Mark Robins admits Coventry need to improve fitness levels

Posted Sunday, August 05, 2018 by PA

Coventry boss Mark Robins feels his side’s lack of fitness proved costly in their 2-1 opening-day defeat to Scunthorpe.

Jordy Hiwula twice went close inside the first 30 minutes as the home side started strongly.

And it had looked like the Sky Blues would enjoy a dream start to life in League One when Tony Andreu gave them a 52nd-minute lead with a brilliant free-kick.

But the Iron showed their steel to level through debutant Stephen Humphrys’ cool finish in the 68th minute.

And they completed the comeback with nine minutes to go when Andy Dales hammered home from close range after good hold up play from Duane Holmes.

Robins said: “I thought it was an encouraging performance, but we won’t see the best of us for a few weeks.

“We are not physically at our maximum yet and a few players looked tired at 75 minutes.

“At 1-1 it was difficult, we tried to give ourselves some fresh legs, but they got the goal that was disappointing from our point of view as we did not stay with the runners.

“We have created chances and hit the post and it’s a harsh reality that we have come away with nothing.

“There are positives that we can take, we played some good stuff and had them under the cosh.

“We were on top at 1-0 but were not ruthless enough in taking our chances to make it 2-0, if we had we could have made it 4-0.

“I think that will come as we keep working on the training pitch, but there are plenty of encouraging signs, especially once we get up to speed.”

Scunthorpe boss Nick Daws praised his side’s belief after their impressive late fightback.

“We had a big disappointment at the end of last season after losing in the play-offs and this was the perfect reaction,” he said.

“Coventry gave a good account of themselves and really challenged us, but we showed brilliant character to hang in there at 1-0 down.

“When we got back to 1-1 I felt there was only going to be one winner. We had great energy levels and belief and we kept pushing to get that winner.

“We seemed to be that bit fresher than them towards the end and we are delighted to start with a win. We wanted the win and you could see the desire of the players.

“This is just the sort of character and performance we are going to need during the season. I thought the new boys gave a great account of themselves today.

“Duane Holmes was also excellent for us once again, he had a key role in both of our goals.”