Coventry City boss makes admission as Sky Blues fail to see out victory in stoppage time

CoventryLive’s coverage of the Coventry City match features Sky Blues manager Mark Robins’ post-match commentary following the team’s late-game concession at the CBS Arena in a 2-2 tie with Swansea.

Even though Mark Robins’ Coventry City team lost two crucial points against a resolute Swansea team, he acknowledges that a draw was probably a fair outcome on the evening.

Haji Wright and Ellis Simms goals in each half helped the Sky Blues come back from behind against the Swans, and they appeared to be on their way to their third straight victory of the holiday season. However, City gave up a free kick on the edge of the D as the game entered five minutes of stoppage time, and they were rightfully punished when Liam Cullen drove the ball through the wall and into the bottom corner to deprive the hosts all three points.

With evident frustration at the late leveller, the manager commented, “You don’t gain anything until the final whistle so we have gained a point; we have to look at it like that.” “I believe his goal was subpar. He simply played the ball through the gap because the wall wasn’t positioned precisely properly and there was too much of one.

But for the last five or so minutes of the game, we lacked sufficient control. We are upset that we allowed them to score the late goal after initially giving up the free kick and allowing them to get a gap to shoot into the corner of the net. It must be viewed as a point gained.

When asked if he had any grievances over the foul, he replied, “I haven’t seen it back, so I’m not sure.” We were under a lot of pressure to grab hold of the ball in the front area, so they were able to keep picking it up and coming back at us. The referee clearly gave it, and that was the result. That is annoying, but aside from that, they have put in a lot of work, and it was just their third game in a short period of time. We were only a few minutes away from scoring three more points, but as I previously stated, nothing is awarded prior to the final whistle.

When Jamie Allen made a mistake and a former Sky Blues loan player took advantage of it, City fell behind.

“There were moments when we were leading and we took the lead thanks to a fantastic goal,” Robins remarked. “We gave up early in the game, but Haji’s incredibly fantastic finish and a pretty incisive move allowed us to respond quickly. The game was too open after we worked on it in the second half, and my adjustments had an effect on that. Yet you are compelled to do it.

While I don’t think any of the guys weren’t prepared, we had a strong group of players and played well together throughout the course of eight games. They occasionally moved well, made some excellent plays, generated some excellent opportunities, and took two excellent ones. Perhaps a little more focus will get us through. I’m specifically thinking of the play where Haji wants to play the ball across the goal and bodies are entering to tap it in. That play would have resulted in a 3-1 score and would have eliminated them from the game.

The late goal has dampened things, but I’ve just told them to pick themselves up and carry on, the speaker continued. We have to focus on a different game that is about to start, but we also have a chance to go make this point seem reasonable.