Fine margins set to sink Sky Blues

The most interesting and frustrating statistic to have come out of the weekend defeat by Ipswich was that Coventry City have now lost thirteen games by the odd goal this season.

Injury time goals meanwhile have cost the Sky Blues six points (four of those goals sealing defeats and one denying City a win over Blackpool at the Ricoh Arena).

Such fine margins between failure and (relative) success are more frustrating in their way than if City had simply been dire all season, regularly beaten by two or three goals and clearly not up to the task of staying in the division.

‘plight’

It certainly makes it harder to answer the big question, that is who is to blame for the club`s plight?

One supporter`s view appeared in the Coventry Telegraph last week to the effect that the constant focus on SISU and their running of the club has allowed Andy Thorn to escape scrutiny for his side being at the foot of the Championship table with the worst away record in all four divisions.

Thorn will undoubtedly have made errors in his team selection, in his choice of formation and his use of substitutes but he has clearly been hamstrung by SISU`s remote running of the football club.

The revolving door of chief executives, chairman and heads of football operations has created a vacuum where someone should have been working more closely with Thorn (and not close in the way that Ken Dulieu did!)

‘dedicated’

No-one has been able to either back Thorn up promptly with signings or other essentials to do his job (such as a dedicated fitness coach, the lack of which may be partly to blame for the number of late goals) or make the decision based on close observance that the manager was not getting the most out of his team and needed to be replaced.

From this distance Thorn is still in credit over the campaign given the hand he was dealt over the summer when King, Westwood and Gunnarsson left and were not replaced.

City have been playing catch-up since then and have made progress. The familiar refrain after yet another close defeat of ‘we were the better team` can get tiring but it has been true on many occasions.

Just last week the Sky Blues were in control of a game against Blackpool until the final minutes, a Blackpool side that have since won in style away to both Cardiff and Sheffield Wednesday.

Despite their league position the management team and playing staff still seem remarkably together with no sign of the dressing room being ‘lost` in the current parlance.