It’s Friday fright night for Sky Blues as PNE run amok, North End fan John Smith thrilled by away win at Coventry City

I viewed the task of obtaining three points at the Coventry Building Society Arena as something like the equivalent to a mountaineer scaling the heights of Ben Nevis.

However, one of the beauties of the Championship is its unpredictable nature and my fears proved to be unfounded with the ease of our 3-0 win making the task seem more like a brisk morning walk to the top of Beacon Fell rather than a climb up to the summit of Britain's highest peak .

It was a battle of wits between the division’s two longest-serving managers as we started the game quickly like a greyhound hurtling towards the first bend after coming fast out of the traps.

It was a case of "Go Riis Lightning " when the Danish forward got on the end of a high cross to give us an early lead with less than 60 seconds on the clock.

The welcome return of Riis has coincided with an upturn in our fortunes in recent weeks and seeing his developing partnership with Will Keane has been like watching a pair of castanets clicking together as illustrated when Riis set up his striking partner Keane to double our advantage in the 20th minute .

Had the late John Motson been commentating on this game he may have exclaimed, "Oh yes – this is getting better and better and better" in describing our third goal after some intense pressure resulted in an own goal when a Coventry defender turned a Riis cross into his own net.

This sent our travelling fans who had made the trip down to the Midlands delirious. The tremendous amount of noise they made in their vocal backing of the team helped to cheer the players on as we comfortably managed to see out the game in a scoreless second half.

There was even time for them to enjoy a few "oles" as we kept hold of the ball and played some neat controlled football much to the frustration of the home fans.

Some of them filed out of the ground early as if on a fire drill which was noted by our fans who also taunted the home support by chanting “Can we play you every week".

I have to agree that this would not be such a bad idea if possible as we have now not lost in 21 league matches against Coventry over the last 17 years.

It was a solid performance from the team in all departments and probably the best away display since the 4-1 demolition of Blackburn Rovers in December 2022.

Although I thought captain Alan Browne was outstanding at wing back, my man of the match would have to be Riis who was involved in all three goals and terrified the home defence in giving them a real Friday night fright.