Mark Robins: Coventry shouldn’t be losing to teams like Forest Green

Posted Sunday, February 04, 2018 by PA

Coventry boss Mark Robins was furious with his side after they crashed to a 2-1 defeat at lowly Forest Green.

Rovers posted a league double over City to climb out of the League Two relegation zone and dent the visitors’ promotion bid.

Alex Bray’s debut goal gave Rovers the lead at half-time and after Marc McNulty’s second-half penalty levelled the game, Forest Green captain Lee Collins won it with a long-range effort.

Coventry manager Robins said: “No disrespect to Forest Green, but we shouldn’t be losing to teams like this.

“We’re going for promotion and we’ve lost to a team in the bottom two. It’s not good enough and we have to find a way of winning away from home if we want to get out of this division.

“We’ve dropped too many points to teams near the bottom of the table and this performance is not acceptable.

“We never really got going and I cannot use injuries as an excuse. We let in a poor goal and could have been further behind at half-time.

“Then we’ve got ourselves back into the game and, instead of going on to win it, have throw it away. We’ve not closed their player down for the second goal and it’s soft. It’s very disappointing and this feels like a case of one step forward and two backwards.”

Forest Green boss Mark Cooper, who brought in 10 signings in January, was delighted to see his side climb out of the bottom two.

He said: “When you’re down the bottom of the league you need to be on the front foot and for 96 minutes we gave a spirited performance.

“The two wide boys gave us a threat, Alex Bray was really lively on his debut in the first half and you can see what he brings.

“Dayle Grubb gives a different kind of threat, but the boys at the back, Dale Bennett, Farrend Rawson, Haydn Hollis and Gavin Gunning defended really well and that gives you the ingredients to get a chance to get a result.”

And Cooper was happy to see Rotherham loanee Bray crown his debut with a goal.

Cooper said: “Alex Bray is very direct and every time he got the ball he wanted to run at his defender in the first-half and caused a lot of problems and got a goal, so I’m pleased for him.”

Cooper was pleased to see his side go back-to-basics as he opted to return to a traditional back four in an effort to address Rovers’ slide.

He added: “You forget how difficult it’s to win a game, especially against a good team like Coventry City. So many things have to go right and we had to do lots of things right today to win a game and we did.”