Raised eyebrows and skew-whiff contacts – What Coventry City star told Mark Robins about goal miss

Mark Robins caused a few raised eyebrows among Coventry City fans when he persisted with a three man defence and wing-backs against Rotherham United. But the Sky Blues boss had a couple of surprises up his sleeve as he adapted and adjusted his squad to fit the formation, not least by deploying midfielder Josh Eccles on the right in place of first choice wing-back Milan van Ewijk.

There was much excitement when the Dutch under-21 international signed for the Championship club in the summer, and he quickly established himself in the team, reliable and rapid in equal measure. However, the popular player has been a bit off his game in recent weeks, prompting Tuesday night’s change.

Asked about his selection following the 5-0 victory over the Millers, and whether it’s simply a case of Van Ewijk needing a rest, Robins explained: “I think there are a couple of things there. I think we need more from that position. I think Milan has found things tough of late because he’s not used to playing two games a week.

“He’s got to get used to that and Milan will be fine. He’s just got to find his feet. And sometimes when you’re playing you just can’t take on any more information because you’re full. So you just have to decompress a little bit and then you can start again. He still looks out on his feet but I thought he did all right when he went on.”

Going on to replace Eccles just shy of the hour with the points securely in the bag and, no doubt, with half an eye on saving the starter’s legs for Saturday’s trip to Watford, Van Ewijk went agonisingly close to extending the evening’s scoreline with what looked like a relatively simple header at the far post.

“He could have scored a goal,” admitted Robins. “Matty Godden put an unbelievable ball in and if he just face planted the ball it would have been in the back of the net, but he tried to flick it. He said his contact lenses were skew-whiff or something. His run was brilliant just to get into that position, but he could have had a goal. Next time, go and score!”

To be fair to Van Ewijk, he laid on the assist for Fabio Tavares to wrap things up in stoppage time with a driving run and superb diagonal pass into the box to the striker, who coolly slotted home across the keeper.