Mark Robins picks out good, bad and unacceptable from dramatic Stoke City loss to Coventry
Mark Robins picked out the good, bad and unacceptable from Stoke City’s dramatic defeat against a Coventry side that has now won nine out of their last 10 games.
Robins was disappointed Stoke didn’t take the chances they forged in the early stages, furious with the three goals they conceded and in praise of their character to fight back and encouraged by the key players stepping up their returns from injury.
Stoke should have been in front, with the best chance spurned by Lewis Koumas, before they were hit by a Viktor Torp first-half double. Robins made changes at the break to throw on Sam Gallagher and Million Manhoef – both building back fitness after frustrating spells in the treatment room – and they helped pull it back to 2-2, with Gallagher scoring both.
The Potters looked like they might steal all three points but instead they were beaten at the other end with another goal that left the manager – making his first return to Coventry since his departure from that club in November – pulling out his hair.
He said: “The start of the game we were bright and created three chances before they had had a shot on target – but we didn’t trouble the goalkeeper really and you’ve got to take them. They’re there on offer, go and take them. It puts them on the back foot.
“Then their first effort ends up in our goal. It’s too easy. We’ve allowed him to jump into our centre-half, who doesn’t see him coming and allows him to get a head on it and flick it into the far corner. Those are things you can’t accept. We can’t accept that as a team. Can’t.
“The second one was even worse because he’s just allowed the space of the penalty area to waltz through unimpeded. Again, that’s unacceptable.
“At half-time, you know you’ve got people coming back to fitness and the two who came on were those and they made a difference. We spoke at half-time about getting the next goal, which is what you can do. You end up being one goal down rather than two goals down and you can bring it back and kick on. They showed good character.
“We got back into the game out of nothing really, a little bit of good play. They were sloppy and we capitalised on it whereas if we had capitalised for the first three chances we had it could have been a different afternoon. From that point on it looked like we could win the game because our tails were up, they had a bit of belief about them. Wouter Burger’s backheel… I mean it’s a backheel through a group of players, it’s taken a deflection somewhere and ends up as a goal-kick. That was disappointing.
“But to allow them to get a cross in, to allow Bobby Thomas to pick up the ball in our penalty area, to allow him to drag it onto his left foot and then not stand in the way of a shot is unforgivable. The three goals we conceded were terrible. That’s where we’re lacking. We make really naive choices at times. We win the ball and knock it down to them in midfield.
“Those are the things that are costing us in games. We need to realise that. We talk to them about it. It’s where we’re coming up short.
“The good thing is, we’re getting players back who can make a difference in games. It’s just how quickly we can get them up to speed and they can get themselves up to speed as well.”
Leave a Reply