Coventry City 3 Watford 1

Adebola ends Coventry goal drought

Coventry's manager, Micky Adams, admitted that his side had ridden their luck in the second half. "We had to switch to a 4-5-1 to stem the flow," he said. "But I'm absolutely delighted to get the points."

Such was the frustration after Coventry's defeat by Hull on Saturday that the players held a crisis meeting afterwards. One suggestion that emerged from it was to show the forwards video footage of their previous goals just to remind them that scoring remained an option.

A rainswept match was barely two minutes old when Dele Adebola reacted to Ben Foster's mishandling of a Stephen Hughes free-kick to nudge the ball over the line from a couple of yards out.

After a 10-second blackout in the 15th minute similar to the one that had occurred minutes before kick-off, the light went on above another Coventry player's head as Willo Flood - aptly named in the circumstances - drove home a powerful cross shot.

Watford made two half-time substitutions and the rejig appeared to do them good as they got back into the match within seven minutes of the restart. Ashley Young controlled a long clearance from Foster on his chest before turning to drive home from 20 yards.

And Coventry were fortunate not to be reduced to 10 men just before the hour after a savage tackle on Young by former Watford player Robert Page, which caused all 22 players to form an angry mêlée in the centre of the field. When the dust settled, the referee booked Page, as well as Coventry's McSheffrey and the Watford keeper. He could just as well have collected another 19 names.

Both managers dismissed the incident, with Watford's Adrian Boothroyd adding: "I thought it was a dance. I was waiting for the music." Boothroyd refused to condemn Page, concluding: "Those kind of challenges are part of the game."

Coventry City (4-4-2): Bywater; Duffy, Whing, Page, Hall; Flood (Jorgensen, 72), Doyle, Hughes, McSheffrey (Impey, 90); Adebola (Morrell, ht), Scowcroft. Substitutes not used: Ince (gk), Watson, Impey.

Watford (4-4-2): Foster; Chambers, Carlisle, Doyley, Stewart; Grant, Fletcher, Blizzard (Agbonlahor, h-t), McNamee (Devlin, 74); Young, Benjamin (Mahon, ht). Substitutes not used: Chamberlain (gk), Devlin, Spring.

Referee: P Joslin (Nottinghamshire).