Portsmouth's prospects of Championship football next season took a nose dive after two second half goals from Coventry condemned them to yet another away defeat.
The first half was a poor affair between two poor teams. Pompey often lacked a final ball to create any real chances whilst Coventry's long ball tactic failed to reap rewards, though Jamie Ashdown did have one good save to make from Clive Platt.
Joel Ward had Pompey's "best" chance of the half as he headed over a cross but that was as good as it got. Luke Varney may have gone down in the box after a supposed foul but he was ineffective for the rest of the game.
With the game goalless at half-time you would have expected Michael Appleton to deliver one of his team talks and for his side to come flying out of the traps like they did against Birmingham and Bristol City.
However, those expectations were misplaced as it was Andy Thorn's men who swamped Pompey in a sea of Sky Blue and began to dominate proceedings.
It took just ten minutes for the hosts to take the lead, albeit with a touch of good fortune. Chris Hussey's mishit shot fell straight into the path of Gary McSheffrey who blasted the ball past Ashdown.
Pompey came close to equalising through Chris Maguire's free kick but the ball cannoned off the inside of the post and then bounced to safety.
What little resistance the visitors showed was soon put to an end thanks to some atrocious defending.
Alex Nimely managed to get the better of two Pompey defenders before squaring the ball to the far post where Oliver Norwood had all the time in the world to pick his spot with nobody in a red & black shirt anywhere near him.
Pompey plugged away for a consolation but there was little to be happy about come the final whistle as the home fans finally woke up and started singing songs about Coventry staying up.
To sum up this performance, the defence went to pieces in the second half, there was no quality in the midfield and we were toothless up front.
There will be questions asked of Michael Appleton following this shambles. Why did Kelvin Etuhu and Marko Futacs not start after scoring on Tuesday? Why are the passes going astray?
In truth, there isn't much time to dwell on this defeat and thankfully there is a chance, albeit small, that Pompey can get out of trouble but only if they win their next two home games against Hull and Burnley.
Even then, our away performances need to improve drastically as the next game on the road is one we definitely don't want to lose, whether we're as good as relegated or not.
Pompey Player Ratings
Jamie Ashdown: 6 - Can't be blamed for either goal.
Greg Halford: 5 - Given a hard time by wingers.
Jason Pearce: 5 - Struggled in the second half.
Ricardo Rocha: 5 - Not his usual self.
Tal Ben-Haim: 4 - Didn't seem interested.
Scott Allan: 4 - Didn't provide anything.
George Thorne: 4 - Passing was poor.
David Norris: 5 - Only slightly better than the rest of the mdifield.
Joel Ward: 4 - Went missing for much of the game.
Luke Varney: 5 - Should have been taken off earlier.
Chris Maguire: 6 - Only outfield player to emerge with any credit.
Substitutes
Karim Rekik
Ashley Harris
Kelvin Etuhu (Norris 62): 5 - No impact.
Luca Scapuzzi (Allan 83): N/A - No time to impress.
Marko Futacs (Ward 62): 6 - Caused a few problems around the box.