By David Williams
Alan Sheehan praised the character of his Swansea City side after they came from behind to secure a point in a 2-2 draw at Coventry City.
The Swans had trailed 2-1 in stoppage time at the CBS Arena, but a strong finish to the contest was rewarded when Liam Cullen curled home a free-kick in the 93rd minute.
The visitors had led early on through Liam Walsh’s first goal for the club, but goals from Haji Wright and Ellis Simms had looked set to give the Sky Blues all three points.
But Cullen was on hand to find the net with a left-footed effort in the dying seconds.
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It leaves the Swans in 17th place in the Championship, eight points clear of the relegation zone.
Caretaker head coach Sheehan was happy with the way his side responded after the disappointment of their Boxing Day thrashing at Southampton.
“I really am proud of the players, we wanted a response and they gave us that,” he said.
“We have had a lot to deal with over the last couple of days, we have had sickness in the camp, we had to take Jamie Paterson off at half-time as he was feeling the effects.
“Joe Allen has had it too, and we had to make some decisions on players.
“A lot of questions have been asked of us after the last 20 minutes the other day, and all we could ask for was a response to keep going, and the players gave us that.
“We were fantastic for large parts of the first half. We wanted to stretch the game, we had a couple of half chances we did not take.
“They were on top at the start of the second half, and we did go away from what we had been doing and causing problems.
“Yannick missed a big chance, but we stayed in it, we finished strongly, so I am proud of them.”
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Former Coventry loanee Walsh put Swansea ahead in the seventh minute after he latched onto a poor touch from Jamie Allen and picked out the bottom corner, his first strike since scoring for the Sky Blues in January 2020.
It was just the ninth goal that Coventry had conceded at home this season.
They were ahead for just three minutes before Wright was played in by former Swansea loanee Kasey Palmer.
The American was confronted by Bashir Humphreys, but shifted the ball onto his left foot before arrowing his effort into the far corner beyond Carl Rushworth.
Palmer’s powerful effort was then tipped over by Rushworth in the Swansea goal before his free-kick cleared the crossbar.
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Swansea had been without a permanent boss since December 4 and Sheehan handed a senior debut to 17-year-old Sam Palmer, who almost teed up Yannick Bolasie to put the Swans ahead but he could only lift over the bar with his outstretched right foot from close range.
Walsh also came close to putting Swansea ahead when he forced Brad Collins to palm away his free-kick.
Japan international Tatsuhiro Sakamoto scored a brace in Coventry’s 2-0 win over Sheffield Wednesday on Boxing Day and saw his effort blocked on the line following a clever corner routine as Coventry looked to get their noses in front.
Simms had been introduced as a substitute and scored his first goal at home for Coventry to put the hosts ahead with 25 minutes remaining.
LIAM CULLEN BABYYYYYY! pic.twitter.com/A0RSvDU27E
— The Swan (@TheSwanPortal) December 29, 2023
Callum O’Hare picked out Wright at the back post and his looping header looked goalbound before Simms poked in to net his first goal since September when the former Everton striker netted a brace against QPR at Loftus Road.
Cullen had also been introduced from the bench and stepped up in the third minute of added time to whip his free-kick into the bottom corner from the edge of the box, extending Swansea’s unbeaten run against the Sky Blues to 17 matches, dating back to 1981.
Coventry manager Mark Robins said: “You don’t gain anything until the final whistle, so we’ve gained a point.
“The goal was poor, the wall was not set quite right, there was too much of a gap there and he just played it through it.
“We’ve played pretty well, at times we’ve had some good moves, created good chances, took some really good chances and then just maybe a little bit more concentration sees us through.”
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