Worthing 39 Coventry 12 by Coventry Telegraph.

Sad to say, Coventry are fast becoming the Jekyll and Hyde team of National League One.

How a side that seven days earlier played with such aplomb and verve at home could then produce the away performance they served up at Roadstone Lane defies belief.

The Worthing match programme, in welcoming Cov for the first time, also suggested it could have been the club’s first official encounter in Sussex, which in all probability is true. Whatever, it will not be remembered with any real relish.

Looking at the pre-match facts, Worthing, although scoring a lot of points, had the distinction of the leakiest defence in the division, with just one win away and three defeats at home.

They were to prove to be a workmanlike outfit, certainly nothing more, but importantly playing for each other and clearly with a real desire to clinch that first home win since promotion.

All that said, with the amount of possession and territory which Coventry enjoyed, which was massive, they really should have done far better.

Too many players on the day were really not up to the mark. Tactically they were naive, particularly in the second half when the ploy of attacking round the fringes was clearly not going to work but there simply was no Plan B to move the ball into wider, open spaces.

To compound their woes, Cov also gifted Worthing several of their tries, on two occasions length-of-the-field touchdowns coming from passes eagerly intercepted and both run in from distance.

Looking for positives, one area where Coventry, playing in the red and white change strip, clearly had the edge was in the set scrums, but no tangible reward could be gained.

Even when Worthing were down in numbers, they finished with 13 men with three yellow cards overall, Cov simply failed to ram home any advantage. The Butts Park men had two ten-minute spells down to 14 men, Mark Kohler and Tom Poole both having second-half time on the sidelines.

Yet it all started so promisingly. Within 39 seconds after Worthing had lost possession, swift hands released Ian Clark on the left for the winger to cut inside and claim a simply worked try, Cliffie Hodgson converting.

Any advantage was shortlived as Cov literally threw away their early lead, home centre Ollie Richards intercepting a Matt Jones pass to steam 80 metres for a try converted by Joe Govett.

Winger Ben Loosmoore added a second home try wide out and unconverted before, after three close-in scrums, Matt Tibbatts fed Kohler on the narrow side for his second try of the season, the angle defeating Hodgson’s attempt to convert.

Two Govett penalties and a second Richards try however opened up a 25 -12 lead by the break, leaving Coventry with much to do.

In truth, despite massive domination of territory, the visitors failed to add to their score, several balls being dropped close in and wrong options being continually chosen.

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