S.O.S. COV

Well, that was minging. Simple as.

This afternoon we faced an in-form Coventry, who Frank Lampard has turned around since he arrived November. There was a genuine air of dread around this match amongst the chatter on the bus to the last match, on Tuesday night. We'd struggled to get many points off the Sky Blues for a while and this afternoon was no different. Lets get this over with...

Proper kick off, 3 n all that.

Mundle got a start and Wilson stayed on the bench. With 12 goals under his belt there might be questions why we aren't starting Issy. We do have 16 different goal scorers this season, so we do have options, but it's not just a case of playing our strongest hand. Or is it? 4-3-3 was the official formation announced. I think its just a tactical rouse that just so happens to fit nicely on a smart phone. Having lost the toss Sunderland started with Patto having the sun in his eyes.

We'd struggled with the second ball in the last couple of matches and we didn't manage to get hold of one in the opening 5 minutes. A theme that would continue throughout. Coventry passed first time round us with the greatest of ease. We just couldn't keep the ball.

Coventry notched a second free kick in our half with the first 5 minutes after their winger ran into Dennis. Their final shots were off the mark but it was the first of a great deal of positive momentum for the opposition. After 10 mins the possession was going against us 80% to 20%. Unless Coventry were passing the ball forward we didn't seem to want to press.

15 mins in our in-form forward had our best chance so far. Mundle and Eli linked up well but each took one too many touches and it was dealt with with ease by their keeper. Our crowd started to find their voice, but up until now we had caused ourselves as many problems as Coventry had.

When Coventry's goal came no one was surprised in the slightest. We'd had one shot on goal to their seven. When PNE broke the ref with their shithousery it gave our supporters a frustrating shot of adrenalin, which in turn gave the players what they need, which led to Mundle's unstoppable stunner. We had plenty of time to turn it around but we needed more energy and better communication if we were going to get anything. Am I saying more shouting would be the answer to all our questions? Yes I am. However that caterwauling wouldn't come soon enough.

Whilst I struggled to find anything else positive to write about Dennis rushed a throw-in, we lost the ball, Meps tried his best to fell the lad before he got in the box but sadly gave away penalty just within the edge of the box. Straight down the middle, 2-0. We now had a lot to deal with. Including an inevitable pasting.

I never thought a team could be bad at thrown-ins. We've been absolutely rubbish in the last month. We'd now conceded goals directly after throw-ins on two occasions. Is there such a thing as a thrown-in coach? More importantly should there have to be?! We got a free kick 35 mins in which, after a headed back across of goal didn't fall well to Eli. At this stage our stats were showing we had 76% pass completion rate. This seemed very generous.

We'd lacked sharpness and any decent passage plays. Something Coventry's team did have. I can't see RLB being an advocate of the hairdryer approach but again, we needed some oomph from somewhere. 2 nil at half time against an inform side. We'd come back from 2 nil down before this season. My hopes were about as high as a not very high thing.

2nd half began with a corner to Coventry and a shot on goal in the first 30 seconds. It was obvious what needed to change but both goals had come from our errors as opposed to Coventry threats. I wont name names but a couple of players were just motionless when they needed to be getting amongst it. Meanwhile, Coventry players were laughing and smiling with nothing to lose.

Huge ructions on 55 mins when their number 7 took his umpteenth dive of the match. This ref dealt with the commotion much better than the midweek buffoon in black did. Hopefully today's ref could actually count how many players were on the pitch too. We followed this with a weird double sub of Tommy and Wilson for Neil and Hume. For the record I'd have taken Jobe off. I'll politely leave it at that. This seem to do the trick at first with our first energetic play of the game leading to Eli fizzing it wide from just outside the 6 yard box and Wilson going the same 5 minutes later.

We need this kind of action out the gate. Just we play our first football of the day that was actually exciting to watch their number 7 dived so hard the resulting shockwave injured Dennis. The game was dead on 72 mins. A slick ball through to their in form forward and he dinked it over Patto who was left between a rock and a hard place, who had the ball dinked over him for his hattrick. Definitely our worst performance of the season. Our travelling fans deserved much, much better than this.

Our first corner arrived on the 76th minute. Browne came on for Paddy who had been startlingly quiet. Not much changed after this. Just more lacklustre first balls and devoid of any pressure.

95 mins. Game over.

We now have a painful amount of time to reflect on our worst showing of the season during the upcoming international break, We'd looked knackered and out of ideas. The micro glimpses we had shown of promising play made it only more frustrating that we could do it, but for whatever reason we weren't. Give Jobe a rest. That's all I'll say. We'd have to wait a while to see what we'd do next. The player need to remember what they're playing for.

Keep the faith

GPD