Coventry pay for red card

Football

In one of three Premiership-First Division encounters last night managerless Wolves resisted a stirring second-half comeback by Coventry City to reach the Coca-Cola Cup quarter-finals with a 2-1 victory in the West Midlands derby at Molineux.

The Premiership side had goalkeeper Steve Ogrizovic sent off for handling outside the area after half an hour - Coventry's third red card in two games. His replacement, Jonathan Gould, began by picking the ball out of the net from the resultant free-kick by Mark Venus, and Darren Ferguson added Wolves' second before half-time.

The Sky Blues pulled one back through central defender Paul Williams, who along with Richard Shaw, was sent off against Wimbledon on Saturday but, unlike then, when Coventry salvaged a draw, there was to be no escape for Ron Atkinson's team.

Norwich City had a price to pay after their goalless draw with Bolton Wanderers at Carrow Road when it was revealed that their former Tottenham Hotspur midfield player, Ian Crook, had received a potentially serious injury.

Crook failed to reappear for the second half of the game. "It may be knee ligament damage and that would be terribly bad news for all of us at the club," said Martin O'Neill, the First Division side's manager.

There were no goals either at the Riverside Stadium where Barry Fry's Birmingham City held Bryan Robson's Middlesbrough, Juninho et al. The little Brazilian did hit the bar with a first-half free-kick and he had claims for a penalty waved away after a tackle by Birmingham's captain Liam Daish.