Blaydon 39 Coventry 25 by John Wilkinson.

MORE away-day blues for Coventry with another Jekyll and Hyde performance that mirrored so much of a frustrating National League One season.

For the first 20 minutes Cov were the only team in it, ripping Blaydon apart and scoring two tries to race into a 15-0 lead which could have been a few points more.

But one moment of genius from teenage winger Zach Kibirige gave the home side a foothold, and as Cov slipped away from the game plan that had looked so effective, the next 40 minutes were little short of a horror show.

A 19-point burst in the space of just seven minutes put Blaydon in charge, and with their four-try bonus point banked before half-time, the hosts had 39 unanswered points on the board before Cov regained their composure in the final quarter to finish with two more tries.

The bonus point it secured was important with Cov, while still relatively comfortably clear of the bottom three relegation places, nevertheless now looking over their shoulders a little nervously.

But the abiding thought is that, not for the first time, Cov were architects of their own downfall and should have taken so much more from the game after all that initial promise.

Cliffie Hodgson missed an early penalty chance for Cov, but two minutes later they burst in front when Heath Stevens punched a hole in the Blaydon midfield with skipper for the day, Matt Tibbatts in support on his outside to run in from 30 metres for a try.

Hodgson converted before adding a penalty after Stevens, taking an inside pass from Tom Harris, had stumbled going into the 22 with the line beckoning.

And a second try followed on 17 minutes when, with Blaydon’s defence drifting infield in anticipation of an attack through the middle, Lewis Barker switched play to the short side for Greg Evans to sprint over in the right corner.

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