The visitors came from behind to take all three points, with Gareth Whalley, Gavin Gordon and Robert Earnshaw on the scoresheet.

Lennie Lawrence was forced to make several changes from the side that drew 0-0 with high flying Sunderland during mid-week, with Gary Croft, Mark Bonner, Gareth Whalley and Gavin Gordon all returning to the starting line-up to fill in for a series of suspensions and injuries that had given the City boss a selection headache.

The opening quarter-of-an-hour was all Coventry City, and their excellent passing and build-up play was costing the Bluebirds problems. Suffo and Morrell both went close for the Sky Blues before Michael Doyle finally gave them a deserved lead with a superb strike.

Some poor Cardiff City defending resulted in the ball not being cleared when the opportunity arose, and the ball ended up with Doyle on the edge of the box, who send a cracking looping drive into the top corner of Neil Alexander's net.

Patrick Suffo then went close as his shot his the inside of the post, before bizarrely bouncing back into play, before the Bluebirds got a surprise equaliser against the run of play.

The goal came from one of City's first decent chances of the game. Robert Earnshaw send a cross/shot into the box, but Coventry 'keeper Scott Shearer could only parry the effort and Gareth Whalley was alert to push the ball into the net.

Whalley's strike changed the game entirely, and the Bluebirds began to grow in confidence. The second City goal came only minutes later, as Gavin Gordon angled a superb header past Shearer from a Gary Croft free-kick. It was an excellent performance from the striker who has taken a lion-share of stick from many City supporters, and he is now in firm contention to retain his place for the visit of West Ham United to Ninian Park next week.

After such a strong start, Coventry had thrown away their lead in a matter of minutes. There confidence disappeared, and there only looked one winner after Gavin Gordon gave the visitors the lead.

City went two goals in front on the 40-minute-mark courtesy of a Robert Earnshaw penalty. The record breaking City striker clashed with the Coventry 'keeper as he charged into the penalty box, and referee Ilderton showed no hesitation in giving the penalty. Earnshaw made no mistake from the spot to put home his tenth league goal of the season.

The second-half was never going to be the contest the opening 45 minutes had been, and Lennie Lawrence's game plan obviously involved City sitting back and defending their lead.

Coventry's build-up play was quite impressive, but they failed to cause City any serious problems in the penalty area and the defence kept Morrell and Adebola at bay with comparative ease, and the dangerous runs from Suffo that had caused City problems in the first-half were no longer having an effective.

The Sky Blues finishing was awful, and it is not surprising to see why they have not scored to many goals this season. They can rightfully fell quite hard done by at some of the referee's decision today, but they only have themselves to blame for not getting back into the game in the second period when the chances came up.

Overall, it was a very pleasing City performance. The strike partnership of Robert Earnshaw and Gavin Gordon looked very effective, I wonder what all the Gordon knockers will have to say about it? He played as a target man very well, with some neat headers onto his Zambian-born counterpart, and a well taken goal to boot!

Gary Croft stepped in at right-back with a comfortable display, and Rhys Weston will face a tough job of winning his place back when he returns from his leg injury. John Robinson played very well in the midfield, although I was slightly disappointed with Richard Langley who seemed to give the ball away cheaply.

Man of the Match - Robert Earnshaw
Just shaded the away over his strike partner Gordon. Earnshaw caused lots of problems for the Coventry defence, with his pacey runs leaving the experienced defensive partnership of Richard Shaw and Steve Staunton quite confused!

Full Time - Coventry City 1-3 Cardiff City

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