Nicky Law today stuck the boot into his failing squad and declared: I'm sick of covering up for them.

Law hopes to bully a reaction from the players by hauling them in for extra training and cancelling all days off.

As he built up for another night in the firing line at Coventry tomorrow, the boss revealed his own personal torment. And in what will be viewed as a last throw of the dice, Law laid into his under-performing troops.

"I literally make myself ill thinking about it," he said. "I take it home to my wife and kids and we all have to live with what's going on.

"The boys are getting ridiculed at school because we keep losing and it's so unfair. But it isn't always the manager's fault and people should start pointing the finger at the team.

"I keep sticking up for them but

I can't do it any longer. My reputation is getting battered because of them.

"The chairman has been criticised for not sacking me, I'm getting criticised for the results but the players who are making the mistakes are getting off scot free.

"Everybody keeps saying they are good players, but they aren't at the moment. They say we'll turn it round, but if we keeping making the same errors time after time, we haven't got a prayer.

"We've been giving away stupid goals from individual mistakes since week one, we're the kings of them. The first goal at Wimbledon was one you wouldn't expect from a pub team on a Sunday."

Chairman Gordon Gibb has stuck up for the under-fire boss while City have picked up just two points from a possible 27. Crystal Palace sacked Steve Kember yesterday and many fans expected the axe to fall after City crashed at the bottom club.

Law admitted: "A lot of chairmen wouldn't be so supportive and he has received some serious grief for not getting rid of me. But the chairman isn't stupid, he looks at the performances and must see that it isn't my fault.

"These players are mentally, physically and tactically prepared for every game. The wall of the dressing room is an array of information detailing the strengths and weaknesses of the opposition and what job each player has to do.

"But when they get out on the pitch, it's out of the manager's hands. Arsene Wenger could be stood in our dug-out and it wouldn't make a blind bit of difference if you continue committing the howlers we are."