Ben Sheaf scores twice as Coventry come from behind to beat rivals Birmingham

Coventry came from behind to defeat Birmingham 4-2 at St Andrew’s and keep alive their slim hopes of reaching the Sky Bet Championship play-offs.

Kristian Pedersen’s first goal in almost a year put the hosts ahead early on before Gary Gardner doubled Blues’ lead in the 39th minute with an unmarked header.

Despite only scoring one career goal prior to this match, Coventry’s Ben Sheaf netted twice in the space of nine minutes at the end of the first half to level the scoring.

Michael Rose completed the turnaround for Mark Robins’ men when he ran into Birmingham’s penalty area and headed past debutant Zach Jeacock, and Callum O’Hare sealed all three points in the dying moments after good work from Martyn Waghorn.

The victory extends the Sky Blues’ unbeaten run against Birmingham to eight games.

Pedersen handed Lee Bowyer’s side the best possible start in the 12th minute when he climbed highest to head past Simon Moore from a Juninho Bacuna corner on the right-hand side.

Coventry took their time to respond to falling behind, but they begin to ask questions of Birmingham from a string of consecutive corners.

Dominic Hyam saw his shot blocked by Bacuna from six yards before Gustavo Hamer struck the crossbar directly from a corner immediately after.

The visitors were punished from another set-piece close to half-time when Marc Roberts’ long throw picked out the on-rushing Gardner, who slotted his header into the bottom corner.

Coventry responded in perfect fashion in the 40th minute when Sheaf tapped home his first goal since February 2020 after Michael Rose headed the ball across goal from Hamer’s free-kick.

Sheaf’s first goal changed the swing of things and Coventry levelled in the fourth minute of added time through another goal from the defender.

Hamer’s threat from set-pieces continued and his delivery was won by Sheaf after competition from Maxime Colin and Gardner at the back post.

In the second half, Scott Hogan struck wide for Blues with an open net on the hour mark before Gardner failed to keep his header down from another dangerous Bacuna corner.

On the back of his goal in last week’s victory at Fulham, Rose fired Coventry in front when he was allowed all the time in the world to head home another Hamer corner.

Ian Maatsen went close to adding a fourth moments later after collecting the ball inside the box from Viktor Gyokeres, but the left-back struck the side-netting.

O’Hare wrapped up the victory with his fifth goal of the season when he fired into an empty net after a goalkeeping mistake from Jeacock allowed the attacker to tap home.