It was hard on the players, they didn't do enough to win, but certainly didn't deserve to lose. Defensively, they were excellent, limiting Coventry to a 30 yard effort and the goal. Collins and Turner relished the fight against two big, rough and tough strikers and performed very well. Collins, in particular, won most things that came his way and read the game very well. The full backs defended stubbornly too, while Livermore in front of them swept up attacks and gave them good protection. It's no coincidence that our goals against ratio is better with him in the side (1.0 per game) than without (2.5 per game).
Unfortunately, it was in possession that we fell down. From Goalkeeper to centre forward, in almost every combination, we weren't clever enough, composed enough or creative enough. The full backs see more of the ball than anyone else, they've started to pick it up of Boaz much more often, but both are wasteful too often. Ricketts occasionally drove into space and opened up gaps, but the majority of the balls from the back four were dire; they were hopeful at best and abysmal at worst. The Beast chased shadows all afternoon. In the midfield, we were no better. We consistently failed to provide anything for the two wide players to work with. Both had space, they are good, fast wide players, but they only get the ball if they win it. The movement of the two in central midfield was very good up and down, but with no cohesion. When one had the ball, they other was very rarely available, which lead to the ball being returned to where it cam from far too often. Up front, Duffy didn't get any service from which he might score, but his link up play was none existent, he didn't make runs that made him an outlet. On the two occasions he did, he miss-controlled both times. That is the crucial factor. On a few occasions, we put some good moves together and created openings, but we can't do it consistently and that must worry the manager.
It was a solid performance and if we'd snatched the game, we'd come out with the cliché about winning while playing badly, but a few other things we did, or didn't do, undermined that. Firstly, Parkin put in his entry for `miss of the season', hitting Marshall's flailing foot with the goal at his mercy from 2 yards. We also had enough corners and free-kicks to cause a problem, but delivered very poorly in general. Credit to Coventry, they dealt well with some of them. We didn't have enough players in the box. After Burgess came on, he won lots of headers, but no-one was close enough to him to take advantage. We put three or four good crosses in from the left (including a cracker from Collins) that flashed across the box, but on each occasion, Fagan was making his way back to the half way line. He could have had a hatful if he'd gambled on the shoulder of the left centre back. Fagan can be infuriating. He's our biggest attacking threat, when he's in full flow, he's frightening, but he has no killer instinct. He's got the pace and skill to murder defenders but he'll often turn back or not get his head up. We should stick with him though, because the good outweighs the bad at the moment. Dean Marney is another player who's showing little flashes of what he can do, but on the whole, he's disappointing. He's got to be held responsible for the lack of service into the front men, because he's the playmaker and he's isn't doing enough. His best passes come from the centre circle to Dawson. He had 2 decent strikes on goal, but otherwise, he wasn't involved enough. He's working incredibly hard and he looks very fit, he does look like a goal would give him a lot of confidence.
We're going to have to bring somebody in. I know every fan and every manager is always saying that, but it's true. If you look beyond our 11 today, there isn't really anyone who can make an impact. Burgess will give you a good shift, but without great service and a great partner, he won't change a game. Barmby just doesn't cut it. He charges around like a headless chicken, he doesn't get close to the front man and he isn't passing the ball well. He doesn't have the pace to play with Burgess or The Beast. Everyone else is out of form, like Elliott, out of favour, like Green, rubbish, like Lynch and Andrews or injured. We can't keep waiting for Steve McPhee, I've seen nothing to suggest that Yeates will be any better than France or Ashbee will be better than Livermore. Only Danny Coles and Delaney may have an impact, but defensively and we're not doing too badly in that area.
Last opinion goes to the match officials who were woeful again. Four decisions were baffling. The ref failed to book Collins when he pulled down Stern John, who would have been clear on goal, albeit 40 yards out. He failed to book Kyle for clobbering Boaz after he'd taken the ball cleanly, this was compounded when Kyle got what should have been a second yellow card 10 minutes later for slicing through Fagan. Kyle was their best defender in the last 10 minutes. The stupid linesman called offside against Adebola when he'd played the ball past a defender and collected it himself, which incensed the Cov fans, quite rightly. He then gave a free kick that lead to their goal. On the edge of their box, Page stopped to head the ball, expected a boot in the head, wailed and fell over. Except the boot never came, no-one raised a foot, but the ref bought it and gave the free kick. To be fair to Thornton, he took the goal superbly and we probably should have done better. It still annoys you though. There is no consistency in decisions making and the linesmen are awful. They look like they're guessing, it's not good enough.
I still have faith in the manager and the players. On paper, we're too good to go down, but on grass, we're struggling to play as a team and too many individuals aren't performing at the same time. We need to be very careful; otherwise we'll find ourselves in a relegation battle that we should be nowhere near. This is a big week for us; we've got to do something positive before the window closes. We can't afford a maybe player, like Turner and Ricketts. It needs to be a drastic improvement on Duffy, who's struggling. On the face of it, a trip to Birmingham next week is bad news but we played very well at WBA, so we might just surprise them. We certainly have to be better then we were today.
Ratings: Bo 7, Ricketts 7, Dawson 6, Collins 8, Turner 7, Fagan 7, France 6, Livermore 6, Marney 6, Parkin 6 (Burgess), Duffy 5 (Barmby).