Mark Robins was “delighted” with his Sky Blues side after they were held to a 1-1 draw with Swansea City at St Andrew’s on Tuesday night.
Jordan Shipley’s superb opener was cancelled out by Andre Ayew’s strike just before half-time, but Robins was delighted with what he saw from his side.
City looked much-improved from their defeat at Brentford on Saturday and Robins feels his players can take confidence from their display tonight.
Robins said: “I thought we were much better, I’m delighted with them, we’re disappointed that we haven’t gone on to win it because Callum’s had a great chance at the end and we had Ryan Giles’ shot before that.
“We played against two outstanding teams in Bournemouth and Brentford and then another one tonight, everything we did they’ve tried to put into practice what we’ve spoken about.
“They played with intensity and aggression, on the front foot, they moved the ball pretty well, the speed was good, there was a scrappy spell of about 15 minutes in the second half, other than that I thought we were outstanding.
“We gave them a real scare and they’re a good team, they’ve just finished in the play-offs, so it’s got to give us a lot of confidence.”
However, he admitted it was disappointing not to keep a clean sheet, but accepts that his players are yet to reach peak fitness, with Sam McCallum starting his first league game in over six months.
“There was one move that was one-touch stuff all the way into the penalty area that led to Callum O’Hare’s chance, the only disappointing thing is that we haven’t kept a clean sheet, we’ve conceded a scrappy, poor, goal.
“When you’ve got the quality that these teams possess, Andre Ayew doesn’t miss the target, it’s in the back of the net, they’ve had one chance and they scored it.
“I think we’re still finding their feet in terms of fitness, we’re still not there yet, some of them haven’t played for six months, Sam McCallum has put an unbelievable shift in, he did really well.”
Robins was full of praise for striker Matty Godden who set-up the Sky Blues opener and worked tirelessly on his own up front.
“I’ve got to mention Matty Godden, what a performance that was from him, he didn’t really get a great deal in front of goal, but what a performance, I’m delighted with them, there’s things that you can work on but for confidence, I think it does them the world of good.
“Matty was brilliant, in everything we did he was apart of it, we still didn’t make the runs in behind him, that’s the next little bit, we’ve got to learn to try and anticipate where things might land and not wait, it was outstanding centre-forward play.”