at one minute to three, tony mowbray walked from the spacious ricoh arena tunnel, gave a thumbs up to the photographers clicking away and returned to the capricious game that is football management by five o’clock, he must have been wondering quite what he’d thrown himself back into after a rollercoaster afternoon that did nothing to soothe coventry city’s acute relegation anxieties mowbray had not stood on a touchline since october 19, 2013, when his middlesbrough team were beaten 3 2 by barnsley at oakwell the game has certainly not grown any kinder or more predictable in the meantime coventry's jim o'brien opens the scoring for the home side in just the fourth minute of the match  coventry city: burge, phillips, pennington, martin, stokes, o'brien (jackson 77),, barton (odelusi 62), fleck, nouble, tudgay (williams 63), samuel  subs not used: webster, turgott, finch, charles cook  booked: o'brien  scorer(s): o'brien 4, odelusi 70  port vale: neal, veseli, inniss (mcgivern 36), robertson, dickinson, moore (daniel 81), brown, o'connor, marshall, williamson (dodds 77), pope  subs not used: yates, birchall, lines, johnson  booked: dickinson, inniss  scorer(s): pope 40, marshall 45, o'connor 76  referee: mick russell  attendance: 9,446  the 51 year old yorkshireman, late of hibernian, west brom, celtic and teesside, spoke of restoring city’s glory days when he arrived in the week but his short term contract speaks of a more pressing mission   saving the sky blues, famously fa cup winners in 1987 and staple of the top flight for many years, from the indignity of league two football they remain above the relegation zone   just, by a sole point   after this 3 2 defeat but the new boss will be under no illusions that this is no time for grand future plans, just steely focus and cast iron resolve the initial signs had been so positive on the first sunny afternoon of spring, the whole place seemed energised by mowbray’s arrival and coventry had a precious lead just four minutes in from the left, the ball was worked into dominic samuel’s feet but he couldn’t get them synchronised to shoot instead, he passed backwards to o’brien in plenty of space and he picked out the bottom corner with a perfectly placed shot from 20 yards tony mowbray issues instructions from the touchline during his first game in charge of coventry  ‘we are staying up’, sang the home faithful, confident again that a club in the premier league as recently as 2000 01 wouldn’t be playing fourth tier football next season for the first time since 1959 mowbray   who spent most of the match stood, hands in pockets, on the edge of his technical area   betrayed little emotion it was only a start, after all the sky blues were well on top, looking threatening going forward and samuel’s deflected shot from a good position had chris neal scrambling across but vale, who still harbour hopes of reaching the play offs, slowly grew into the game and took command in the minutes just before half time first, tom pope was left with a straightforward side foot finish after the ball was played across the penalty area, nobody seemingly wanting to take responsibility there was a strong suspicion of offside, but the striker’s 11th goal of the season stood few will come as easily as that for him then, four minutes later, coventry’s fragile confidence at the back was dented again the impressive mark marshall played a neat one two with michael o’connor around the home defence and produced an emphatic finish the coventry wide man wheels away in celebration after giving his side the perfect start  to make matters worse, marshall had been released by mowbray’s predecessor steven pressley last summer having been deemed unworthy of a new contract marshall politely declined to celebrate the travelling masses were less diplomatic, chanting ‘that’s why you’re going down’ mowbray sent his players out five minutes early for the second half and, having composed themselves following the double blow before the break, they started on the front foot o’brien’s flighted cleared by neal’s legs just a fraction ahead of the onrushing john fleck and aaron phillips curled an effort wide from range but they couldn’t sustain the bright start, allowing vale to dictate things again byron moore volleyed over the bar after a clever piece of chest control and marshall tested lee burge with a low drive the former middlesbrough and celtic manager holds his arms aloft in appeal at the ricoh arena  then, out of nothing, an equaliser frank nouble, brought back into the side by mowbray, bulldozed his way forward on the counter attack before picking out sanmi odelusi bursting up on his right after a touch to control, the substitute rifled home and in one swing of the boot, totally transformed the mood a cloud of thick blue smoke rose in one corner from a flare as the home fans found their voices again not for long from their next piece of attacking play, vale were awarded a free kick 25 yards out after o’brien felled michael brown up stepped michael o’connor, bending the ball precisely around the wall and beyond the outstretched arm of burge mowbray didn’t know where to look some welcome back to football this had been
tom pope jim o'brien abandoning unlanguishing unironed penship unabrogated opegrapha janiculum five minutes canaigre just the fourth minute
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