COVENTRY produced their worst home performance of the season after slipping to a 24-36 defeat to Fylde in National League One.
The distraught face of head coach Scott Morgan said it all after Saturday’s defeat at the Butts Park Arena with his side looking more like a team of individuals although Coventry did come up against a well organised Fylde side.
A lack of quality in attack meant that all Fylde had to do was tackle and wait for their opponents to make an error before allowing wingers Jordan Dorrington and Oli Brennand to cause damage from deep.
A bright start by the hosts was soon negated after a Matt Jones penalty miss and although Coventry stood firm in defence, centre Scott Rawlings made a break from a scrum and set up winger Oli Brennand for the opening try for the visitors on 12 minutes.
Coventry were finding it difficult to escape from their own half and on 21 minutes Chris Johnson kicked a penalty following a Coventry offside infringement in front of the posts.
Jones made up for his earlier miss with a successful penalty on 25 minutes but after what looked like a smart break from Dom Lespierre came to nothing, a Fylde counter attack saw Dan Mayer scored the visitor’s second try of the match on the half-hour mark which was converted by Johnson for 3-15.
Dorrington then scorned a score after a 50 metre break when the ball was subsequently lost and Fylde made them pay again with Ryan de la Harpe kicking a penalty setting up Scott Rawlings to score a converted try just before half-time to put the visitors 19 points in front.
Coventry made four changes after the break with Devlin Hope, Chad Thorne, Callum MacBurnie and Wayne Evans all being introduced.
And they made an immediate impact with James Tincknell setting up MacBurnie with an impressive jinking run and the Coventry replacement crossed on 45 minutes for their first try which was converted by Jones.
Any further hope of a stunning comeback was thwarted by a moment of madness as Wayne Evans was yellow carded on 54 minutes for preventing a quick penalty.
Subsequently Coventry paid a heavy penalty being a man short by shipping in two tries by Mayer and Brennand which were both converted by Johnson.
With Evans back and the introduction of World Cup star Dan Carpo, Coventry began to show what they could do.
A surging run by Carpo led to a Devlin Hope try on 62 minutes, which was converted by Jones and although they battled away, Coventry had to waint until four minutes from time to score a third, with George Oliver scoring and Jones converting to bring them within two scores of Fylde.
But it was too little too late as Coventry failed to record a losing bonus point on what was a frustrating afternoon for the blue & whites.
This Saturday Coventry are at home again when they face Rosslyn Park. (2.15pm).
