Coventry La La La
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"It was absolutely appalling, totally unacceptable, and we all take responsibility for that, myself included. If I could afford it, I'd give everybody their money back."
City boss believes the result was a freak one
Coventry City manager Aidy Boothroyd has apologised to the City fans for what he called their 'inept and appalling performance' on Saturday, which saw them go down to their worst defeat of the season.
He went to say if he could afford it he would give everyone their money back.
The 1-4 home defeat was bizarre in more ways than one. Bristol City only had three shots on goal in the first half and went in at the break 3-0 up. Coventry hit the post and the Robins 'keeper David James pulled of a superb save to deny Jutkiewicz.
The Sky Blues then went on to lose their goal keeper through injury and then his replacement himself was injured and he had to play much of the second half carrying the injury. Both 'keepers are now doubtful for Tueday's trip to Doncaster.
Westwood was captain and handed the armband to King at half time, but with King's straight red card for violent conduct, City had to resort to a third captain, this time the onerous duty fell to Gunnarsson.
Boothroyd said to the CT: "It was all down to an absolutely appalling first half when we lacked energy, commitment, everything I've come to expect from this group of players, and conceded three very, very poor goals.
"It was absolutely appalling, totally unacceptable, and we all take responsibility for that, myself included. If I could afford it, I'd give everybody their money back."
" I'd like to think it was a freak but it's only a freak if it doesn't happen again so we have to bounce back. Anything other than that, any sulking, and we could find ourselves in a relegation battle."
To compound their misery, Scunthorpe's surprising win over promotion chasing Swansea now means Coventry are only six points above the drop zone.
"I'm embarrassed to be even talking about that because I thought we'd turned the corner and we'd win more than we lose for the rest of the season, but the reality of the situation is that if you don't win games you go toward the bottom of the table," said the city boss.
"I was saying in Thursday's press conference that the games have been tight this season and we very rarely get done by more than one goal. Obviously I should have kept my trap shut."
Boothroyd sent out his players early after the half time break, but then proceeded to give them a stern talking to before the game restarted, but Boothroyd was keen to state that it was certainly not a repeat of Phil Brown's half time humiliation of his Hull side in 2008 when they were awful 5-1 defeat against Manchester City.
Boothroyd admitted, "I had a blast at them and told them to go out and get ready to show what they were made of. I brought them together because sometimes when things are going wrong players start pointing fingers and I didn't want that."
"I was pleased with the response in the second half but you can't just switch it on and off. Every time we go out on that pitch we're representing ourselves, our families and our fans, and that first half just was not a true reflection of the players I work with every day."
"It was inept, inadequate and, more important perhaps, the opposite to what you normally get from a team wearing that shirt. Normally, whatever the opposition, we're hard to play against but today we totally gave them the game."
"Sometimes you get two or three people who don't perform but, with the exception of Lukas Jutkiewicz and Marlon King, everybody was bang average and that's being kind.
"It annoyed me, as I'm sure it annoyed a lot of other people, and we've got to make sure it was a one-off."
