Sky Blues Under-23s Head Coach Luke Tisdale, couldn’t hide his disappointment as his side fell to a 2-0 defeat against Wigan Athletic.
City were returning to Professional Development League action for the first time in three weeks, but were left to rue missed opportunities when they came away empty-handed.
Speaking after the game, Tisdale told how his side need to be more ruthless in front of goal and also keep the ball out at the other end.
“It was very disappointing.” Tisdale said.
“I can be honest and say everyone underperformed. We have to find a way of stopping conceding goals and be harder to break down then we are.
“Also, we need to be more ruthless when we have our chances because we had them again and we didn’t take them, and we got punished at the other end.”
Top scorer Fabio Tavares returned to the 23s starting eleven, but he was unable to add to his impressive tally this season.
Without Fabio on the scoresheet, Luke challenged the rest of his side to ‘step-up’ and weigh in with goals.
“Fabio will be the first to tell you that he missed a few chances yesterday which normally he would have expected to hit the back of the net.
“Obviously, he’s been with the first team the last few months, which has been brilliant for him, but he hasn’t got as many match minutes as he would’ve been used to over the course of the season, so he may have just been lacking that sharpness.
“Also, a couple of other people got in good positions yesterday and didn’t score, so we need people to step-up as well, because if Fabio doesn’t score, we need others to help out, we can’t rely on him all the time.
“We had the vast majority of possession and nearly all the chances in the game, but I think it was the 93rd minute when we actually worked the goalkeeper.
“We got into very good positions, but we were really wasteful in the final third, so we have to try and rectify that quite quickly.”
Luke will also be hoping to receive some positive news in the defensive department in the coming weeks before their next fixture against Charlton Athletic.
Tisdale had only two fit defenders from the 23s squad to choose from against Wigan, with several players currently unavailable.
“We haven’t played for a while, and we are very short with the number of defenders we have available to us at the moment.
“We only have Josh Reid and Jay McGrath as fit defenders currently. George Burroughs isn’t available, and Declan Drysdale and Blaine Rowe are out on loan, so we’re really short at the back.
“Having said that, we still should be able to score more goals than we do at the moment, so that’s a frustrating side of things as well.”