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Saturday's defeat was hard to stomach for the fans and players.

Having clawed their way back into the game before half time they threw it away with a debatable penalty and a last minute winner.

But in truth Ipswich had the better chances and but for Murphy and a poor finish from Chopra, it could have been over a lot earlier.

Upfront City now cause team's a problem. Nimley is a constant threat with his pace and trickery. Platt gives us a physical presence and wins more than his fair share of headers and knock downs. It just needs the other players to start playing off these more.

The midfield need boosting with Clingan and McSheffrey busy but both Deegan and Bell being too inconsistent at this level. Norwood has been brought in but will need a few games before we can form an opinion.

In defence we are now starting to struggle.

With Christie out, Clarke got a start and looked totally off the pace. This is hardly surprising given his long injury and lack of games. But with Herman out, Thorn had few choices.

The thing I don't understand is why we are playing two key defenders out of position?

Why is Richard Wood, our most experienced centre half playing left back when we have a right back playing centre half?

Don't get me wrong Keogh is a good player, probably our player of the season but when he plays at right back he gives us more going forward than he can when playing in the heart of the defence.

Wood is a solid defender and does his best to get forward but he is not a natural fullback like Keogh.

So having now started to score goals, it seems our defence, which had been fairly reliable is now the problem.

WITH McPake and Jukebox leaving the club, hopefully loosening up the purse strings for 1 more addition, do we have enough quality to pull away from the foot of the table? The 2 new signings had an immediate impact on the side against Middlesbrough, but will it be enough?

Alex Nimely looked lively, after a bit of a slow start and Hreidarsson looked steady, if a little ring rusty, but will these two players really be the key to Championship survival? Nimely made little impact at Boro and Herman has been relegated on a pretty regular basis, so lets hope that there is more to come from both of them. There is no doubt the the former gives us the pace we have been lacking, but it's goals we are short of, to enable another miraculous escape.

Rumour Mill: The latest player to be linked with a move to the City of Coventry Stadium (sorry, Ricoh Arena) is Rob Hulse, who could be a welcome addition, with good experience at this level, so lets just hope something happens pretty quickly, as I am not sure the current crop have enough to keep us out of the third tier for the first time in most fans memory, how ironic that would be on the 25th anniversary of our FA Cup victory............

AWAY to Blackpool on Tuesday evening then at home to Ipswich on Saturday this could be a massive week in the Sky Blues season.

If they can win both of these games that would be a welcome six points and a huge boost to our fight towards staying in the Championship but lose them both and come away pointless would be a huge blow and leave the City stuck at the bottom and favourites for the drop.

As we are the only club in the whole Football League still without an away win all season surely we have to start changing that now and why not at Bloomfield Road tomorrow night ?

Can Tim Fisher now answer the one remaining question?

WITH Tim Fisher's two recent articles/interviews with the Coventry Telegraph answering a number of questions around the ownership and where the money has been spent. There is only one question left for him and SISU to answer.

What is the future for Coventry City Football club with SISU at the helm?

His words explained a lot of what has happened in the past at the club and the rather convoluted ownership structure. These seem to have been open and frank, something that has been missing at the club for a long time.

So credit to Tim Fisher for that.

So can he tell us now about the future?

Currently we have two contradictory statements from the club. Firstly they state that they don't want to sell the club and in the next breath they are talking to Gary Hoffman who wants to buy the club.

Is it any wonder then that the fans are confused and concerned?

With Tim Fisher seeming to want to speak to the press at present, then can he please answer the final remaining question.

TIM FISHER entered the fray at Coventry City somewhat out of nowhere; filling the void left by the acrimonious departure of Ken Dulieu.

To me, and I imagine to most City fans, he was someone about which I had heard very little, and given his association with Sisu I felt it necessary to greet his arrival with the default air of distrust that is commonplace with anyone with even the slightest link to the current owners of the club.

However, his refreshing candour has all but banished any cynicism I initially felt towards him. His rhetoric is honest and to-the-point; two qualities that have been notable by their absence in the little correspondence between Sisu and the Coventry City faithful.

THOSE who harboured doubts about the capability of Andy Thorn's January acquisitions to bring about a change in Coventry City's fortunes must have seriously reconsidered their point of view following Saturday's emphatic dismantling of playoff hopefuls Middlesbrough.

