Mark Robins acknowledged that his Coventry City players’ focus was sharpened by Norwich’s midday victory over Ipswich, which helped them defeat title-chasing Leeds United.
The Whites came to the CBS Arena riding high after going 15 games without losing since the year’s beginning. However, goals at the beginning of each half from Ellis Simms and Haji Wright, who extended their amazing goal partnership to 35, gave the Sky Blues a decisive three points and kept them four points behind the sixth-place Canaries.
In the face of a league-high 30,232 spectators at the stadium, the City manager remarked, “It was brilliant, a great day and we knew we had to win.”
We saw the Norwich vs. Ipswich game in advance, so it’s clear that we have the upper hand and that we need to keep up with them because they appear to be a legitimate team once more. Norwich performed incredibly well against Ipswich, who are a very good team, so you know it won’t be them alone. It’s really interesting because Preston is chasing Middlesbrough, who are enjoying a fantastic run of form.
“But I thought they were brilliant,” he continued. They faced a very good team with players who were fast, strong, skilled, and knowledgeable. However, I felt that we played solid defense in the first half when it was necessary. Throughout the game, we made a few mistakes, but overall we played well and calmly. When we were calm, we also had a little bit more control and possession of the ball.
“As they grew tired in the second half, we were without it more.” After that, they made adjustments and sent all of the international players onto the pitch, but each of them performed admirably. A few were asked to take on slightly different roles, and they performed incredibly well in them.
The manager remarked, “The two goals were absolutely brilliant; the first was from a set-play, a corner, and Ellis was on his toes to finish that one off.” The first goal came from a corner in the ninth minute, and the second came from a furious counterattack. And that second goal was amazing. Today is Josh Eccles’ birthday. It was a fantastic ball in with excellent shape, and Haji added a little cushion by putting it in with the outside of his right foot. We also required a buffer between us and them.
After replacing the attacking Kasey Palmer with full-back Joel Latibeaudiere, the Robins made a nervous substitution at the 76th minute, allowing City to defend deep for extended periods of time before Joel Piroe’s goal put them ahead.
Robins remarked, “We didn’t mean to drop in and drop out.” They made some wise adjustments, but we still needed to try to get up and engage them farther up the field. They have an incredible team, and Connor Roberts is a true attacking threat. However, we were able to keep things quiet for the most part.
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