“COV were fantastic”, beamed an overjoyed fan when he bounced past me as the referee dispatched his final trill on the whistle.
An interesting assessment, I thought, considering the word fantastic had only entered my head once during the 90 minutes - and that was when David Bell capitalised brilliantly on a goalkeeping error to give City the victory.
But as for the Sky Blues being fantastic? Well, that was probably stretching things a bit.
As it was, Coventry were slightly above average. Doncaster, on the other hand, were well below par - often comparable to a pub side. The better team won, without a doubt, but at times this game was almost the very definition of turgid.
It was clear from the off that Doncaster had come with a game plan - go for the draw. And when City took the lead after 20 minutes, Rovers seemed not to have turned up to the Ricoh with a Plan B.
On the ball, the visitors sometimes looked like a Premiership outfit - their one-touch football was almost a joy to behold but the minute anyone on the Yorkshire side attempted something as simple as a pass, a cross or even a rare shot it was clear there could only be one winner. Of their three serious shots on goal, two went so wide they almost resulted in throw-ins.
Coventry, on the other hand, covered all the basics and, frankly, that’s all they needed to do.
However, despite several promising attacks, it took a moment of combined lunacy and genius to bring about one of the best goals the Ricoh has seen this season.
A loose ball hurtled towards the corner where Rovers keeper Neil Sullivan thought he was best-placed to make the clearance. His assessment was correct, but the execution was about as clever as letting Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand ring your grandfather.
It would have been easy to belt the ball into the executive boxes but, tragically for Sullivan and his years of experience, he was clearly concerned about Gunnarsson’s long throw and tried to ship it further up the touchline. Sadly for the 39-year-old, it landed at the feet of David Bell who, with the crowd urging “SHOOOOOT!”, looked up to see Sullivan in No-Man’s Land with a gaping net some 40 yards away. Many a well-paid footballer would have lobbed it over the bar, but Bell calmly steered it into the top corner.
It was a truly magnificent goal and the highlight of an otherwise dull encounter.
But, as the saying goes, you can only play what’s in front of you. And, with that in mind, City did well. Not fantastic, but enough to harvest the three points. Job done.
