COVENTRY were denied a victory in the cruellest way on Saturday when a 49-metre penalty was assisted between the posts by the wind in the fifth minute extra-time to hand Esher a dramatic 12-13 victory in National League One.
Two yellow cards in the first half with the wind in their favour proved to be Coventry’s downfall at the Butts Park Arena and a number of poor decisions with the game surely won proved costly.
Early moments in the match from a Coventry perspective did not bode well with Esher making their intentions clear from the off by running from deep rather then attempting to kick into the gale.
Coventry then found themselves down to 14 men by the ninth minute when acting captain Matt Price received a yellow after a fall out with an opponent and Chilsholm kicked the penalty to give the visitors a 3-0 lead.
On 15 minutes Coventry drew level thanks to Cliffie Hodgson who added to his club league points record with a penalty and he went on to successfuly dispatch two more to give Coventry a 9-3 lead at the break.
In the middle of the first half Danny Wright also received ten minutes on the sidelines and with Esher having done much of the pressing, Coventry knew they had it all to do against the elements despite holding a six-point advantage.
But the hosts came out and dominated for long periods. Sweeney was yellow card on 55 minutes and soon after Hodgson landed a fourth penalty to make it 12-3.
Despite all the pressure, the Butts Park men could simply find no way through and ultimately it was to cost them.
After attempting to run themselves out of trouble, the home side were penalised and a kick into the corner led to Cameron Leigh scoring what proved to be the only try of the match.
Chisholm converted from wide out to move Ehser within two points of their opponents with six minutes remaining.
Coventry remained on top in the remaining minutes but deep into injury-time theu were penalised from just inside their own half and from there Chisholm used the elements to land a 49-metre penalty with the very last kick of the game.
