Sky Blues manager Mark Robins reflects on a frustrating afternoon as City rue their missed chances against AFC Bournemouth.
A Dominic Solanke brace, alongisde another from Jamal Lowe, saw the Sky Blues slip to a 3-0 defeat at the Coventry Building Society Arena.
Mark Robins, firstly, highlighted the magnitude of quality in the Bournemouth ranks, outlining the step it takes to compete with the upper echelon of Championship sides.
“I think we can be disappointed, when you come up against a side with that quality in their ranks you can’t give them any encouragement.” Robins said.
“They’ve scored with their first shot and then they scored with their second attack and then the game’s over really, it gives us a mountain to climb to try and get into the top six.
“They came out in the second-half and did a job because they played on the counter-attack and they played a lot deeper and broke the play up, which are all the things you expect.
“If you look at them, and I’ve used them as an example for a lot of years, because out of possession they work their socks off and they make it very difficult for you.
“You look at the quality of the chances and I thought they were really good, but you have to take them against the top teams.
“When Sheffield United came here, we punished them and the chances were slightly different today, from a cross, from a slide-rule pass from Gus to Callum and you see Solanke’s goal was similar to that one and he just bangs it in the far corner and we allowed the keeper to make a save and those are the margins and you have to take those chances.
On the contrary, Robins looked back on his side’s performance, where missed chances cost the Sky Blues in front of a packed-out Coventry Building Society Arena crowd.
“We made mistakes, they punished them and then we struggled to create a great deal, so that was the disappointment and the disappointment in the first-half was that we didn’t take our chances because we could’ve gone in with a goal and that would’ve changed the atmosphere.
“We didn’t move the ball quick enough and we look at it and think is this a step too far, a game too far, and then it turns out it is, but there’s no disgrace in losing.
“We didn’t take our chances and we weren’t at our best, but you have to praise them for not allowing us to be at our best.
“When you open up a bit, you can get punished, we’ve had one or two in the second-half when we huffed and puffed, Martyn Waghorn had one shot and it was hit with a brilliant technique and the goalkeeper’s made a good save, but we’ve not punished them in the first-half when we were on top.
“A game of two halves and it’s disappointing because we ended up with a really good crowd today where you want to play well, but it’s probably the worst team not to have a stellar performance against.
"It’s been a tough week and on any other day we probably say that six points from these last three games is where we need to be.”