Not good enough: Royle

NEVER shy to speak his mind, Blues boss Joe Royle left his players in no doubt what he thought of their display at Coventry.

While the actual phraseology will stay in the dressing room, the message was clear: "Not good enough." For public consumption Royle's post-match comments were more refrained. "That was probably our second worst performance of the season. Only Wigan was worse," he seethed.

"Neither side deserved to win. It was a totally underwhelming match. That is taking nothing away from Coventry but I didn't think they were fantastic or were going to beat us. On the day it was two very ordinary teams."

He qualified by adding: "We did have people coming back and people carrying injuries and made a lot of changes for the second half.

"I'm delighted to escape with a draw, although realistically we could also have won it with the two easiest chances of the game. But that would have been hard on Coventry."

Royle surprised many with his team selection, especially leaving top-scorer Pablo Counago on the bench and starting Martijn Reuser up front.

He explained: "Pablo has not been starting well away from home and I thought we needed to try something a bit brighter. Defensively the three at the back was working until they scored.

"We could not get the players in that we wanted last week so I decided to try and freshen things by changing the system rather than the players."

To add to Royle's woes, Dutch defender Fabian Wilnis was hurt in a foul by Stephen Warnock who was booked for his high and late challenge. Wilnis was left with stud marks in a delicate place but, more worryingly, a shoulder injury that has left him doubtful for the televised game against Wigan on Saturday. Georges Santos was replaced at half-time as a precaution after a shin injury, also caused by Warnock, as he scored. But the sturdy Frenchman is expected to be fit to face the Latics. Another concern was Tommy Miller who suffered a recurrence of a thigh strain that had seen him miss training last week.