one of his old clubs.

But, since leaving Coventry, Jutkiewicz has played against his old club, never scored and never won – and a long way out he never looked like winning this one either.

Ruddy had already made one point-blank save from a well-struck O’Hare shot before the playmaker finally broke the deadlock.

After being slipped down the right by Tatsuhiro Sakamoto, O’Hare wriggled his way through three defenders before slipping a cheeky toe-poke past Ruddy.

After a half-decent Blues spell at the start of the second half, Coventry then pressed on looking to extend that lead.

The recalled Ellis Simms planted a header straight at Ruddy, co-striker Haji Wright was then denied at point blank range by Ruddy, who raced off his line to smother superbly. And the American striker then raced down the left and cut inside makeshift right-back Juninho Bacuna again, only to again be denied a second time by the Blues keeper.

Ruddy also had to dive acrobatically high to his left to keep out a stunning Milan van Ewijk free-kick, before keeping out a low shot from Sakamoto. But, 13 minutes from time, O’Hare settled it.

It had been 672 days since his last Coventry goal, when he opened the scoring. But his second came just 47 minutes later to lift the Sky Blues into 14th, five points shy of the play-offs, going into the rest of the weekend fixtures.

Who’s next?

Mark Robins’ Coventry now host Southampton on Wednesday before travelling to Leeds on Saturday.

Rooney’s Blues are at Cardiff on Wednesday before hosting Championship leaders Leicester City at St Andrew’s on Monday, 18 December.