The phrase "a sticky patch" is correct and usable in written English.
It is typically used to describe a difficult or troublesome situation that someone is experiencing.
Example: "After losing his job, he found himself in a sticky patch financially."
Alternatives: "a tough spot" or "a rough patch".
Is the Anglo-American Special Relathroughp going through a sticky patch?
He offered to resign, but was asked to stay on to help through a sticky patch.
The robbery comes as the Basque peace process was already going through a sticky patch.
Everton manager David Moyes has warned his Australian midfielder Tim Cahill he faces burn-out as he battles to lift the Toffees out of a sticky patch.
The company is going through a sticky patch: last year revenue fell by 5%, to just under $100 billion, and net income slipped by 1%, to $16.5 billion.
Though economic logic suggests that the world economy is just going through a sticky patch, squabbling politicians could all too easily turn it into a meltdown.
And yet the Duke of Edinburgh, these past few days, has shown how virtually any sticky patch may be weathered if you can trade in your old image and play an even older daffy buffer.
After we had pulled into Samthar, a man remained in the back of the jeep looking dazed and sad as blood gelled his hair in a spreading sticky patch, secreted from a wound punched in by a particularly vicious bump in the road.
"We've gone through a wee sticky patch recently so I just felt a bit of experience might help us.
The front of the case folds up into a triangle (Triangular solid? Triangular Cylinder?) like the Smart Cover and a small sticky patch along the backside allows it to stick to the glass.
Favourites Wigan are going through an uncharacteristically sticky patch in Super League, but few people within the game expect that to have any bearing on Saturday.
