Burnley up to second following victory against Coventry

Burnley moved up to second in the Sky Bet Championship as they secured a third successive victory by beating managerless Coventry 2-0 at Turf Moor.

After an uneventful first half the Clarets took the lead two minutes into the second through Jeremy Sarmiento’s finish, and having weathered a Coventry push for a leveller, doubled their advantage when CJ Egan-Riley looped in with 10 minutes of normal time remaining.

Scott Parker’s men, who have conceded only six goals in the league this season, move up two places into the automatic promotion spots and are two points behind leaders Sheffield United.

For Coventry, it was a third match and first defeat under interim boss Rhys Carr, with the club last week reported to have been in advanced talks with Frank Lampard but no successor to the sacked Mark Robins yet appointed.

The Sky Blues, who had held both Sunderland and Sheffield United to 2-2 draws in their previous two outings, stay 17th, two points above the relegation zone.

A first half extremely low on entertainment saw Burnley have lots of the ball but show little in the way of cutting edge.

Connor Roberts fired over from outside the box early on for the hosts, Jay Rodriguez did so just before the break, and in between Jaidon Anthony and Josh Laurent had strikes blocked.

At the other end, a rare Coventry attack just before the half-hour mark ended with Norman Bassette putting the ball in the back of the net, but with the whistle having gone for offside it did not count, and the Belgium forward was booked.

Burnley then made a breakthrough within moments of the second half getting under way as Roberts, fed by Anthony, produced a cutback from the right, Sarmiento side-footed goalwards and Brad Collins got a hand to the ball but could not prevent it from going in.

Coventry responded with a Victor Torp shot that was comfortably dealt with by James Trafford, Ben Sheaf hitting a drive over the crossbar and, after Carr made a triple substitution, Joel Latibeaudiere heading wide from a good position.

Ephron Mason-Clark, one of those to come off the visitors’ bench, then produced a spectacular finish with an overhead kick in the 76th minute, but again it was an effort chalked off for offside.

Burnley subsequently went close as Anthony’s shot deflected wide, and a minute later they had a second as Egan-Riley sent an apparent cross over Collins and into the far corner of the net.

The lively Anthony hit a further strike wide in stoppage time and there was also a late effort from Burnley substitute Andreas Hountondji turned behind by Collins.