Crystal Palace-Coventry City : Coventry City-Burnley

Another garbage referee, and the end of the losing run....

v Crystal Palace (a) L0-2

Two poor decisions from a poor referee saw Coventry City slip to defeat against a poor Crystal Palace side. The win enables Palace to move away from the bottom of the table with this victory, as Coventry City failed to score for only the second time in the league this season. A fairly harsh decision to class a McSheffrey 'shot' towards his own goal as a back-pass enabled Ambrose to score for Palace after half-an-hour - had Jutkiewicz taken either of two early chances, the result of this match could have been far different though. The second (Massively!) garbage refereeing decision saw a Wood foul a yard outside the penalty area given as a penalty. Ambrose doubled his tally for the day and the season, and with King and Jutkiewicz severely shy in front of goal, a come-back was unlikely - though Coventry City supporters finally saw Freddie Eastwood back in a Sky Blue shirt. A foul on McSheffrey should have brought about a penalty, but didn't (Garbage decision No. 3), as Coventry once again opted for three at the back in a bid to get something from the game.

TEAM: Westwood, Keogh, Cranie (O'Donovan 81), Wood, McPake, Baker (Gunnarsson 63), Carsley, Doyle, McSheffrey, King (Eastwood 70), Jutkiewicz. SNU: Ireland, Clarke, Cameron, Thomas.

v Burnley (h) W1-0

Nathan Cameron was brought in at the centre of defence for this match, with Wood moved to left-back at the expense of Cranie. There were around half as many supporters in the ground as had turned up for the Leeds fixture, a figure made all the more disappointing by the fact Burnley bought a fair few, as Coventry City ended a run of three successive defeats. This was a hard-fought win for the Sky Blues, with the game's only goal a Michael Doyle belter, scored in front of his son - and also my daughter, who was attending her second game ever! (Thanks to the clubs 'Tickets For Schools' scheme). Burnley boss Brian Laws obviously missed most of this match, claiming Coventry City scored from their only shot on goal - doing a great dis-service to his own keeper, Lee Grant, who pulled off a couple of top quality saves (Including an early Carsley effort, and a superb McSheffrey free kick). The second half was delayed, but not, as I thought, because people were trying to persuade a fairly poor referee to take to the pitch for the re-start. Wade Elliot missed a late chance to equalise after rounding Westwood, but saw his effort stopped my McPake, while Jutkiewicz missed a similar opportunity soon after.

TEAM: Westwood, Keogh, Wood, Cameron, McPake, Baker (Gunnarsson 53), Doyle, Carsley, McSheffrey (Clarke 80), Platt, King (Jutkiewicz 74). SNU: Ireland, Cranie, Eastwood, O'Donovan.