Mark Robins is expecting a “tough” game against Watford this weekend as the Sky Blues go in search of their first away win of the season.
Watford were relegated from the Premier Legaue last season but have made a good start to the new Championship season, finding themselves in the play-off places after 10 matches.
City have collected just one point on the road this season and Robins admits his side need to start gaining points on their travels ahead of a tough match at Vicarage Road.
Robins said: “For us to be going to Watford is a huge step forward, we were two divisions apart last season, the cup game last year was an experience that helped us, we learned from that game and tried to apply it for the rest of the season.
“We know it’s a tough game, they’ve got some real quality in their ranks and they can make changes without affecting the quality, that’s the difference at this level, we’ve got to take the performance from the other night into the game against Watford tomorrow.
“Opposition teams are strong, you can’t go into games finding your feet, we’ve played some top teams, we’ve got to start picking some points up away from home to give ourselves more of a chance to climb the table.”
Despite suffering defeat at Nottingham Forest in midweek, City produced an impressive performance and Robins believes his side need to make better choices when in control of the game after coming away from the City Ground with nothing.
“Forest have had their struggles this season and we felt that we let them off the hook, on the positive side, we moved the ball really well, we competed and we created a lot of chances away from home.
“There are times in games when we’re making choices that we need to change, we start to invite pressure that is unwarranted because we’re in control, we have to maintain as much control as we possibly can do against good sides.”
Robins acknowledged that City need to be more difficult to breach in the second half of games but feels the Sky Blues will improve as the season wears on and once he has a fully fit squad to choose from.
“We will improve, that’s something that we have to do and is something that will happen over a period of time, we just have to stay in there, in the first half we’ve been in every game, but we need to tighten up in the second half and maintain the standards that we’ve set.
“It’s not a major concern at the moment because I know we’re going to get better once players are fit in the positions that we need them to be in, we’ll get there, and we can use the international break to try and get as close as we can to a fully fit squad.”