Coventry vs Maidstone prediction: ENGLAND: FA Cup betting tips on match 2024-02-25 19:45.
Coventry’s push for a play-off spot in the Championship hit a bump in the road on Friday night when they suffered a surprising 3-0 home defeat to Preston, who leapfrogged them in the table. Whilst they remain in good form overall with just two defeats across their last 11 league games (W6, D3, L2), they might welcome a change of scenery in the FA Cup fifth round after Friday’s drubbing. It has been a relatively kind road to this stage for Mark Robins’ men, who dispatched both Oxford United and Sheffield Wednesday whilst scoring an impressive 11 goals across the two ties.
The Sky Blues enter this clash unbeaten in ten of their last 11 FA Cup home games (W8, D2), although their only defeat therein came in 2023 against a then fifth-tier Wrexham. Of course, the money behind that Wrexham team makes that less of a shock than a failure to win here would be, as sixth-tier Maidstone make the trip looking to build on their incredible giant-killing reputation this season.
This FA Cup run has been nothing short of magical for Maidstone, who have defeated opponents from each of League Two, League One, and the Championship on the way to a historic fifth round clash. Manager George Elokobi said that the 2-1 win over second-tier Ipswich in the previous round would go down as one of the greatest ever FA Cup shocks and was a game that will bind his team for life!
Since then, Maidstone have kept their promotion push alive with some positive form in the sixth-tier (W2, D1, L1), though this clash promises to be much tougher than their most recent 2-0 defeat against Aveley in the National League South! To sum up just how monumental this game will be for Maidstone, they are the first side from outside of the top-five flights of the English pyramid to make it to the FA Cup fifth round since Blyth Spartans in 1978, although in a negative omen for Maidstone, they made it no further.
Players to watch: Two players locked on three FA Cup goals apiece will battle it out here. All of Coventry’s Callum O’Hare’s strikes so far in this competition came in home wins by multiple-goal margins while Maidstone’s Sam Corne scored crucial goals in single-goal margin victories in each of the last three rounds.
Hot stat: Eight of Maidstone’s last nine competitive matches featured goals in both halves.