Clarets pay the penalty

Today was that day, once again it was cold in there, considerably colder than it was outside, and again it was played in an atmosphere that was quiet even by library standards. There's no doubt we should have come home with something but the crucial moments of the game went against us and we fell to a 1-0 defeat that has seen us drop out of the top six for the first time since we lost to Southampton in September.

Steve Cotterill named an unchanged team but there was a surprise on the subs bench where goalkeeper Brian Jensen was replaced by Graham Branch, otherwise it was exactly the same sixteen as at Ipswich with the starting eleven lining up in the same formation.

Coventry came at us as if their lives depended on it in the opening minutes and twice, through Wayne Thomas and James O'Connor, we had to get good blocks in to prevent balls getting to players in good positions in our box.

Meanwhile referee Thorpe was making his mark and the first few minutes of the game appeared to be dominated by a constant blowing of the whistle. He was never going to play an advantage, and the whole thing culminated in James O'Connor receiving his fifth yellow card of the season.

The decision infuriated the Burnley fans, and even more so when two similar challenges by home players passed with him not even having a word. Still, better than some referees he was at least giving us the free kicks.

Once the game finally settled down most of the play was at the far end where Burnley were attacking. We'd seen off that early two minute push from the home side and were very much on top. It only needed a goal and I feel sure we would have gone on to win this comfortably, but the goal just didn't come.

Steve Jones had the first real chance, probably our best chance of the afternoon, but his effort wasn't good enough and Andy Marshall saved easily. The ball seemed to be in and around the Coventry box for long spells, and to be fair at times they defended well, particularly in the air dealing with balls in from the wings.

They were causing us hardly any problems, we had control of the midfield, and a goal looked on the cards. We won a number of free kicks around the Coventry box but they came to nothing and then with around half an hour gone disaster struck, just as it did last week at Ipswich with the referee pointing to the penalty spot.

I think you always feel hard done to when a referee points to the spot, we did last week but he was proved to be correct. This time I'm not so sure, it looked a very harsh decision, and it was one that infuriated many of the Burnley players. The referee himself didn't look completely sure and clearly shook his head to suggest there had been no foul before then changing his mind.

Colin Cameron finally stepped up to take the kick and put it to Danny Coyne's right as the keeper went to his left. We were fighting an uphill battle, Coventry have gone on to win every game this season in which they have taken the lead, and the last time they were in front but didn't win was last March when a late David Healy penalty gave Leeds a 1-1 draw against them.

It was a blow, but one that didn't have an effect on our play and we continued to take the game to them. Now as you know we don't get penalties, our last was on New Year's Eve 2005, no less than 43 league and cup games ago. We have had some good shouts for penalties in some of those games, but none as strong as the one when Gifton was clearly pulled back this afternoon.

It was so blatant, and so obvious, that it could be spotted from the away end some 150 yards away, I'm sure it was that clear that people shopping in Coventry could have probably given it with some conviction. Incredibly the well placed Mike Thorpe waved play on to the apparent disgust of just about our entire side.

It should have been a real chance to equalise, but it was snatched from us, and that meant going in at the interval a goal down, something we scarcely deserved.

The second half performance never came close to matching the first half, our play was less fluent and although Coventry hardly caused us problems other than on the break, we were never able to dominate play in the way we had in the first half.

We did have some chances, Gifton failed to get a shot in on one occasion, on another he was unlucky. Kyle forced a good save out of Marshall down to his left and right at the end substitute Graham Branch had an effort headed clear off the line although putting a bit more into the shot might have caused them more problems.

Jon Harley got himself a yellow card midway through the half and he too will sit and watch next week's game through suspension. Just after that a Coventry player was finally carded, needless to say it was greeted with ironic applause from a now totally frustrated away end.

We really didn't deserve to lose this, but we are not going to win many games right now because goals don't look as though they are going to be too easy to come by without Andy Gray in the side.

It wasn't the best of performances, and probably too many players had below par games. James O'Connor was again the pick for me and he'll be sorely missed next week. It will be the first time since he joined the club that he hasn't featured in a game.

I'm sure we would have settled for seventh at this stage when the season got underway, but having been in the top six for so long it does feel a bit disappointing. We've got two home games now, albeit difficult home games. We need points to from them to go into Christmas in a challenging position.

The teams were;

Coventry: Andy Marshall, Richard Duffy, Elliott Ward, Robert Page, Clive Clarke, Colin Cameron, Michael Doyle, Leon McKenzie (Kevin Kyle 90), Darren Currie (Stephen Hughes 84), Dele Adebola, Stern John. Subs not used: Mikkel Bischoff, Adam Virgo, Chris Birchall.

Burnley: Danny Coyne, Wayne Thomas, Michael Duff, John McGreal, Jon Harley, Wade Elliott (Graham Branch 76), James O'Connor (Alan Mahon 80), Chris McCann, Steve Jones (Stephen Foster 90), Kyle Lafferty, Gifton Noel-Williams. Subs not used: Frank Sinclair, Micah Hyde.

Referee: Mike Thorpe (Suffolk).

Attendance: 18,362.