Coventry City: Don't judge Shaw on results, says Murphy

Coventry City keeper Joe Murphy says that "little errors" should not cloud caretaker boss Richard Shaw's application for the vacant manager job.

Shaw, one of three men on the Sky Blues short-list, is understood to have been interviewed by the club's owners SISU in London on Monday.

But, despite having taken charge of three straight league defeats, Murphy insists that the team are not far away.

"It's little errors that seem to be costing us," Murphy told BBC Sport.

"I know it's that old cliche, but it's the lads who cross the white line who have got to do much, much better.

"He sends out what he feels is the best team and it's up to the players to perform."

Although Coventry have so far lost all three league matches under Shaw and Lee Carsley, the two former favourites from their Sky Blues playing days did start with victory, the 3-2 extra-time League Cup win over Birmingham City.

Former Manchester United players Paul Ince and Mark Robins are reported to be the other two names on Coventry's three-man shortlist.

But Sky Blues development director Steve Waggott told a fans' forum last Thursday night that they would not make an appointment until this week - after Tuesday night's trip to Shrewsbury, by which time the three candidates will all have had a second interview.

And, although winless Coventry have now slipped to 23rd in League One following Saturday's 2-0 defeat at Tranmere, caretaker boss Shaw, who described Saturday's two late goals as "schoolboy errors", still has the advantage of being the man in charge.

The Sky Blues received a high volume of applications for the vacant position following the departure of Andy Thorn on 26 August.

Oxford United boss Chris Wilder was the early front-runner while former Hull and Preston boss Phil Brown was interviewed and two former Coventry City employees, former boss Eric Black and ex-academy director Richard Money, are also understood to have been contenders.