Matty Godden believes the Sky Blues will “learn” from their opening Sky Bet Championship fixture of the season, after being narrowly beaten 2-1 by Bristol City on Saturday afternoon.
The striker scored City’s equaliser at Ashton Gate, his first goal at Championship level, only for Tomas Kalas to snatch the points for the home side late on after Jamie Paterson had opened the scoring.
Godden felt the Robins late winner was a sucker punch, coming from a set-piece, and is looking forward to the challenge of the season ahead.
Godden said: “We really stamped our authority on the game and carried on where we left off last year with the football that we played, they couldn’t deal with us in the first half.
“We got back into the game, we had a few more good chances in the first half and a couple of chances in the second half and got killed by a sucker punch, a header from a set-piece, which everyone is really disappointed about.
“There’s some wounded bodies in there, but we’ll learn from that and we’ll be fine, it was just one of those, it’s the character of the boys, everyone in the dressing room is a winner.
“We’ll dust ourselves off, it’s the first game of the season, we’ve had a taste of the Championship now, we know what it’s about and how physical it’s going to be, it’s a challenge that we’re all looking forward to.”
The Sky Blues conceded inside the first minute at Ashton Gate, but Godden felt City asserted themselves well from that point onwards and is gutted that his goal couldn’t secure at least a point.
“We’re not going to get our heads down, after the first minute, we showed them what we’ve got and at times they couldn’t live with us, we were very, very good, the best we’ve been in a very long time and we were a lot better than we played last season.
“It’s always a good thing to get off the mark as a striker for the season, I’m just gutted it’s not a goal that’s brought us a good away draw or even more.
“I had a good chance at two-one when we were chasing the game, the defender has made an unbelievable block, I connected with it so well, I just thought this is going to nestle in the bottom corner, it’s a great block, he’s come from my blindside, I didn’t even see him stick out his leg and deflect it over the bar for a corner.”
The 29-year-old thinks that City will grow into the division, as the season wears on, and will continue to play without fear, just as they did in their title winning campaign last term.
“We have to remember that we’ve not played a game for six months, they’ve come straight back into it so they’re probably a stage ahead of us fitness wise, but we’ve got some fit lads, some strong lads and some top, top, players as well.
“We’ll definitely grow into this division, we’re not coming here to make up the numbers that’s for sure, we’re going to stamp our authority on the Championship and show everyone that we go into every game with no fear.
“Nothing is going to scare us, you saw that last year, we’re not going to fear anyone, we’re not going to sit off anyone, we’ve not got the team to do that, we’ve got our game plan, we’ve got our football, we know how we play and everyone buys into that, we’re going to take the game to everyone.”