John Smith’s PNE Fans’ Panel verdict: It always looked like our remarkable 22-game sequence would come to an abrupt end

However, all runs do eventually come to an end at some point and once the home side had established a two-goal first-half lead, it always looked like this remarkable 22-game sequence would be coming to an abrupt end.

We began quite well in the opening stages of the half but as it wore on we seemed to sit in deep allowing the home side to get a foothold in the game.

Whether or not this was due to the fact that Coventry had won six of their last seven games, in my opinion we gave them a bit too much respect and made it hard work four ourselves.

I thought both of their goals could have been avoided and were down to our defence switching off at the vital moment.

Had goalkeeper Freddie Woodman not let the ball squirm past him for their soft second goal he would have been in contention for my man of the match award, as he made some good saves – particularly in the second half, which stopped the home side putting the game beyond our reach.

At half-time with our system not working, manager Paul Heckingbottom made a triple substitution changing his formation to play two strikers up front, as well as swapping midfielder Ryan Ledson for the more attacking-minded Brad Potts.

After this tactical change we did have the home side on the back foot on occasions but unfortunately by this time they were already two goals up.

At times we did look more capable of scoring than we had in the first half although this gung-ho approach also left us looking more vulnerable at the back.

The goal which we pulled back just before the end of the game did at last give the faithful travelling fans something to cheer, and also gave them a brief glimmer of hope that we could maybe salvage something from this largely disappointing game.

However this candle of hope was barely flickering and soon burnt itself out.

The course of the game had followed the familiar pattern of some seen on the road this season whereby we have conceded goals in the first half which has forced us to chase the game in the second.

It had taken until we had gone two goals down in this one before we went on the front foot to try and trouble our opponents.

The defeat also extinguished any faint hopes I had that we could make a late charge and gatecrash the end-of-season play-offs.

It was a day I thought when too many of our players had an off-day, with our injury-hit squad also now appearing to look a bit jaded.

For me only Stefan Thordarson, who continued his recent run of good form, stood out.

Hopefully we can regroup this week and rediscover some of our zip for this Saturday's mouthwatering FA Cup tie with Burnley, as it would be great for everybody connected with the club if we could keep our season alive and reach the quarter-finals of the competition for the first time since 1966.