Football: Flying Flynn lifts Coventry

Coventry City. . . .1

Ipswich Town . . . .0

SEAN FLYNN, the smallest man on the field, rose above a mediocre mid-table contest to head the only goal at Highfield Road last night, ending a five- and-a-half-hour goal drought for Coventry and condemning a stubbornly defensive Ipswich to a first away defeat in the Premiership since Queen's Park Rangers beat them on 2 October.

In the interim, neither Manchester United nor Leeds were able to find a way past a rearguard astutely organised by their canny veteran, John Wark, which did not augur well for a team lacking the inspirational quality of the injured Roy Wegerle and with an out-of-form Mick Quinn relegated to the bench.

The pairing of 6ft 2in John Williams with the 6ft 4in John Gayle smacked of desperation, but in the event was possibly an inadvertent masterstroke by the manager, Phil Neal.

When Boncho Genchev's foul on Peter Ndlovu gave Coventry a sixth-minute free-kick on the left, Wark and company were understandably more concerned with the movements of the two big men than with Flynn. But the 5ft 8in midfield player surprised them with a prodigious leap at the right-hand extremity of the six-yard box, propelling David Rennie's cross powerfully into the far corner.

Coventry should have made the points certain 12 minutes from the end when a body check by Eddie Youds on Ndlovu had referee David Allison pointing to the spot. Quinn was invited to make his 73rd-minute appearance worthwhile but his kick was pushed around the post by Craig Forrest.

Ipswich might have seen this as justice of a kind, having been denied what seemed to be a clear penalty claim of their own in the first half when Phil Babb brought down Mick Stockwell.

Coventry City (4-4-2): Ogrizovic; Borrows, Atherton, Babb, Morgan; Flynn, Rennie, Darby, Ndlovu; J Williams (Quinn, 73), Gayle. Substitutes not used: Robertson, Gould (gk).

Ipswich Town (4-4-2): Forrest; Youds, Wark, Linighan, Thompson; Stockwell, G Williams, Johnson (Palmer, 65), Slater; Genchev (Kiwomya, 61), Marshall. Substitute not used: Baker (gk).

Referee: D Allison (Lancaster).