Mark Robins heaped praise on hat-trick hero Ellis Simms after his first-half treble set Coventry on their way to a 5-0 Championship victory over basement boys Rotherham at the CBS Arena.
Simms claimed his second hat-trick in eight days after securing the match ball during the Sky Blues’ 5-0 win over Maidstone in the fifth round of the FA Cup.
Joel Latibeaudiere and Fabio Tavares were also on the scoresheet as Coventry returned to winning ways after defeats in their last two league outings.
Robins, who celebrates his seventh anniversary in charge of Coventry on Wednesday, said: “It was a good start. Within the first five minutes, the goalkeeper has dropped one onto Ellis’ head and it puts us 1-0 up and settles any nerves there may have been.
“We blew them away within the first 37 minutes or so, Ellis has scored a hat-trick, Joel’s (Latibeaudiere) got a header from a corner…Ellis’ is left foot, right foot, header, it’s the perfect hat-trick.
“He’s not scored a hat-trick and now he’s got two in a week, gets his second match ball and that’s brilliant for him, brilliant for us, brilliant for his confidence.
“When he realises his strength he’ll be absolutely awesome. You can see he can finish with his right and left foot and that’s when he’s not thinking about things. He’s got incredible pace and incredible strength.
“Fabio’s finish was outstanding, I think Joel was above the crossbar when he headed it. It was just a really good performance and it was much needed.
“We needed the three points and to get it in the style and the manner we got it was really pleasing. The clean sheet was a brilliant clean sheet.”
Rotherham boss Leam Richardson admitted the Millers’ first-half display was the worst 45 minutes of his managerial career as his side slumped to their eighth defeat in a row, leaving them 19 points from safety.
Richardson admitted: “There’s some pretty embarrassed footballers in that dressing room right now. I will always defend footballers but that’s probably the worst 45 minutes that I’ve been involved in.
“You can accept mistakes. Vik’s (Johansson) had an outstanding season but you can’t stand games like this in the Championship. You can’t be soft, conceding three or four goals in the middle of our goal.
“We’re very aware of the situation we’re in. I’ve been here a number of weeks and it became clear very quickly the amount of challenges we’ve got at the football club, where we’ve got to move it forward.
“I’ll always back myself to move football clubs forward because I’ve done it in the past and I’ve got a really strong record.
“At this level, you’ve got to be really careful you don’t open yourself up to nights like this because the level is too big and if we’re not 100 per cent we will find ourselves on the back of things like this.
“It’s the first time that I’ve experienced it in my time at the club. I can make excuses for everybody but I’ll take the full blame for it.
“I’ll take it on my shoulders because I’m the man at the front of it and I’m the man who puts them out there.”
Kane gunning for Lewandowski's single-season Bundesliga goal record
Harry Kane has his eyes set on Robert Lewandowski's single-season Bundesliga goal record after scoring twice in Bayern Munich's 2-1 win over Eintracht Frankfurt, though he knows he needs "to get a move on".
Kane scored in both halves on Saturday to take his tally to 42 goals this season across all competitions, also reaching the 400-goal mark at senior level for clubs and country.
The striker scored 280 of those goals for Tottenham, holding the honour of being the club's all-time leading scorer, while he is also the most prolific player in England history with 62 goals for the Three Lions.
With 35 goals in 31 Bundesliga appearances this season, Kane now has his eyes set on another piece of history.
Former Bayern striker Robert Lewandowski holds the record for the most goals scored in a single Bundesliga campaign, netting 41 times in 2020-21.
Asked about the possibility of breaking that record with just three games remaining in Bayern's league campaign, Kane said: "It's possible, but obviously I have to get a move on!
"I've got to maybe score a few goals next week. It's there, it's in touching distance.
"It depends on the last few games of course, but it was nice to add to it today and score a couple of goals to help the team."
Bayern next host Real Madrid in the first leg of a Champions League semi-final tie on Tuesday, before travelling to face Stuttgart on Saturday.
Pochettino says VAR 'damaging' English football as Chelsea denied Villa win
Mauricio Pochettino claimed VAR is "damaging" English football after Chelsea saw a potential winning goal chalked off at the end of their 2-2 Premier League draw with Aston Villa.
