By CovSid67
October 25 2005

With Sheffield Wednesday and Brighton drawing on Monday night, Coventry City dropped into the bottom three - with a ,lot of Coventry supporters already unable to see a way back out of the relegation zone for us. The inability to defend any sort of set piece has once again been our undoing over the last two games, resulting in us taking only one point from out-of-sorts Ipswich, and a Leicester side not particularly taking the division by storm either.

Coventry City enjoyed the best moments of the first 25 minutes against Ipswich, then conceded. From a free-kick. Again.

A few minutes later Ipswich scored again. From another free-kick. How boringly predictable.

Those supporters that travelled to Portman Road hoping to see only Coventry's third victory in the league could have been forgiven for thinking we would be on the end of our second rout in four days - but for the not manyist(!) time this season, we proved we have a backbone.

McSheffrey made it 2-1 just before the break, and Nalis equalised 10 minutes after half-time. Happier days .... minutes then.

Either side of Nalis' goal Coventry had goals disallowed, with Adebola seeing his effort chalked off, and McSheffrey seeing his potential second cancelled too - harshly, in the eyes of those that went.

Ipswich also claim to have scored a potential winner, though those in charge failed to notice the ball go over the line (How things might have been different had they had the West Ham-Middlesboro officials!).

And so, five days later, Coventry City headed down the M69, hoping that the come-back at Portman Road was the start of something good .... how disappointing. Again.

Two of Leicester's scorers in the 0-3 shambles that was our last visit to the Walkers Stadium were in the Coventry side (Nalis and Heath), with ex-Leicester players Scowcroft and Impey also in the 16.

Two debatable first-half penalty appeals after McSheffrey had gone over in the area were ignored - or at least one was, with the other seeing McSheffrey booked for diving. This took his booking tally to five too, and, much to the delight of some, suspension looms (Interested to see just who Micky Adams plays out of position to replace him....).

In between those appeals came McSheffrey's fourth goal in five games, with Adebola the creator. Not the worst strike rate in the division, I'm sure even his detractors will agree? Probably not.

The decision to not award the second penalty changed the course of the game....

With seconds left of the first half, a throw-in wasn't properly cleared by Coventry's defence, and De Vries equalised. It really shouldn't have been allowed to happen, but thanks to the generosity of Coventry's defence, it did.

With the away supporters wondering whether it would Coventry's "Jekyll" or "Hyde" side coming out in the second half, they were given their answer with seconds - Coventry kicked off the second half, Hughes gave the ball away immediately, and within half-a-minute De Vries had made it 2-1 (From the resulting corner).

The rest of the half saw very little by way of encouragement that another away point might be gained, with my decision to deliver a match ticket to the pub at mid-day (Thanks for the pint BTF!), but not bother going, seeming totally justified.

Third placed Luton next - when does it start getting easier....?