Mark Robins admits that nobody at Coventry City feels “comfortable” at the minute but firmly believes his players will rediscover their confidence to start winning football matches.
The Sky Blues gave up a goal lead at fellow strugglers QPR on Tuesday night and had to settle for a point – the latest in a sequence of results that has seen them win just one in their last nine Championship games, and result in them dropping into the bottom three.
But a point away from home, albeit against the bottom club in the division ahead of kick-off at Loftus Road, has to be a positive step in the right direction.
“It should be,” agreed the City boss, speaking after the 1-1 draw, courtesy of a goal from Haji Wright that was cancelled out by Rangers’ sub Kieran Morgan.
“It’s a building block and with confidence, it’s temporary, and you have got to deal with situations like this because we haven’t picked up enough points and haven’t won enough football matches and that’s what we’re all in it for. Nobody feels comfortable and I think we have dropped into the bottom three now which obviously is uncomfortable. But those will change over time.
“The fact is they want to win and they are giving as much as they possibly can do but they have got to play with thought and that naivety at times is costing us wins. It looks like we’re OK and cracked it, like we have found the way to get on top in games and then, for whatever reason, we start to become sloppy and give the ball away too often which then brings pressure on, which then puts pressure on their brains and forces mistakes. So they have got to get over that, and they have got to get over that quickly. But again, they will do. This is just a moment.”
Robins bemoaned the fact that his players again failed to convert the chances that came their way, including Ellis Simms who passed up two really good opportunities.
“He looked bright when he went on, there’s no doubt about that,” said the manager, about the centre-forward. “Haji slid him through and I thought he was going to take it round he goalkeeper and he didn’t. He tried to play it through him, or under him, and the keeper made a decent save to be fair. But the chances we had were big chances. And we kept QPR down to what felt like a minimum of opportunities.”
As for his goalkeeper, Oliver Dovin, who he thought should have done better to stop the equaliser, the manager said: “I thought the goalkeeper had made all the right decisions, his handling was really good apart from that one instance. Some of the kicking, the techniques to kick were a little bit better than on Saturday but we are talking about a handling error that, really, he should have been gathering quite comfortably because it has gone into the ground. I don’t know what he has seen, to be fair, but it is a really disappointing goal to concede.”
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