RISING STAR: Darren Powell gets in a header from a Saintscorner. Picture: Chris Moorhouse.
IN A TIGHT relegation scrap, the smallest of margins can make a massive difference.
In Saints' recent St Mary's clash with Leicester both teams were nervy, the game was scrappy and chances few and far between.
Saints and their visitors were tentative in throwing bodies forward and took a risk-free approach to the game, all too aware of how costly one mistake could be.
In such matches it is often one goal which decides it.
Against Leicester it was Saints who were presented with, and duly took, that opportunity and walked away with a vital three points.
The game against Coventry was a carbon copy in so many ways, but unfortunately this time Saints couldn't find that decisive goal.
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Very blustery conditions meant it was never going to be the best of games - before you even started to think about the importance of the match.
Like Saints and Leicester, Coventry are another team in a fairly new ground who only a short while ago were enjoying Premiership football.
Now, like the others, they are staring down the barrel of League One football.
None of them want to drop out of the Championship. Everybody believes a better season is just around the corner and the Premiership remains only a good campaign away ... but to drop lower is unthinkable.
The players, faced with that sort of pressure and knowing this sort of game could be make or break, are understandably tense - you'd worry if they weren't.
It was all too obvious again in this match, which was of slightly better quality than the Leicester game - but not a lot.
The draw was probably a better result for Coventry than it was for Saints.
But after the previous week's hammering at Hull, at least Nigel Pearson's side showed a bit of backbone and resolve to keep a clean sheet.
You could view the result as a missed opportunity for Saints, as two points dropped.
They don't have another game between now and the end of the season that looks as winnable as this. They won't play another team so short on confidence.
It looks as though the fight to stay up could well go right to the very last game for Saints now - the comfort they can take is having seen Leicester and Coventry very recently.
They both look worse teams and you can't imagine either hitting a terrific run of form.
Saints were just about the better team but probably didn’t quite do enough to deserve to win. They can take heart from a clean sheet and that Leicester and Coventry both look worse teams. However, it will still be a tense run-in for Nigel Pearson’s side.
Adam Leitch
Coventry's first-half tactics were slightly strange. Playing a 4-5-1 formation that was 4-4-3 when attacking, they constantly looked for long balls.
These were either pumped at Leon Best to try to control and bring into play the wide men, Michael Mifsud and Jay Tabb, or for the former Saints striker to try to get in behind the home defence himself.
When Coventry weren't doing that, they were lobbing the ball into the corners for Mifsud and Tabb to try to chase down and create.
It was very ineffective and led to a closed and stifled first half.
In the second half they switched to a 4-4-2 formation and the game opened up.
Saints had a series of half-chances in the first period.
Stern John didn't connect cleanly with a header from Gregory Vignal's fizzing deep free-kick, Vincent Pericard fired wide from a tight angle and Darren Powell directed a header over the bar.
Saints' best opening came when Jhon Viafara cut the ball back from the right to John, who hit an early shot on the spin from the edge of the area but only picked out Kasper Schmeichel in the Coventry goal.
Schmeichel, and indeed Saints debutant Richard Wright, were much busier in the second half.
The Coventry man saved well from Mario Licka's half volley and John's far-post header while, in between, Wright stopped at his near post from Mifsud's low drive from the edge of the area.
Wright made his best save of the game on 70 minutes, pushing away Isaac Osbourne's curling effort and making sure it didn't land in the path of an onrushing striker.
Bradley Wright-Phillips had the ball in the net on 76 minutes, only to see the flag up for offside, before John had probably the best chance.
Youssef Safri and Jason Euell managed to work the ball in to him eight yards out but his sidefooted volley was straight at the advancing Schmeichel.
Wright had one more save to make, turning over from Julian Gray.
It's going to be tough for Saints until the end of the season.
But at least they showed some resilience, even if they are still struggling to find that bit of extra quality in the final third.
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