English-born Ghana attacker Jesurun Rak-Sakyi scored and also delivered assist for Sheffield United as managerless Coventry City twice came from a goal down to draw 2-2 against a 10-man Sheffield United side on Saturday afternoon at the CBS Arena.
Tyrese Campbell, who netted the winner in the Steel City derby last time out, opened the scoring for the Blades before Norman Bassette equalised with his first Sky Blues goal.
Jesurun Rak-Sakyi put United back in front before the visitors had Anel Ahmedhodzic sent off after a rush of blood before half-time.
Bobby Thomas equalised inside the final 10 minutes to give interim head coach Rhys Carr a second straight draw.
High-flying United were under the cosh for the opening 10 minutes as Coventry looked to exploit space in behind through Bassette, but Chris Wilder’s side went ahead with their first foray into Coventry territory.
Former Coventry favourite Gustavo Hamer drifted inside and played in Rak-Sakyi, whose whipped cross was perfectly placed for Campbell to slam home from close range.
The Blades could have doubled their lead shortly after through Harry Souttar, but the Australian cleared the crossbar with his header.
Coventry were level when Bassette poked in Josh Eccles’ inswinging cross from the left, days after his first call-up to the Belgium squad.
It had been a frustrating opening 20 minutes for the pacey striker, who had found opportunities to run in behind Souttar down the left but been muscled off the ball without any end product.
Luis Binks should have done better when he was presented with a free header from Victor Torp’s corner before Hamer and Rak-Sakyi combined again to put United back in front 10 minutes before the break.
Hamer’s well-weighted pass played in Rak-Sakyi and the winger stroked his effort into the far corner from the left-hand side of the box.
The Crystal Palace forward was heavily involved early on and linked up well with Hamer, with those two combining superbly for the youngster to put the Blades back ahead with a lovely finish into the bottom corner.
He initially became a solo striker after Ahmedhodzic‘s red card before being sacrificed at half-time but a goal and an assist is a very decent half’s work and was scored 8.5 rating after the game.
In contrasting fortunes against his former club, Callum O’Hare endured a quiet first half as he was greeted by a chorus of boos by the home crowd.
United goalkeeper Michael Cooper produced a superb reaction save to keep the score at 2-1 when he saved Torp’s powerful header from point blank range.
Tempers boiled over on the stroke of half-time when Ahmedhodzic reacted to something Bassette said and the defender got to his feet before grabbing the Coventry forward around the throat and pushing him to the floor.
United had conceded just one goal in their four-match winning streak and it took Coventry over 20 minutes of the second half to register a shot when Milan van Ewijk’s speculative effort was deflected for a corner.
The Dutchman was given another sight of goal minutes later and fired through a crowd of bodies, his effort cannoning off the outside of a post.
A clever free-kick routine saw Ben Sheaf’s effort deflected narrowly wide for a corner, from which Coventry grabbed their equaliser.
Jack Rudoni’s corner was met by Thomas, who was left unmarked to glance his header beyond Cooper and secure a point for the Sky Blues.
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