Football: Gallacher shows the way

Coventry City. . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Oldham Athletic. . . . . . . . . . . .0

LEFT out of the FA Cup limelight, Coventry yesterday took the chance to slip up to sixth position in the Premier League. Their match had a late, 5pm kick-off to cater for Sky's television coverage and they made the fixture easy viewing by scoring all three goals inside 20 minutes.

Coventry marched into immediate control and the small faction of the Oldham defence in the right place at the right time simply caved in, the rest arriving only in time to pick the ball out of the back of the net.

Every goal could be largely attributed to the masterful Mick Quinn, though he finished not one of them. The first came when his shot, blocked by the advancing keeper Paul Gerrard, rebounded for Kevin Gallacher to score; the second was the result of a brilliant flick opening the box for Peter Ndlovu to side-foot in and the third came from a marvellous glanced header which set John Williams sprinting goalwards and which Gallacher again finished off.

A rout looked on the cards but 10 minutes and no goals later the crowd were looking bored. Only Oldham's Richard Jobson looked happy as he had finally got the measure of Quinn. Coventry continued to look dangerous; but their two pacey wingers, Ndlovu and Williams caused havoc with their unmatchable pace, but often took the ball a step too far.

Eventual victory only arrived after some considerable pressure from Oldham - but Coventry had created a cushion and they were quite happy to sit on it.

Coventry City: S Ogrizovic; B Borrows, P Babb, P Atherton, D Busst, J Williams, P Ndlovu, M Gynn, R Rosario, M Quinn, K Gallacher (K Rowland 41 min). Subs not used: P Billing, J Gould (gk) Manager: B Gould.

Oldham Athletic: P Gerrard; G Halle, N Pointon (N Adams 59 min), P Bernard, R Jobson, C Fleming, R Palmer, I Olney, I Marshall, M Milligan, S Redmond. Subs not used: C Makin, I Gray (gk) Manager: J Royle.

Referee: R Lewis (Gt Bookham).

Goals: Gallacher (1-0, 6 min); Ndlovu (2-0, 14 min); Gallacher (3-0, 19 min).