Coventry City manager Mark Robins has delivered his verdict after the Sky Blues took a draw at Bristol City
Mark Robins admitted his Coventry City side weren’t at the races for portions of his side’s outing at Bristol City on Saturday lunch-time – but he was grateful for Kasey Palmer’s showing from the bench which earned the Sky Blues a point in their 1-1 draw.
Palmer was introduced in the second half with City turning in a rather lacklustre performance at Ashton Gate, having fallen behind to George Tanner’s excellent strike in first half stoppage time, and the former Robins playmaker brilliantly controlled a ball in the penalty area to create space for himself and fire past Max O’Leary in front of the rapturous away end.
Robins, who has seen his side take four points from their opening three games of the season, rued a sloppy first half which he described as ‘errant’, and although the wait for a first away league win will roll on beyond the forthcoming international break, he was pleased with his side’s determination to ensure they left with a share of the spoils.
“I like us to play good football and we didn’t do that here,” he said. “That was in part down to the way they set up, they’ve got an organised press. They’ll try and come after you, but we’re better than we showed and that’s the disappointment. We’ll take the point, away from home. We’ve not started well away from home in any of the seasons we’ve had, it’s taken us a while to get our first win.
“That can be a millstone around your neck from time to time so we’ll take the point and move on. These are a good side, they’re better than last year and we controlled most of that game. They beat us 1-0 from a set piece, today both goals I think came from corners. We cancelled each other out, there wasn’t much in the game but there was some really errant play.
“We gave the ball away too easily, so did they, when we got it back we gave it away, they gave it back to us. It was a scruffy game. I don’t know why. I’m going to have a look at what we’ve done. Ultimately it’s about the willingness and desire to do the hard yards and win a game which is tight. If you can’t be at your best then don’t lose and we didn’t.
“We got a really good goal. Kasey’s first touch has taken him out of the game, then he has finished in the top corner. That’s a real positive. We had other chances to score, had we had that determination and desire to get up alongside Brandon at the end, then he doesn’t shoot and he squares it and it’s a tap in. Those are the frustrations. We’ll take the point.”
City are without Ben Sheaf for the time being, and Victor Torp and Josh Eccles did struggle here in his absence against a well drilled Robins side which included new signings Scott Twine and Max Bird.
“If you give good players time to pass it, they’ll certainly do that,” Robins assessed. “We had more time than we thought. Sometimes when a team presses, it can have that effect on you where you’re rushing. We didn’t get it under control quickly enough. From a psychological view, it took too long to get any quality in the game. At the end we had chances to put people through because their backline is really high.
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