FOOTBALL: A BRACE from Marca Adaggio coupled with a header from Corey Currithers proved enough for Highgate as they swept aside Coventry Sphinx at home.
Despite conceding early on, Gate stuck to the task to move up to 12th in the league table while Sphinx dropped to 11th.
On the back of a 3-2 loss at league leaders Coleshill Town, a meeting with Sphinx was likely to test Gate’s Midland Football League Premier Division credentials.
Manager Ashley Pulisciano was forced into making a handful of changes as Trevor Edwards and Duane Courtney joined Isaac Jagroop on the injury list.
Starting places were made for Scott Rickards, George Curry, Currither and Luke Rodgers.
Rodgers was close with an early free kick struck low against the foot of Scott Dutton’s right hand post.
Despite the bright start, Sphinx took advantage of torrential rain in the 21st minute when a low cross found Louis Guest in front of goal.
Though Guest fumbled his strike, it did find the back of the net – and Sphinx led 1-0.
Gate’s best chance of the half fell to Marco Adaggio. His 25th minute close range effort was dragged wide.
It got worse for Gate at the start of the second half as neither Turner nor Mooney were fit enough to come out for the second half.
But whatever was said at the half time break appeared to work centre half Richard Bryan found the equaliser on 52 minutes.
Momentum flowed the way of Gate as Rodgers struck the post before Currithers was unable to bury the rebound.
The lead was taken on the hour mark though as Puilsciano released Currithers on a strong run down the left hand side.
His cross resulted in Wilcock heading into Dutton’s chest, before Adaggio reacted first to fire home the loose ball.
A loss of concentration almost led to Sphinx equalising when Rickards was forced into a good save.
Adaggio added another goal for the home side before the full time whistle as Gate ran out 3-1 winners.
On Saturday, Highgate visit Heanor Town (3pm) before travelling to Boldmere St Michaels on Tuesday evening (7.30pm).
