There’s no respite for Blues as they attempt to bounce back from the calamity at Coventry.
Sheffield Wednesday are the visitors to St. Andrew’s on Tuesday evening, before a trip to Wrexham on Friday night.
A good result at Coventry City would have provided a sense of steady progression seven games into the Championship campaign.
Instead the 3-0 reverse threw up more questions than answers, as well as a couple of unwelcome injury issues.
Marvin Ducksch ‘felt something’ in the warm up and had to withdraw from the starting line-up. It is unclear whether this unspecified leg injury will keep him out for an extended period.
Ethan Laird had to be substituted due to a hamstring twinge in the 59th minute and Jay Stansfield was also withdrawn with an apparent foot issue with 13 minutes left on the clock.
Blues will definitely be without Jack Robinson, who serves a one-game suspension for the sending-off at the CBS Arena.
The red card changed the game, Chris Davies felt.
Robinson clattered into Josh Eccles in the 34th minute and then impeded Haji Wright as he attempted to get onto a ball behind eight minutes later.
Davies said a big ‘frustration within this (result)’ was the fact referee Thomas Kirk allowed Coventry players to kick the ball away at will.
He wasn’t suggesting this was the reason for Blues defeat. Davies called for consistency in regard the transgressions.
He said afterwards: “We’ve had a game today where the decisive moment has come from us losing a player and the frustration for me is we’ve had multiple examples of their players kicking the ball away in the first half and not receiving cautions.
“I understand it’s a difficult job for the officials, always, but the impact that has is huge.
“We lose this game and we have to take that, and there are things we could have done better, but a huge impact was two yellow cards that have led to us losing a player.
“When you get one yellow card you’re always running the risk. If you kick a ball away blatantly in front of a referee and you don’t get booked for it, you can carry on doing it. If you get booked you’re on the back-foot, you’ve got to be careful of tackling, careful of slipping over, careful of doing anything that gets you a second yellow and then a red.
“I’ve said it in every single game we’ve had. I’m OK if my players get booked for kicking balls away because they shouldn’t do it.
“We sat in pre-season meetings about it, it’s time-wasting, we are a team that wants to get the ball down a play and we’ve had blatant examples of it today going unpunished.
“It’s important for people to understand the impact that that has. When a player is on a yellow card he can’t tackle with the same conviction because he’s always aware that things could change.
“That for me is a real frustration within this. When the game is tight, every little thing could make the difference.”
All that said, Robinson’s rashness and the defending for Coventry’s goals left much to be desired.
The opener, from Brandon Thomas-Asante in the 16th minute, was due to the reaction at a long throw that wasn’t dealt with.
A killer second, in the 49th minute, made Blues task nigh on impossible.
A free header at the back post by Eccles came off the legs of Bright Osayi-Samuel and despite Ryan Allsop’s desperate attempt to keep it out, the ball went over the goal line by the finest of margins.
The third goal was a nothing more than a boot downfield by Carl Rushworth and Eiran Cashin was unable to deal with that or the advancing Ellis Simms; Victor Torp scored on the rebound after Allsop failed to take decisive action too.
All told, it was grim and insipid stuff from Blues, who failed to register a shot on target.
Unbeaten Coventry – who went into the match on the back of their best ever start in the top two divisions for 32 years – used the man advantage very well and after the own goal toyed with a disjointed Blues.
Davies withdrew Lewis Koumas after the sending-off, sent on Cashin and moved Stansfield wide to the left in a 4-4-1.
“There’s no question of the fight,” Davies said. “They were working, they were trying. Ultimately Coventry stretch you with the width.
“You have got a back four and basically the four in front are trying to shuffle and slide and get to it, trying to move up the pitch when they can.
“But the spirit, the fight . . . I saw nothing there that concerned me it was just that we couldn’t keep it at 1-0 long enough.”
Davies had hoped the ten men could frustrate Coventry in the second-half initially and then spring to score.
“My point of view, we are down a player but if we don’t concede a goal, stay solid we will get opportunities.
“To concede that goal in the fashion we did was very, very disappointing at that time.
“We played the first part of the game well. It was not (a case of) me thinking ‘this is going to be a long 90 minutes for us’. We were looking more than competitive.
“If we had lost 3-0, 11 v 11 over 90 minutes, then it’s a different conversation.”
The onus is now on Blues to bounce back. Troubled Sheffield Wednesday are second from bottom in the table but are showing spirited signs – they have picked up five points in their past four league fixtures, with four of those coming in their two most recent away games.
“It’s the first time we’ve had three games in a week,” said Davies. “The players really have to step up and take on that challenge.”
