The Sky Blues picked up a point in a 1-1 draw away from home against Mansfield Town in Sky Bet League Two action this past weekend.
Mark Robins side fell a goal and a man behind in the first fifteen minutes, when Kane Hemmings saw the ball ricohet off him from an Alex MacDonald free kick to give the Stags the lead.
The free kick had been awarded after Jordan Willis was adjudged to have brought down striker Danny Rose outside the box and was shown a red card.
However, the Sky Blues continued to battle and managed to find the leveller when Jonson Clarke-Harris was tumbled over in the area and the referee pointed to the spot and the striker took the penalty himself and made it 1-1.
The game also saw City skipper Michael Doyle make his return to the starting eleven, following an injury which had kept him out for the last three games, and he had this to say on the game:
He said: “It was a good shift. We started so well and it was just very naïve defending and it was so frustrating.
“Having been out of the team and watching the goals we have been conceding, I think we have been very naïve and it wasn’t like us at the start of the season.
“It was just a catalogue of errors and then to concede such a sloppy goal from the free kick, you’re thinking its going to be a long afternoon, but we had to get galvanised, organise ourselves, be hard to break down and sort out our shape and let their centre halves have their ball and it worked out.
“I thought we were fantastic, some of the football we were playing, we were the better side, we played them off the park and we had 10 men.
“It’s a start and when you’ve been on the kind of rut we have been on the last 3 or 4 games, losing becomes a habit, but to pick up a draw with 10 men I think it’s a massive result.”
Following City going down to ten men, Mark Robins switched to a 4-3-2 formation, keeping Jonson Clarke-Harris and Marc McNulty up top.
Doyle was then in a midfield three alongside Jordan Shipley and Tom Bayliss, two young midfielders who had broken into the starting eleven this season and the Skipper believes it will be a great experience for the duo.
“We need to build on today, I think at times we're making things difficult for ourselves, we need to be a lot stronger physically and mentally at times and we need a bit more know-how.
“I thought as the game went on we got stronger and for the likes of Shipley and Bayliss, that’s proper football for them; down to ten men and I think that’s probably the best game they will play in this season in what they will learn from it.
“These are the games that can change a season for you, so hopefully for us we can get on our bike and get up the table.
“Also, I think a lot of credit needs to got to the manager this afternoon, because I think a lot of other managers would have shut up shop and gone one up top, but he left Sparky (Marc McNulty) and Jonno (Jonson Clarke-Harris) up there and it’s got us our result in the end.”