After a valiant fightback in the second-half, the Sky Blues Under-23s suffered late heartbreak on Monday afternoon when they slipped to defeat against Sheffield United.
The visitors had taken the lead midway through the first-half through George Broadbent and that was doubled after the break by Zak Brunt.
However, the Sky Blues fought back and a fantastic strike by Marcel Hilssner was quickly followed up by an equaliser by Jack Burroughs with ten minutes remaining.
As Luke Tisdale’s side pushed for a third, they were ultimately dealt a blow with minutes left as the Blades stole it right at the death.
“We’re gutted to lose the game.” Tisdale said.
“We fight back from two-nil down to get it back all level with a few minutes to go and then we have a chance to win it, but we don’t take it and it’s a real kick in the teeth to be honest to not get anything from the game.
“It was purely about how much desire we wanted to show and how much work rate and attitude we were going to put in to get after the ball and I thought we did that in the second half which is ultimately what gets us back into the game.
“That aspect of it is pleasing, but we weren’t able to take anything from the game, so we’re left disappointed.”
City were left without a number of players for the game against Sheffield United, with several injuries limiting the options to Tisdale.
Along with Josh Eccles and Declan Drysdale out on loan and the likes of Jordon Thompson and Morgan Williams out through injury, Tisdale has had more setbacks to deal with.
“We had some enforced changes which made the group younger and we had some square pegs in round holes to try and fill gaps.
“We’re missing a few at the moment, we’ve got Jay McGrath, Jordan Young and Dan Bartlett out through injury.
“Jonny Ngandu isn’t eligible to play at the minute, but from the 1st of January he can come back into the side and available for selection.
“That’s because of him going out on loan in Iceland earlier this year and due to the transfer window and things like that we can’t use him at the moment.
“We are down to the bare bones but there’s always eleven players which will be given an opportunity so they have to make sure they take it.”
City’s last game before the winter break for the Under-23s comes against Sheffield Wednesday next week and Tisdale is looking for his side to end 2020 on a high.
“The break will come at a good time for us, but first we have to put everything we have into next Monday’s game against Sheffield Wednesday and make sure we work as hard as we can in the week to be ready for it and during the game to make sure that we take something out of it.”