Whether Alex Nimely and Herman Hreiðarsson are capable of lifting the Sky Blues from their lowly position at the bottom of the Championship table remains to be seen, but both players provided plenty of reason for optimism in their first appearances at The Ricoh.

With the news that James McPake has sealed a loan move that sees him journey north of the border for the remainder of the season, all eyes are now on the City gaffer to see whether his third throw of the dice will come to fruition, and more importantly, whether it will be a signing of sufficient quality to give the squad one last kick up the backside.

IT is with great interest that the "Save Our City" protest group are calling for a voice on the board and, immediate talks with SISU to put their points across, as they think that there is no fans voice at the moment. Not True...........

There is, and has been for a number of years now the: Supporters Consultative Group (SCG) which is made up from supporters in all area's of the ground, prawn sandwich brigade and all. They have done some sterling work in making the match day experience better for all and have the best interest of all fans, at their hearts!

I doubt that anyone who supports Coventry City is completely happy with the way things are being run at the moment, with our plight seeming pretty hopeless, looking at our league position, but there are ways of making your displeasure known and trying to prevent fans from supporting the club they love, is not for everyone!

There can be no doubt that things have got worse under the current regime, with attempts at getting a SISU spokesman round the table pretty difficult, they are at best elusive and at worst downright obnoxious, so I suppose it was inevitable matters would come to a head.

I am not too sure what is going on behind the scenes at our club, I doubt anyone is 100% and all the takeover talk seems to have died off, but my opinion is exactly that, my own opinion, and I do get the chance to air it, but I don't expect everyone to agree with me all of the time, and nor should anyone, with the best interest of the club at heart, try to impose their will upon other fans.................

As the song goes: Let's all sing together........................

But even though there's a lot of doom and gloom around the club and supporters are totally cheesed off with everything concerning Coventry City,and this season has been a disaster on and off the pitch,in a strange way all this has made me more determined to carry on supporting the club.

I know a lot of fans will say I'm deluded and what's the point anymore as the club is on a downward spiral and getting relegated and we are a laughing stock.

All of that may well be true but I know there are still Thirteen to Fourteen thousand Sky Blue hardcore who will still keep on turning up getting behind the team.

That's not a large number but enough to make some noise when they are all in it together just like the fans who went to Derby who were brilliant and who out sung the large Derby contingent and there were just under a thousand of them !

It all boils down to one thing now and that is who's up for the fight ?
On the pitch with the players and in the stands with the fans the saying goes : When the going gets tough the tough get going.

This was summed up nicely after the Southampton cup tie when I was talking to a group of die-hard City fans when asked if they will still be following the Sky Blues next season if they were in League one,they said in an instant of course they will.

I bet Coventry City Football club would love to hear those words coming from Twenty odd thousand fans right now wouldn't they ?

Regardless of all that is going on around him, you have to admire Andy Thorn's optimism. With the odds heavily stacked against him already and his top goal scorer about to be sold by SISU, he still believes that with a couple of loans we can escape relegation.

Well he has to be upbeat really regardless of the fact that the majority of the fans believe with the current squad and lack of a goal scorer we are teetering on the brink of relegation.

What really annoys me is that he not being allowed to show the fans whether he can manage or not?

All our decent players have or are being sold/released and those that are left, if we receive an offer, will undoubtedly also be sold by SISU.

He may well not agree with what is happening but what can he do?

As an employee of the club and SISU he has to toe the company line.

If he openly criticises the situation or the club, SISU may well terminate his contract citing breach of contract. In that situation would another club employ him as a manager or scout?

We may not like some of the decisions made at our place of work for example but we have to toe the company line. Very few of us though are subject to the public criticism that is associated with football.

If he had the squad that ended last season and we were in the bottom three, then I would agree that he is not the man for the job. As he has not, then I am not sure there are many managers that could get more from the poor squad we have?

A Jimmy Hill or Sillet and Curtis maybe able to get more, but legendary managers like these are few and far between.

ONCE again Coventry City have shown what we have all known for many years that they are a selling club of the highest order and they have sent out a clear message to other clubs that if you fancy one of our players just be patient and you will get him.

We all knew Jukebox would leave but that doesn't make it any sweeter though as when your bottom of the division and fighting for survival you do everything in your power to hold on to players not get rid of them.

Andy Thorn is doing his best to keep us all positive by saying he's got replacements ready but he's becoming like a stand up comedian and not the strong leader he tries so hard to be.