Unbeaten Coventry return to winning ways with victory over 10-man Birmingham

Coventry ended their run of three straight draws as they recorded a convincing 3-0 Championship win over 10-man Birmingham to extend their unbeaten start to the season to seven league games.

Brandon Thomas-Asante netted his third goal of the campaign to set the Sky Blues on their way before Bright Osayi-Samuel’s own goal shortly after the restart.

Victor Torp put the icing on the cake when he tapped in to make it 3-0 with 10 minutes to go to move his side up to second before the rest of the afternoon action.

The visitors were reduced to 10 men in the first half when Jack Robinson was sent off for a second bookable offence.

Thomas-Asante opened the scoring after 16 minutes when he latched onto a loose ball in the box after Ryan Allsop could only parry Liam Kitching’s effort.

The goal stemmed from a back-in-fashion long throw, after Milan van Ewijk launched the ball into the heart of the Blues’ penalty box.

Haji Wright almost doubled the lead when he was on the end of Bobby Thomas’ raking forward pass that caught out the Birmingham back line.

The United States international rounded Blues goalkeeper Allsop but gave himself too acute of an angle to tuck home a sixth goal in seven games.

Coventry boss Frank Lampard had been dealt a blow ahead of kick-off as star midfielder Jack Rudoni was ruled out injured and was replaced by Josh Eccles, who made his first start since 11 March.

Robinson was handed his first yellow card for clattering into the returning Eccles after 34 minutes and was given his marching orders eight minutes later after bringing down Wright just past the halfway line.

The hosts doubled their lead three minutes after the break when Tatsuhiro Sakamoto’s ball to the back post was headed back across goal by Eccles and deflected off the unmoved Osayi-Samuel beyond Allsop.

Coventry started the weekend as the top scorers in the Championship in stark contrast to Chris Davies’ Birmingham, who had mustered just five goals since their return to the second tier and only one in their last three outings.

It was another lacklustre showing in front of goal as the Blues failed to have a shot on target, Christoph Klarer and Ethan Laird putting their efforts wide from Demarai Gray corners.

Wright missed his second golden opportunity of the afternoon when Jamie Allen won the ball high up the pitch and laid it off to the American, who scuffed his effort wide.

But Coventry were not to be denied their third of the afternoon. Carl Rushworth’s hopeful punt up field set Ellis Simms one-on-one with Allsop and, although his effort was kept out by the Blues’ stopper, Torp was on hand to tap home and secure Coventry their third win of the season.