The City Under-21s has praised the defensive performance and Lee Burge after the 0-0 draw against Swansea City...
Coventry City Under-21s coach Darren Murray branded the first-half performance 'unacceptable' after the 0-0 draw against Swansea City.
In their first Under-21s game of the season, the Swans dominated most of the game and only some brilliant saves from Lee Burge and some last-ditch defending from the defensive trio Jack Finch, Ivor Lawton and Cian Harries kept City in the game.
The Sky Blues did have chances to win the game in the second-half as Lawton's header was cleared off the line and George Thomas fired a powerful long-range effort over the bar as both sides claimed a point.
With the Under-21s season now underway, Murray has demanded improvement on the performance against Swansea City.
Murray said: "If work-rate is the be-all-and-end-all in the second-half, we'll take the point but after watching that, we need more than that.
"The lack of application in the first-half is unacceptable. The system we play depends on everyone doing their job and if one or two people don't do their job, it doesn't work.
"Lee Burge kept us in the game in the first half with two or three outstanding saves. That will be the last time that first-half performance happens.
"We've got to be aggressive in our press and Swansea passed it around us at times. We've got to get up to the pace of the game, got to. Looks, in the second-half we worked hard and battled for the point but we need to be better than that."
The Sky Blues had seven Under-18s players feature for City against the Swans as Cian Harries, Devon Kelly-Evans, James Maddison, George Thomas started the game and Luke Bromley, Ben Stevenson and Kyle Spence came on in the second-half.
Despite the criticism of the first-half performance, Murray praised the performance of the young players and the defensive resilience.
He added: "It was a good clean sheet in the end and I thought the defending was heroic at times. The desire they showed to keep them out was exactly what we're looking for.
"Also, our side was mostly Under-18s players and if you look at their team, they didn't have one player from their Under-18s so it is good to see our young players stand up to the challenge.
"I'm sure it will improve. Our performance against Aston Villa Under-21s was better than that and we got an extremely good win from that game.
"We will definitely get better and that is the challenge. The players know exactly what is required of them and they will be working hard to achieve that."