Debutant striker Agyei looked bright in his first City appearance, while Mowbray was disappointed his side didn't capitalise further on their first-half dominance...
The City manager was pleased with the performance of latest recruit Daniel Agyei, as he opened his scoring account for the Sky Blues on his debut, despite Tony Mowbray’s side falling to a 3-1 loss.
The 19-year old frontman put the visitors in front early on, after he was found by a smart Ben Stevenson pass and hustled his way through two Bradford defenders before executing a confident chipped finish.
But luck was against the Sky Blues in the second-half, as two penalties and a sending off went against City and gave the Bantams a route back in to the game.
Mowbray said: “We came here and wanted to show them that Coventry City are going to be a strong team this year and I felt it was another game where we should have had the points.
“It’s been a bit of a common theme this season when really we could have been out of sight in matches but haven’t been taking our opportunities.
“In and out of possession we managed to control the tempo of the game for an hour, it could have been two or three but it wasn’t to be. Even when they came on strong I don’t think we were under any pressure until right at the death of the first-half.”
Ex-Saints defender Jordan Turnbull received a straight red just after the hour mark for a last man offence, reducing the Sky Blues to 10-men, before Bradford captain calmly converted two penalties to overturn the one goal deficit. The afternoon was compounded by the curse of the ex-Sky Blue, with Mark Marshall sealing victory for the home side.
Mowbray added: “It’s very disappointing for the fans who made the trip, of course, but for me there are plenty of positives and we need to take them on to the next game. When we were down to ten men is was obviously more difficult and we have to learn how to do that better.
“We gave it back to them too quickly and we have to be better at keeping the ball if somebody gets sent off in the future. When things settle down – when we get the window out of the way and they all integrate together, we’ll get some work done.
“It was good that Daniel scored on his debut – he’s a big, powerful boy and looked a threat,” said the manager. “We took him off after and hour because he was out on his feet to be honest but you could see what he adds to the team.”