Still, anyone who gets sacked with a £1m pay-off at Leeds and then quickly finds himself another job/sucker can't be quite as hapless as he seems (although Coventry fans, incensed at how Reid often played his strikers as wingers, would disagree). And McGinnity was certainly happy to make excuses on Reid's behalf. "We haven't had any luck," he insisted, pulling as straight a face as his fleshy jowls would allow. "We lost at Gillingham, we drew against Derby when we were 2-0 up - you can go on and on," he continued, doing just that. "Don't put all the blame on Peter Reid, the players are responsible too."
As well as the chairman, McGinnity didn't add. For last May, he cruelly tossed aside the popular Eric Black, who nearly took Coventry to the play-offs with a brand of swashbuckling football last seen at Highfield Road when Sinita topped the charts, only to be sacked for being "too inconsistent". For now, no permanent successor has yet been identified, although Adrian Heath - whose managerial record is even worse than Reid's - will take charge for the FA Cup game against Crewe. In the meantime, McGinnity must wish he'd taken the advice of Wesley Snipes in Passenger 57: always bet on Black.