Saturday was quite a day to be a supporter of the Sky Blues. You've probably noticed the photos above. My attempt to document it visually soon fell flat as my phone ran out of battery, but I was still able to capture a few images, then make them look pointlessly iconic using Instagram.

As I explained prior to the game, I chose not to join the protest. Instead, I went to the match, saw the goal, saw us lose, and came away pretty annoyed that we allowed the game to peter out. 

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Having thought it over, I've decided that I'll be going to the match on Saturday.

I love football, you see. Contrary to some of the mucky words I've used to describe them over the years, I'm fairly keen on Coventry City too. I've thought about the complexities and annoyances behind the scenes and whether it's my 'duty as a fan' to get involved, but my mind keeps wandering back to the football. I still want to be inside the ground on matchday watching our own unique brand of the beautiful game, and Andy Thorn rouge-ing up right nice on the sidelines.

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Probably not, because the Barnsley performance can't be ignored that easily. Although there was plenty to indicate against Palace that we're not all bad (first hour at least).

As always, I've had a few thoughts. Too late to be quite as relevant as when I first had them, but thoughts none the less.

1. As most of us have known for a long time, when given the opportunity up front, Freddy Eastwood is pretty much our best player and should be first choice, no matter who else is available. Boothroyd, take note.

2. While we all love Clive because he's big and cuddly, his presence on the pitch will lead our performances but one way. Predictableville.

Sometimes effective, but it's reliant on Clive doing his bit right. Unfortunately he's a League One-ish sort of player, so logic dictates that ain't gonna be possible for more than a few games in a row. Boothroyd, take note.

3. There was quite a lot of chit-chat going on around Twitter about Boothroyd being a rubbish git. I don't necessarily think he's that, although he's shown over the last 6 league games a stubbornness and resistance to change that has caused us grief.

The more you play a certain way over a season, the more other teams will eventually figure you out. Stubbornness when things aren't working rarely fixes things in the short-term, which is what the Championship is about - reacting over the course of the 46 games to all the issues that are thrown at you. Unless you're so bloody good nobody can handle you regardless (promotions of Sunderland, Reading, Man City, Portsmouth and the likes), you need that sort of horses for courses approach.

Norwich had their first choice central defensive partnership disrupted but quickly rectified it and continued to play well. Our's went wrong yet we stuck with it too long, in the hope it'd eventually be good again. Boothroyd, take note.

4. And finally, I've personally been pretty happy with Crainie's individual performances at left-back, but it's clear that area of the pitch is proving troublesome. If it's not Cameron getting his positioning completely wrong, or Doyle fannying up yet another bicycle kick, it's McSheffrey attempting to help out the left-back, only to be beaten for pace by Mrs Warboys. Which is why I'm glad we've finally got someone in place who looks like he can help sturdy up that part of our unit.

Stephen O'Hallaron may still be unfit, but we've got to show some trust in him. I've always been a champion of Chris Hussey too and hoped he'd eventually be given a chance. Injuries have conspired against him, and you'd be forgiven for worrying that the same would happen with O'Halloran.

Luckily, he's back, and for the portion of the games he looks fit and is not giving away penalties, I'm actually very keen on him. Definitely makes sense to give him a chance. Boothroyd, take note.

Oh hang on, he has. Good.

Buggeration - right loads.

Let's get one thing clear; Portsmouth were absolutely there for the taking. So I reckon we should be a bit cross about not winning it. Unfortunate that a combination of tiredness, crucial injuries, poor tactics, negativity, naive refereeing, thuggish opponents, no communication, loss of concentration and woeful pissing marking have conspired against us. Even though they were useless, we just couldn't take advantage.

You can't say it was down to lack of effort, because there were some very committed performances out there. McPake was strong once again, Gunnarsson put himself about more and more as the game wore on, and Best gave them real problems until he came off.

My main concern was just how poor we were for much of the game though, footballing-wise. I'm having an argument about this as I write.

Don't get me wrong, there were some good spells when we played well and showed class (Best's goal was unbelievable). But I think all you have to do is compare our performance to that of Reading's last night to get a little perspective. Liverpool were equally as poor as Portsmouth, but Reading absolutely deserved their win. And it wasn't just down to old-fashioned grit and determination (although they had that too), it was because they simply outplayed Liverpool.

Contrary to what you might hear from some corners, we didn't really outplay Portsmouth. I think we could have, but for some reason, it didn't click for us. Sloppiness and an increasingly defensive attitude were probably the 2 most contributing factors.

I think it should be pretty clear, given how many times we've lost leads this season, that we can't try and defend a 1 nil lead for the length of time we did. It wasn't like we were up against Man Utd, Portsmouth were struggling to create their own chances - they needed our help to win.

But if you are going to try and defend a lead, you've got to at least concentrate until the bitter end. 2 lapses of concentration cost us, and in the end we just gave Portsmouth their goals. They didn't have to work to create them. That's the biggest frustration.

So rather than feeling sorry for ourselves again and thinking up excuses for why we'll probably lose the next game (Coleman), let's get a bit angry and work out what we can do next time to stop it from happening again.

Here's a starter for 10.

1) If the ball is coming straight for your head and no opposition players are around, don't let lunatic right-backs fly in front of you. Communicate.
2) If there are 10 seconds left in a game and you concede a corner, you mark a man. You mark a man as if your life depends on it.
3) When you're the manager of a team that finds the winning habit hard to come by, don't mess with the formula so you can get your favourite back in. It probably ain't gonna do the in-form striker you drop much good.
4) Don't play Jermaine Grandison up front. (Not knocking him at all, but have you ever seen anyone look so bewildered!?)

 

All this has got me thinking. Take a look at the video below. Yes, it's that man Roy Keane again. It's a very extreme example of him caring about footballing mistakes instead of feeling sorry for yourself, so take it with a pinch of salt, but I honestly reckon we could do with taking a leaf out of his book.

It'd be nice to see just a little bit more of it sometimes.

 

After a well-earned point at Pompey, I'm confident that if we're able to put a strong team out, we're more than capable of doing them.

I'm envisaging a night like the Blackburn match last year (minus the crowd and the queues) where we really take the game to them.

Typically, I shan't get carried away by a win - I best say that now, I'm not overly concerned about a cup run this year. Yes, it's great for exposure and money-wise, but all I'm bothered about is achieving some sort of consistency in the league. Last year it turned out to be our downfall because we put too much focus on the big cup game.

That said, it was also the catalyst and really got us playing (for a month, at least) so if we win it best bloody have the same effect again. I'd be delighted.

 

Best and Westwood playing..

was good by the way.

They're our players. All realism aside, It'd be nice to think that was a statement of intent from Coleman. For once, I'd like to see signs of him telling any prospective buyers to sod off if they think we're going to do them any favours. They'll probably get them dirt cheap anyway.