Coventry boss Mark Robins calls for improvements despite Cambridge victory

Posted Wednesday, January 31, 2018 by PA

Coventry boss Mark Robins insists his side can do better despite seeing off Cambridge in a 3-1 triumph at the Ricoh Arena.

Top goalscorer Marc McNulty was at it again as he spearheaded the Sky Blues’ seventh successive home win in all competitions and their first against Cambridge in 31 years.

The prolific striker opened the scoring before Jordan Shipley and Michael Doyle wrapped up the points after defender George Taft grabbed a consolation for the visitors.

Robins said: “The performance was sufficient enough for us to get the three points but we know we can play better than that.

“They’ve (the players) done well. They’ve ground the three points out in fairness. That’s a good trait to have.

“It’s really good, the result is really good. They were the fresher team, they’ve had ten days off.

“The pitch was in a really poor condition and we struggled to come to terms with it at times.

“They had a real go in the second half. We could have gone further ahead but as it was we had to have a couple or nervy minutes near the end.

“All in all it’s a good night’s work and on to fifty points.

“We struggled to get the tempo going at times but once we upped the tempo a bit we got that first goal.”

The win puts Coventry up to fourth, just one point shy of the automatic promotion places.

Shaun Derry’s men have not won away from home since the middle of September and they have also started 2018 poorly, failing to win a game since the turn of the year.

The U’s got off to the worst possible start, conceding after just 10 minutes, when McNulty caressed his effort from the edge of the box into the bottom corner.

Shipley made no mistake as he converted McNulty’s flick on to head past David Forde to double Coventry’s lead before Taft headed home six minutes from time to halve the deficit.

Any nerves in the Coventry camp were disposed of in stoppage-time when Doyle tapped in from close range after Maxime Biamou’s square pass.

A deflated Derry said: “We gave it a real go after the break but we just got going too late.

“That’s what happens against the top teams, you get punished.

“We only really started playing at 2-0 down and you don’t win many games by doing that.

“It’s always disappointing to lose and we want to put that right on Saturday.

“We haven’t won away from home for a while, you guys keep telling me that, but we have a chance to get that monkey off our back and get back on the horse.”