Mark Robins was happy to pick up a “big” three points after the Sky Blues secured their first away win of the season with a 2-1 victory against Wycombe Wanderers at Adams Park.
A superb first-half brace from captain Liam Kelly was enough to secure the points for City, extending their unbeaten run in the league to seven matches, despite Joe Jacobson pulling a goal back for the hosts from the penalty spot.
The manager praised Kelly’s contribution against the Chairboys having told the skipper to stay on the field after he picked up a groin injury minutes before heading home the winning goal in first-half injury-time.
Robins said: “I’m happy to take the three points, it’s a big, big three points for us.
“He got up to the edge of the box and hit it true because he can, it’s just belief, it went in, we’re one-nil up and then he’s injured and wants to come off, but I asked him to stay on, which he did, because that takes away the opportunity to make a substitution and he’s got what turned out to be the winning goal.
“It’s bittersweet really for Kells and bittersweet for us because we’ll miss him for a period of time now, but ultimately it’s a really good three points for us.”
Robins felt Wycombe were awarded a soft penalty for a push by Ben Sheaf on David Wheeler and praised substitute Gus Hamer who struck the post after audaciously attempting to lob Wanderers keeper Ryan Allsop from the halfway line.
“They got a soft penalty and we got lucky with one at the end that they’re saying was onside, it’s really difficult to see, he should never have got the volley away, we defended pretty well up to that point.
“The ball was in the air too much, we didn’t control the play, they’re a really competitive side, they’ll talk about the difference of us having an extra day’s break, but we’ve had that so many times this season, it happens to everybody.
“We had one where we played a Tuesday night game and then played live on the TV on a Friday night, people get injured because of the amount of games, it’s almost cruel.
“In the midst of that, there’s some absolute genius from Gustavo, he’s seen the keeper off his line and almost scored the goal of the season, he deserved it really, just having the technique and vision to see it was outstanding.”
City made two changes from the side that drew with Luton Town in midweek and Robins explained the reasons for leaving both Max Biamou and Hamer on the bench.
“The team changed around because Max Biamou had a knee injury which meant it was touch and go whether he travelled or not and Gus Hamer is one yellow card away from a two-game ban, the game changed when Gus came back in and we went two upfront and scored the goals, Kells hurt his groin and was on a hat-trick.
“We knew it was going to be a two-part game, we knew he was going to make the changes that he made, we’d looked at it and planned for it, but it’s really difficult when they’ve got somebody like Adebayo Akinfenwa who comes into the team and causes all sorts of mayhem.”