Mark Robins agrees with Watford boss’s ‘not great’ Coventry City verdict after vital win at Vicarage Road

Mark Robins agreed with Watford manager Valerien Ismael’s assessment of the game that Coventry City “weren’t great” in their 2-1 win at Vicarage Road.

A Haji Wright brace handed an important three points to the Sky Blues, who came from behind to secure a scrappy victory to put them back in touch with the play-off places, now only a point off sixth-placed Norwich.

Put to him what his opposite number had said, the City manager admitted: “I agree, I think we were poor in the first half. Look, I think Watford played well in the second half on Wednesday night and they carried that on into today’s game, and they have got a lot of pace and power, and a lot of talented individuals who can hurt you. Thankfully they didn’t.

“What happened was there were too many turn-overs in possession from both sides, with mis-placed passes and mis-directed headers. There was a little bit of needle in the game and it was one of those games where you had to fight and scrap for everything.

“We didn’t start well enough and didn’t have enough of the ball to create anything, and they scored out of nothing from a long throw which we didn’t compete for. So yes, I agree with him on the first half performance.”

He added: “We got a little bit of a foothold in terms of possession and then Josh Eccles got through in the box, went round the keeper and he brought him down and that gave us a life-line back into the game before half-time. I was contemplating making changes before half-time because here were too many two v ones down our right – their left in the first half – and I thought that was going to cause us a problem. And similar to West Brom, I felt we didn’t do what we needed to do in that formation.

“While we haven’t got the personnel for shape change, we needed to get back in the game and we got that from the penalty. Haji’s finish was outstanding.

“And then in the second half there was a similar pattern, although we were a little bit better but it felt like basketball at times. Thankfully the best bit of play in the game came after Ben Sheaf came on and gave us a bit of calmness and broke the play up. The ball went wide and it was slid across to Haji who picked his spot with his left foot, and he’s got the ability and confidence to do that.

“And really, from then on there was nothing in it and it was just a case of seeing the game out and not doing anything stupid. And thankfully we came away with the three points, and I’m delighted with that at his stage of the season.”