John Smith's PNE Fans' Panel verdict: Gulf in class was not just on the pitch but off it too

The margin of defeat probably reflected the obvious gulf in class on display on the pitch at the Coventry Building Society Arena.

It was another tough watch for the 300-plus travelling faithful who had once again forked out their hard-earned cash only to end up with another midweek journey home with not many positives to be taken from this game, apart from the return of goalkeeper Daniel Iversen.

Watching Iversen at times I got the feeling that he had been fast tracked to an earlier return, although his slight handicap with his muscle strain did not have any impact on any of the goals we conceded.

I also thought that had Iversen not been playing, the margin of defeat could possibly have been greater.

That is no sleight on the ‘Welsh Schmeichel’ Dai Cornell, who has done well in recent games, but Iversen is a goalkeeper who wins you points and his absences have had a massive effect on our dismal run of results since his injury.

I also feel that had he not signed in the close season we would be firmly in the relegation zone at this point in the season.

Coventry are yet another club who have recruited well and sold players at a profit and ploughed the money back into strengthening the squad. This is something we have failed to do and have not generated any income into the transfer pot since the sales of Jordan Hughill, Greg Cunningham and Callum Robinson.

Unlike Coventry the majority of this money was not ploughed back into the team at a time when we were a top-eight side under Alex Neil and used to offset the annual debt, which was at the time around £10million a year.

That Coventry had no ground at the time we were promoted shows, with some small investment and forward thinking, what we could have done if we had used our money wisely and not spent it on poor or injured players, the latest to come off this production line appearing to be Callum Lang.

While I do understand the restrictions of the budget, it has been more disappointing this season as a decent January transfer window could have given our hardy followers some real hope.

If current policies continue and nothing changes I personally think we will almost certainly end up in League One within the next two to three years .

Last week our old manager Alex Neil came back to Deepdale with a team built with minimal investment which is now seriously competing for automatic promotion, without any parachute payments, which shows it can be done with some forward thinking of the people in control of the club.

After this game the tannoy played the Bon Jovi song ‘Keep The Faith’ whereas he should have maybe played the anthem ‘Things Can Only Get Better’.

We certainly need to be more chirpier than The Canaries at Norwich on Saturday to avoid slipping down another rung in the league table just above the teams staring into the abyss of League One.