Coventry manager Mark Robins was pleased his team “stopped the rot” after a four-game losing streak, but he was disappointed by the 0-0 draw with Stoke.
The Sky Blues had been on a poor run that culminated in a 3-2 defeat to Preston last time out, while the Potters ended a six-match unbeaten run in the West Midlands with a fourth clean sheet in a row.
Ellis Simms came closest for the home side in the first half, hitting the post, while Jamie Allen and Matty Godden both missed good chances. I’m pleased with stopping the rot because it was getting boring, but frustrated because we should have taken the chances to have taken the game away from a really good side,” Robins said.
There has been a lot of good work done this week, some of which appeared in today’s game, some of which did not, and some of which will take time to fully emerge.
“Everyone’s work rate was incredible. Ellis was trying to find his way, hits the post with one, Matty missed a chance when it came off his shoulder from a header when you would expect him to score, Haji (Wright) worked his socks off on the left-hand side. You need something to build on, and hopefully today is that.” In terms of points gained, it’s been a difficult (period from) international break to international break, but some of
We’ll take the clean sheet after the goals we’ve given up, and some of the decisions that have gone against us have been laughable. We have to accept the point and move on.” There’s a lot of work to be done. As Stoke battled to a second 0-0 draw in a row, Alex Neil admitted his team did not do enough to win. I thought there were some really good bits and some not-so-good bits,” he said. We played well in the back, but I felt we lacked punch at the top of the pitch today.
We got into some good areas and got to the byline probably six or seven times in the game, and I think when you get there, you have to create better opportunities, whether it’s a clear cut-back or you stand it up at the back post. I thought they were similar; they had some good moments but nothing obvious that should have won the game.” We’ve had four clean sheets in a row, which is unusual for us over the years, so that’s a good point.” What we need to do is ensure that we have enough aggression and quality in our game.
We didn’t lack enough threat going forward in terms of player volume; we just didn’t choose the right options. In these tight games, you sometimes need one player to produce one moment of quality, and unfortunately for both teams, that wasn’t there. We huffed and puffed but it wasn’t enough.
“Don’t lose the game if you don’t do enough to win it.”
