Coventry City manager Mark Robins described today’s victory over Doncaster Rovers as ‘huge’.
A first half Jordan Shipley strike from range was enough to earn the Sky Blues three points and keep them in the hunt for automatic promotion.
Robins was delighted with the win. “It’s a huge, huge three points, I can’t overstate that”, he told journalists post match. “We haven’t performed to our best but we’ve done enough to win the game.
“They’ve just won three on the bounce, and this is a difficult place to come.”
Coventry looked in control in the first half, but despite being under pressure in the second period they managed to emerge victorious. “In the second half they made us defend, and we did that pretty well", Robins said. "They’re a good side, and they’ll try and drag you around. You make a wrong decision, and they play it around you. You’ve got to understand where you need to be, but we have got it right more often than not."
In a game of few chances, Robins was pleased with how the Sky Blues performed. “Second half we’ve not created a great deal, but they haven’t really created anything considering the amount of chances they had to.
“But they’re a really good team, Darren (Moore) has done an unbelievably good job with them, so it’s been a tough game and one we knew we’d have to perform really well in.”
The winner came from a piece of a goal from Jordan Shipley, who struck a low shot into the bottom corner from 25 yards out. Robins admitted that the bench were willing him to lay it to a teammate before he let fly. “Sam McCallum had made a great run down the side of him, and he chose to shoot. I’m hearing everyone behind me shout ‘SLIDE IT’!
“When he hit it and it went in the back of the net, I turned around and said ‘No, shoot’. You’ve got to encourage them to shoot because previously they’d have passed it.”
Robins was complimentary of the former academy product’s contribution from range. “From that area of the pitch, he’s lethal” he said. “He hits the target more often than not - its great for him and great for us.”
Goalkeeper Marko Marosi had a return to remember to the stadium he spent five years at as a player. The Slovakian kept a clean sheet, his ninth league clean sheet of the season, and Robins was delighted with the defensive display as a whole.
“The clean sheet was really welcome”, he told journalists. “Today was a big, big test and we’ve came out with three points so I’m really pleased.”
Shipley’s goal was one of just four shots on target, but Robins was pleased with the clinical edge. “We aim to create as many as we can, which we haven’t done particularly well today, but they’ve kept a lot of clean sheets and are difficult to break down. When they get a head of steam, they can shift you all over the park as we saw in the second half.”
However, Coventry travel back with all three points, and Robins is pleased to have added to the sides two league away wins. “I thought that we were good - some poor decision making, but ultimately good energy and desire and the supporters were magnificent again and drove us on.”