Coventry suffered and away defeat at the hands of defending Midland League Champions Birmingham on Sunday afternoon as the Devlins Newsagents side fell 13 points short.
Considering a severe lack of middle order strength – with both Daniel Drewett & Kyle Roberts unavailable – Coventry fought hard and never looked like throwing in the towel despite Birmingham’s gradual dominance.
Coventry made an ideal start and led by two points after the opening couple of heats with Bobby McMillan spearheading the visitors attack. Myke Grimes followed McMillan’s win up with a heat win of his own, however this proved to be the only time Coventry would lead the meeting from there on as Birmingham took advantage of their home track knowledge.
Home riders Mark Winwood, Ricki Johnson and Matt Smith were in the mood for points picking up multiple heat wins themselves. By the half way stage Birmingham led by 10 points.
A 6-3 in favour of Coventry in heat 13 following the exclusion to Matt Smith, who was judged to have moved at the start by referee Bob Prince, brought the Devlins Newsagents back into the meeting. Despite optimism, Coventry struggled to provide race winners – however despite this several 5-5 shared races towards the end of the meeting ensured Coventry boss Lee Marsh took positives from the meeting.
The final score stood at Birmingham 96-83 Coventry.