Tony Gillan: Coventry City now can't be caught - and Sunderland's best case scenario is a Rotherham United showdown

Fleetwood Town, Coventry City, Peterborough and Rotherham were cited as the most significant fixtures. Aren’t I clever?

Not really. But that doesn’t alter the fact that five crucial points have just been dropped. It was a particularly bad idea to drop them against two direct rivals.

Sunderland knew what they were up against before either the Fleetwood or Coventry games had even kicked off.

The Fleetwood manager’s Sunderland obsession was passed on to his players with some effect.

Coventry’s supporters are similarly fixated. The 10,055 attendance on Sunday’s match might not seem much, but it was the biggest they’ve had at “home” this season. Bear in mind that it was a televised match.

Sunderland have to combat such mindsets better. They are now unlikely to catch Coventry who are top of the league on merit. Their players and manager deserve the plaudits.

They haven’t had a single victory this season that could be categorised as remarkable. But a win’s a win and they’ve only lost three.

Hats off. They deserve better than the “support” they receive from a city with a 23% bigger population than Sunderland (the particularly thin-skinned among them can contact me at the usual address).

So Coventry would appear uncatchable. Portsmouth were the other promotion chasing side to really fill their boots last weekend, although the other results weren’t too bad if you insist on positive thoughts.

Two weeks ago I wrote that the prospect of the final game of the season at Rotherham United had already made me feel queasy. I have revised my opinion in light of recent events.

That fixture could still prove to be meaningless. But right now, if promotion was to be entirely dependent on winning in South Yorkshire on May 3, then it’s a scenario I would gratefully accept, because it now appears to be best case scenario.

What should Sunderland’s plan between now and then? It’s difficult to suggest anything specific.

I can’t recommend anything more abstruse than winning the next game, then concentrating on the one after that. Like I said, aren’t I clever?

We can’t be too hard on Phil Parkinson or his team and we can see why the side isn’t changed much.

Grim though the last couple of games were, Sunderland have still lost only two of their last 16 fixtures. Unfortunately, the two defeats were to precisely the wrong teams: Portsmouth and Coventry. Yet hope lives.

The biggest problem all season has been the absence of a goal scorer. If they could only find one.

The best hope in the current squad in this regard is Will Grigg, even if that statement is based entirely on his League One scoring record at other clubs.

He was on the bench at St Andrew’s on Sunday. So why wasn’t he brought on when Sunderland were losing for almost the entire game and didn’t score? He wouldn’t have made matters worse.

Grigg could still have a part to play, although the turnaround of a player who has been an unmitigated flop since arriving on Wearside would be something remarkable and unexpected.

But guess what. It’s going to take something remarkable and unexpected for Sunderland to be automatically promoted now.

Got any better ideas?