Despite a bright performance, Chelsea found themselves 2-0 down at half-time on Saturday with Marc Cucurella putting through his own net before Morgan Rogers added Villa's second.
Goals from Noni Madueke and Conor Gallagher dragged Chelsea level as they penned Villa back after the break, but the Blues were enraged in stoppage time when Axel Disasi saw a potential winner ruled out.
Disasi headed home in the fifth minute of stoppage time to spark wild celebrations among the visiting Chelsea fans, only for referee Craig Pawson to disallow the goal following a pitchside VAR review, ruling Benoit Badiashile pushed Diego Carlos in the build-up.
With that incident coming just one week after Chelsea were denied a penalty in their FA Cup semi-final loss to Manchester City despite Jack Grealish appearing to handle Cole Palmer's free-kick, Pochettino has had enough.
"Everyone that was watching the game will feel disappointed. The referee said it was a foul and disallowed the goal after going to the VAR to confirm," he told TNT Sports.
"The referee is unbelievable and it's ridiculous. It is difficult to accept these types of things. In the semi-final it was handball and it was no penalty, the referee didn't check it.
"It is painful as it has damaged English football and I think Villa players and their fans didn't understand why the goal was disallowed.
"They said it was a foul and if you see the challenge… if we go into every single challenge like this and it is going to be a foul, we wouldn't finish the game with 11 players.
"We can talk about the performance or the decision – it is damaging the game."
Pochettino had no complaints about Chelsea's performance, though, as they avoided defeat for just the fourth time in 51 Premier League games when trailing by two or more goals at half-time.
The Blues previously achieved that feat in a 3-3 draw with Sheffield Wednesday in 1992, a memorable 2-2 draw with Tottenham in 2016 and another 3-3 draw with West Brom in 2020.
Chelsea racked up 21 shots to Villa's nine and put up 1.57 expected goals (xG) to the hosts' 1.1, with Nicolas Jackson and Palmer spurning glorious chances in either half.
"The performance was very good," Pochettino said. "We played really well and it is true in the first half we conceded too easily.
"To play Villa, who are fighting for the top four, I am pleased with the team. Now, we have to move on and the headlines will be about the disallowed goal."
New England Revolution 1-4 Inter Miami: Messi at the double as Herons run riot
Lionel Messi scored twice and laid on a goal for Luis Suarez as Inter Miami retained their three-point lead at the Eastern Conference summit with a 4-1 win over the New England Revolution.
A franchise-record crowd of 65,612 people witnessed a flying start from the Revs as they took the lead within just 37 seconds at Gillette Stadium. Carles Gil pounced on some sloppy play from Miami to tee up Tomas Chancalay, who lobbed Drake Callender for the opener.
However, Miami roared back with Messi leading from the front. They had a deserved equaliser just after the half-hour mark, Messi slotting home after latching onto Robert Taylor's throughball.
Messi had his second after 67 minutes, producing another composed finish after former Barcelona team-mate Sergio Busquets split the New England backline.
Messi was involved in another two goals as Miami added some gloss to the scoreline late on; his first-time shot was saved by Henrich Ravas but Benjamin Cremaschi was on hand to score on the rebound after 83 minutes, then the Argentine teed up Suarez for a curled finish five minutes later.
Miami stay three points clear of Supporters' Shield holders FC Cincinnati at the top of the East, with the Orange and Blue keeping pace by beating the Colorado Rapids 2-1 on Saturday.
Data Debrief: Messi rolls back the years
Ahead of Saturday's game, some feared Miami boss Gerardo Martino would opt to rest Messi after speaking of the risks of fielding the eight-time Ballon d'Or winner on New England's artificial pitch.
However, Messi came through 90 minutes with another mesmerising performance. He has now recorded a goal involvement in 10 straight club matches for the seventh time in his glittering career, last doing so for Barcelona between September and December in 2018.
SportsMax is the Caribbean sports channel of choice, committed to providing sporting content of the highest quality to the Caribbean, delivered by a team of highly innovative, passionate and qualified professionals.
(876) 619-7629
digitalmedia@sportsmax.tv
