Robins pays homage to 10,000 City fans who witness JPT shootout win over Blades
Coventry City boss Mark Robins says his side still needs to be better despite a thrilling 4-1 penalty shootout win over Sheffield United to send them through to the Johnstone's Paint Trophy regional semi-finals.
It was all square at 1-1 after the 90 minutes after a Harry Maguire own goal was cancelled out by a leveller from the Blades' David McAllister.
Gary McSheffrey, David McGoldrick, Carl Baker and John Fleck then all confidently dispatched their penalties with United's Maguire and Ryan Flynn missing theirs to send City through.
Robins said though that while he was delighted for the 10,000 strong home fans, he wanted to see more from his side when they take on Walsall at home in the league on Saturday.
"Satisfactory is probably the best way to put it because it shouldn't have gone to penalties," he said.
"We're obviously glad to get through even though we've not played particularly well but we need to be better on Saturday. The players had the opportunity to see how much the win means to the supporters and they need to take heart and confidence from that.
"We'll enjoy the win, especially for our supporters because it was great to see them in such numbers especially for this stage in the competition. They were phenomenal.
"We know though that we have to do better when we're a goal up and we've got to do better when we haven't got the ball. There's things we need to do and there's things we will keep doing to get better but I just hope that from tonight the mud sticks for Saturday."
On the subject of penalties, Robins added he was at his calmest when the game went to spot-kicks because he knew the players' confidence would see them through.
"We've not been bad at penalties in this competition and I relaxed after the 90 because you could see the confidence in the players. But the club has been starved of success in recent years and we need to take this and use it to make us better."