Mark Robins admitted it was “disappointing” to exit the Emirates FA Cup after the Sky Blues were beaten by Norwich in the third round at Carrow Road on Saturday lunchtime.
Early goals from Kenny McLean and Jordan Hugill condemned City to a third round exit as they couldn’t find a way past Canaries keeper Daniel Barden with Max Biamou coming the closest to halving the deficit.
Despite the score line, City created plenty of openings in Norfolk and Robins feels his side can learn from failing to take their chances.
Robins said: “We had a couple of really good chances before they scored, we were really on top in that period and then they got a goal out of nothing, the movement off the back of our defence was good, the finish was a really good one and that was the difference today.
“They got into a position where we found it difficult to try and win the ball back and we were starting to get a little bit ragged, we defended pretty well, but in an attacking sense it took some reorganisation to try and get a foothold in the game which we did.
“The second-half was a lot better, but when we got chances we didn’t work the goalkeeper hard enough and everything went straight at him, apart from the one where he made a really good save from Max Biamou.
“We had four or five really good clear chances where we didn’t manage to work the keeper and that’s the story of the game, their bench was the strongest that I’ve seen at this level and every time they make a change they make their team stronger.
“It’s disappointing to go out, but in terms of what we’ve faced there’s a lot of learning we can take from the game for everybody, I thought we’ve done reasonably well without getting anything from it.”
The manager was also pleased to hand a first City start to Julien Dacosta as well as giving Matty James his Sky Blues debut at Carrow Road.
“I thought he was rusty, he didn’t know whether to stick or twist, he’s not played for a long, long, time and I’ve brought him in against a top team so he’s going to find it difficult, but that’s the nature of it to be able to have a look at him and get him closer to full fitness, I thought he grew into the game.
“Matty James has got really good quality and when he’s got his feet under the table he’s going to be a really good addition.”