Mark Robins admits that while he was bitterly disappointed that his Coventry City side threw away two points at the death against a determined Swansea side, he says a draw was probably a fair result on the night.

The Sky Blues looked to be heading for their third consecutive win of the festive season after coming from behind against the Swans with goals from Haji Wright and Ellis Simms in each half. But as the match moved into five minutes of stoppage time, City conceded a free-kick on the edge of the D and were duly punished when Liam Cullen drilled through the wall into the bottom corner to deny the hosts the full three points.

“You don’t gain anything until the final whistle so we have gained a point; we have to look at it like that,” said the manager, clearly frustrated at the manner of the late leveller. “I think he goal was poor. The wall wasn’t set quite right and there was too much of a gap there and he just played the ball through it.

“But we didn’t have enough control in the game for the last five minutes or so. We are disappointed to concede the late goal; firstly giving away the free-kick and then letting them have the gap to hit the corner of the net. We have to look at it as a point gained.”

Asked if he has any complaints with the foul, he said: “I don’t know, I haven’t seen it back. The referee has obviously given it and that was a consequence of the weight of the pressure because we didn’t get hold of the ball in the front area which allowed them to keep picking it up and coming back at us. So that’s frustrating but, other than that, they have worked really hard and that was their third game in a short space of time. We were a couple of minutes away from another three points but, like I said, you don’t get anything before the final whistle.”

City fell behind when a mistake by Jamie Allen was seized upon by former Sky Blues loan star Liam Walsh to give the Swans a seventh minute lead, only for Wright to cancel it out when played through by Kasey Palmer in the tenth.

“There were times when we were and we started to get on top, and we got our noses in front from a brilliant goal,” said Robins. “We conceded early on in the game but the reply was really quick from a really incisive move and really good finish from Haji. And then we worked into it in the second half and the game was too open, and the changes that I made had an impact on that. But you are forced into it.

“We have a good group of players there, so I am not saying they weren’t ready, but the others have had eight games to build into things and we played pretty well. At times they made some good moves, showed good movement and created some good chances and took two really good ones. Maybe a little bit more concentration sees us through. I’m particularly thinking about the one where the ball gets played in and Haji wants to play it across the goal where we have bodies coming in to tap it in, and it would have been 3-1 and it would have taken the game away from them.”

He added: “The late goal has put a dampener on it but I have just said to them that we dust ourselves down and move on from it. We have another game coming up that we have to turn our attention to and an opportunity to go and make this point look like a good one.”

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