Mark Robins ‘annoyed’ as Coventry slip to defeat

Posted Sunday, September 02, 2018 by PA

Coventry boss Mark Robins blasted his side’s wasteful finishing after watching Rochdale poach a 1-0 win at the Ricoh Arena.

Calvin Andrew’s goal two minutes into the second half was enough for Dale to secure victory.

“I’m annoyed, very annoyed,” fumed Robins.

“I think their keeper has probably had to make one, maybe two saves, which is not good enough.

“The first half we deserved to win the game but you can’t win a game if you don’t take your chances.

“We have created unbelievably good chances and turned them down.

“When you create chances like that you’ve got to be cold, ice cold, and you’ve got to believe that you can hit the target and we didn’t.”

Robins, who brought on new signing Conor Chaplin in the second half, added: “The reason we have brought in Conor is because he will convert more chances than the others.

“There could have been a couple of people had hat-tricks today, so it’s frustrating, massively frustrating.

“On the flip side, it has been really, really good for large spells. Their keeper made an unbelievable save; shouldn’t have got anywhere near it, but we have to be ruthless in front of goal.”

Rochdale boss Keith Hill admitted his team rode their luck at times but praised their resilience, saying: “We have to keep the ball better because in the first half all we did on turnovers was keep serving the opponent, so it was almost like defence versus attack.

“I thought we defended crosses well and we got our blocks in to protect our keeper, so I was reasonably happy that we kept a clean sheet going into half-time so we could make changes.

“I knew what we had to do and fortunately it was successful. We started the second half well and then they switched off from a set-play.

“We maybe should have scored a couple more with the opportunities that presented themselves on the counter-attack. We had the ball in the net a couple of times and I’m sure about one of them.”

The one setback for Dale was the loss of goalkeeper Magnus Norman with a cut head, with Hill revealing he might be a doubt for Tuesday’s Checkatrade Trophy tie against Bury.