The Sky Blues secured their place in the Emirates FA Cup fourth round on Tuesday evening as they defeated Bristol Rovers by three goals to nil and City manager Mark Robins was pleased with his side’s overall performance.
City were three goals to the good after 54 minutes and Robins was pleased with how his side started both halves of the game but was keen to show his support to his managerial counterpart.
Robins said: “Firstly I have to say, I hope everything is alright with Ben Garner, I know he has some family issues and I hope they get sorted really quickly.
“On the game, I thought we played really well, we moved the ball quickly and got our noses in front early, with a well taken goal and a well worked goal, with Max getting on the end of a ball through from O’Hare which was a great threaded pass.
“We tried to do that after the first goal and play more of those balls but we didn’t quite get the run of the ball.
“It was a zippy surface because of the rain we have had and we came in at half time in decent shape and wanted more of the same in the second half and they did more than that they got even better.”
Defender Josh Pask made his first appearance for the Sky Blues and marked the occasion with a goal much to the delight of his manager.
Robins said: “Pask’s goal was outstanding and Max’s second was turned in well after we had played some good football.
“It has been a while as the Friday before the season started, he went for a header with Dominic Hyam and landed awkwardly on his ankle and that was it, surgery.
“He has bided his time and scored a goal in the 23’s the other day and has played a couple of games with them and you could see he needed the game but he can be a real asset for us and clearly he puts pressure on others which is what we want, it’s brilliant.
“Defensively we were okay and clearly in the last half an hour we were able to make some changes, Josh Eccles coming on and Jodi jones making his first appearance in a while so that was good and it gets minutes into their legs as well as being able to give one or two others a breather.”
The Sky Blues saw a lot of the ball during the game and Robins was pleased with the way his side kept possession on a difficult surface.
Robins was also pleased that a goal was a result of a passage of play from a short corner, and goals from set pieces have been hard to come by so far this season.
He said: “Some of the delivery was really good tonight, we had one cleared off the line when Rose got up well and headed the ball back.
“Short or long we looked a threat tonight because we got the delivery right and we haven’t always been brilliant with them.”
The Sky Blues travel to Doncaster on Saturday looking to extend their good run of league form before facing Birmingham in the Emirates FA Cup fourth round.