LAST week I stated that City should’ve been looking for a minimum of four points from our two home matches with Carlisle and Coventry.

Unfortunately, we fell just short of that by picking up an important win versus fellow strugglers Carlisle but then falling short against Coventry on Tuesday night in a 2-1 defeat.

I have to say that the level of performance in both games was concerning as manager Cotterill continues to chop and change the line up.

The first half against Carlisle on Saturday was really dire stuff admittedly played in poor weather conditions. We still look so fragile defensively and new recruit El-Abd from Brighton has done nothing to convince me that he’s any better than current defenders we have at the club.

City were saved in the second half by an inspired five minute spell from Marvin Elliott in the middle of the park. He injected some life into the performance and scored two goals in two minutes to give us the victory.

The first half against Coventry on Tuesday was again hugely disappointing.Coventry’s manager Steven Pressley has done a very impressive job at the club given their off the field problems, primarily playing their home games some 40 miles away in Northampton. Were it not for a league imposed 10 point deduction, the Sky Blues would be sitting in the play-off positions.

It makes it all the more confusing that a supposedly stable club like ours with good financial backing should be struggling so badly on the pitch. But struggle we did and Coventry were two goals to the good by half-time.

We did eventually get an opening with just under 10 minutes to go with Wes Burns getting his first goal for the club. But it was too little too late.

We now have two tricky away games at Oldham Athletic on Saturday (3pm) followed by Leyton Orient next Tuesday (7.45pm). We desperately need something from these games as two defeats will plunge us back into the bottom four.