A midweek trip to Devon always had the makings of an awkward trip for a Coventry side focused on Premier League survival. Such feelings evaporated when Frank Lampard’s side raced into a two-goal lead inside five minutes, Taiwo Awoniyi opening his account for his new club before Jack Rudoni added Coventry’s second. But, ultimately, Coventry were made to toil before earning victory.
Plymouth had form for a cup upset and another was brewing when Xavier Amaechi pulled Tom Cleverley’s side level nine minutes into the second half. Coventry, to their credit, roused once more, the substitute Ephron Mason-Clark regaining the lead before Victor Torp sealed progress to the Carabao Cup third round from the penalty spot.
As Gustavo Hamer, one of nine changes from the Coventry team that began Friday’s defeat at Arsenal, took kick-off, the visitors’ intentions were clear. The centre-backs Liam Kitching, captain for the night, and Bobby Thomas, were the only players not to start on the halfway line and Coventry quickly got to work. Thomas and Caleb Yirenkyi were the only players retained from the XI that opened their Premier League campaign and the latter’s sumptuous first-time flick from Kitching’s pass freed Awoniyi in on goal inside three minutes. Awoniyi applied a cool side-foot finish and there were only four minutes and six seconds on the clock when Awoniyi turned provider, releasing Rudoni to double Coventry’s advantage.
At that point, the 2,100 Coventry supporters, many of whom made an eight-hour, 444-mile round trip, cycled through the back catalogue of songs. Then Lampard obliged when they craved a wave from a manager who led them back to the top flight after 25 years away. But the game did not turn the non-event most would have envisaged and instead an absorbing cup tie unfolded. Cleverley accepted the game, for his team, was “a little bit of a free hit, nothing to lose”.
And Plymouth were suddenly liberated. Mathias Ross sent a free header wide from a free-kick and a couple of minutes later Irow read Harvey White’s flighted pass and the Tottenham loanee, 24 hours after signing, drove inside Joel Latibeaudiere and drilled past Dan Bentley, the Coventry goalkeeper on debut. From there, aside from Awoniyi heading wide unmarked, Coventry had to withstand plenty of Plymouth pressure and the hosts should have restored parity just after the half hour. Bentley fumbled White’s speculative shot from outside the box and Evans pounced on the rebound but Bentley managed to divert Evans’s shot on to his left post.
Aurèle Amenda replaced Thomas at the interval. For Cleverley, this was also a touchline duel with a friend and a former England teammate. “All the young English coaches want people like Frank to do well … not tomorrow night but moving forward the English coaches are right behind people like Frank and Michael [Carrick] at Man Utd,” Plymouth’s head coach said on the eve of the game.
Cleverley knew the value of recording an upset, Lampard the damage of defeat. Rudoni sent a fizzing first-time effort narrowly wide from Awoniyi’s smart layoff a few minutes into the second half but Amaechi, who replaced Caleb Watts at half-time, levelled on 54 minutes. Ameachi swarmed Kitching, pinching the ball after the Coventry defender got in a tangle and then fired a left-foot shot in at Bentley’s near post. Plymouth freshened things up with a triple substitution, including the homegrown academy graduates Tegan Finn and Caleb Roberts.
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Lampard, meanwhile, turned to Mason-Clark, this his first appearance of the season after a hamstring issue. It was a galling goal from a Plymouth perspective. Tatsuhiro Sakamoto’s cross from the right caused confusion in the Plymouth box, Mason-Clark at first failing to divert the ball goalwards. But Torp was alert to the ball dropping at the back post and squared to provide Mason-Clark the simplest of finishes, the forward poking in from inside the six-yard box.
Lampard made a triple sub himself, Sidiki Cherif replacing Awoniyi for his debut, while Josh Eccles and Brandon Thomas-Asante also entered. Joe Edwards, the Plymouth midfielder, arrived from the bench but his first notable action was to inadvertently swipe at Thomas-Asante in the box when trying to clear the leftovers of a Coventry corner, giving the referee, Elliott Swallow, no choice but to award a penalty. Torp capped the scoring, thrashing the spot-kick into the top corner.
