Football: Quinn weighs in near the limit

Coventry City1

Quinn 79

Arsenal0

MICK QUINN, the roly-poly forward whose eye for goals has persuaded a succession of managers to turn a blind eye to his waistline, completed a personal double over Arsenal at Highfield Road yesterday to earn Phil Neal his first three points since his appointment as Bobby Gould's successor at Coventry.

By his own standards, the chirpy Liverpudlian is not enjoying a productive season. In 26 League games last year, following his move from Newcastle, Quinn found the target 17 times. This time, from 18 starts in all competitions, he has done so on only seven occasions. If it were not such an inappropiate adjective, you would say he was having a thin time.

But there is clearly something about Arsenal that he finds inspirational. The Londoners have conceded only 10 goals in the Premiership this season, of which Quinn has four. Yesterday's winner, 10 minutes from the end, followed an opening day hat-trick at Highbury which remains the sole instance of the League's meanest defence giving away three goals.

Arsenal had kept clean sheets in seven successive away games before yesterday and it seemed that they would extend the record further, even though Coventry were clearly the team with the greater commitment, which was a surprise, not least to Arsenal's manager, George Graham. David Seaman pulled off a series of fine saves but if Coventry's collective ambition was several notches above their opponents, Quinn's touched a higher level still.

He cuts a comical figure at times, puffing and blowing back upfield when a broken down attack leaves him stranded; but there are few strikers whose sights have a steadier lock on the target. With a little more power in his boots, against a goalkeeper a little less alert, he might have had four goals before he turned Sean Flynn's low cross beyond Seaman's reach. A firm downward header from another Flynn centre, a left-foot drive from 25 yards from Flynn's knock-down, and a couple of solid strikes from similar range set up by Roy Wegerle would, on another day, have brought further reward.

Neal's fear that Arsenal would come to avenge Quinn's Highbury deeds proved scarcely necessary. Inert going forward until an hour had passed, only Paul Merson showed noticeable ambition. 'I've no complaints,' Graham said. 'We were beaten by the better side. They had more desire than we did, which is an unusual experience.'

Coventry's victory was only their second in 12 starts but confirmed to Neal, in charge for the third time since his promotion from caretaker, that a recovery is on the way. 'It was no more than we deserve, not just for today but for the 180 minutes against Blackburn and Manchester United before it.'