HT: Coventry 0 - 1 Blackpool

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Ian Holloway made two changes to the side that lost in the last minute at Portsmouth. Angel Martinez and Craig Sutherland came in for their first starts in tangerine at the expense of Matt Phillips and the unfortunate Tom Ince.

That made a midfield three of Barry Ferguson, Keith Southern and Martinez - which on paper looked to lack creativity. In reality, it enabled Pool to keep the ball for long spells with Barry Ferguson given licence to roam from his starting position and get involved further up the pitch.

The team selection seemed to be centralised around pushing Gary Taylor-Fletcher into a more advanced role.

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Coventry started the brighter as they dominating possession. Richard Keogh rising highest from am early corner but his effort was easily saved by Matt Gilks.

But the Seasiders gathered their composure and had the ball in the net inside eight minutes, only for Craig Sutherland's goal to be disallowed for offside. The 22-year-old took a pass from Gary Taylor-Fletcher beautifully and easily beat Joe Murphy in goal but the linesman made a tight call to chalk the effort off.

Sutherland was then put through again by Taylor-Fletcher, who flourished in his familiar role, but the striker's effort was well saved by the goalkeeper.

It wasn't long before that first goal came though as the away side took a deserved lead. Pool worked a throw-in level with the penalty spot towards GTF who mirrored his superb strike at Hull on the opening day with a stunning effort to put the Seasiders one up in the opening 20 minutes - nestling a fantastic volley into the top left hand corner of the City net.

The flow of the play stemmed slightly, but Coventry had a decent chance to get back on level terms with 10 minutes of the first half remaining but former Bloomfield Road loanee Roy O'Donovan headed over and maybe should've done better. Moments later midfielder David Bell picked up on a mistake by Alex Baptiste but fired his shot over Gilks' goal.

Pool seemed to switch off for five minutes when they presented two great chances for Lukas Jutkiewicz - the striker first headed a good opportunity wide before he saw a strong effort unable to beat the goalkeeper.

The home side enjoyed their best spell of the first half as the teams went in for half time, but weren't able to find a way back into the fixture before the break.

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