Another shut-out for Rushworth as Coventry close in on promotion

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Defensive wall: The Albion keeper now has 15 clean sheets in the Championship this season

Bruce Talbot

2026-04-07T10:45+01:00

Carl Rushworth kept his 15th clean sheet of the season for champions-elect Coventry City. 📷 James Boardman

Carl Rushworth’s Coventry City are one win away from a return to the Premier League after the on-loan Albion keeper kept his 15th clean sheet of the season on Easter Monday.

Rushworth’s shutout in the goalless draw against one of his former clubs Hull City helped stretch Coventry’s lead at the top of the Championship to 12 points with five games to play. A win over bottom of the table Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday will seal promotion because of their far superior goal difference.

The 24-year-old had been involved in a controversial incident in Friday’s 3-2 win over Derby County after he conceded a penalty when replays showed he had made contact with the ball and not attacker Ben Brereton Diaz. The Derby forward made it 2-2 but Jack Rudoni came up with a late winner.

Rushworth has kept more clean sheets than any of his Championship rivals. His nearest challenger is former Albion No.1 Christian Walton, at second-placed Ipswich Town.

While Rushworth gets ready to celebrate, James Beadle’s season at Birmingham City is petering out. Beadle made some fine saves over Easter, but his team lost 1-0 at home to Blackburn and 2-1 at Ipswich to drop to 15th in the table.

It was a frustrating Easter for James Beadle, whose Birmingham City team lost both their matches. 📷BCFC

Ibrahim Osman hit the post against Rovers and was a second-half substitute at Portman Road where he was involved in a controversial incident when Birmingham had a goal disallowed after the assistant ruled that the ball had gone out of play when he pulled the ball back from the byline. Manager Chris Davies said he had “never been as frustrated with a refereeing decision in my entire career in football.”

Elsewhere, there were minutes off the bench for Jeremy Sarmiento (Middlesbrough), Tom Watson (Millwall), Malick Yalcouye (Swansea) and Caylan Vickers (Wigan) while Kamari Doyle started both of Reading’s Easter games in League One – a 1-1 draw at Huddersfield and Monday’s 2-1 defeat to new champions Lincoln City.

In League Two, Jacob Slater played in Harrogate’s 3-1 win over Grimsby on Good Friday and for 76 minutes of the 3-2 home loss to Bristol Rovers on Monday which left the Sulpherites in last place on an afternoon when the bottom five all lost.

Diego Coppola helped Paris FC secure a 1-1 draw against Lorient in Ligue 1 but an abductor injury ruled Brajan Gruda out of RB Leipzig’s 2-1 win against Werder Bremen in the Bundesliga. In the second tier in Holland, Do-Yong Yoon came on for the last 23 minutes of mid-table Dordrecht’s 3-0 defeat to Roda.

In the Scottish League, Jess Pegram helped Rangers keep a cleah sheet as they beat Celtic 3-0 to extend their unbeaten run against their Glasgow rivals to 11 games.