Mark Robins described today’s match as ‘like moving house’ as he watched his Coventry City side record a 1-0 victory against Southend United in the first League One match of the season.
Zain Westbrooke scored the only goal of the game as the Sky Blues opened their account with three points despite unfamiliar surroundings. Robins said, “I thought it was really good. We’ve got a win here early on, which is outstanding.
“It’s like moving house. Whilst the environment’s slightly different, you get used to it really quickly. The thing for me was, we didn’t know what it was going to be like. The journey in, all those things. They took it in their stride, and to a man they were outstanding.”
City dominated for large parts of the match but were almost pegged back at the end on a number of occasions. Robins believes his team tired towards the end. “They started to come into it at the end” he said.
“They had a bit more experience in their ranks. The brought on two changes, and freshened it up a little bit, which gave them more of a foothold in the game. But I thought we were outstanding; McFadzean deserved his Man of the Match, but there were a number of Man of the Match performances.”
The Sky Blues boss was full of praise for match winner Zain Westbrooke too. On the 22-year-old, he said, “(Westbrooke) took his goal fantastically well, but he also made a number of class touches.”
“It’s a really difficult skill, but to see it in the back of the net was nice to see. It gives Zain confidence, and it gives everybody confidence.”
With Tom Bayliss leaving yesterday for pastures new, Robins was pleased with his replacement. “He’s waited for a starting berth and he’s done well in game one. Hopefully it will spur him on to try and stay in the team.”
Coventry missed a huge chance to take the lead just before the half hour mark, when Jordy Hiwula rounded the keeper but failed to find either the net or his teammate Amadou Bakayoko. “You can’t just slide it in there, you’ve got to slide it across (to Bakayoko) or lift it over.
“Having said that, I’m being a bit harsh. We created some really good chances for ourselves and we could have been three up at half time.”
“For me though, the main focus is to improve on what we’ve started to do. At this stage of the season it was very good.”