Mark Robins delighted after Coventry set clu

Posted Sunday, November 06, 2022 by PA

Mark Robins praised his Coventry players for breaking a record with their 1-0 win at Watford.

Viktor Gyokeres’ goal in the 50th minute turned out to be just enough to move City away from the relegation scuffle and also keep the Hornets out of the play-off positions after the hosts’ three-game winning streak was ended.

Sky Blues manager Robins has become used to seeing his players frustrate opponents on the road but no Coventry side had previously recorded five successive away clean sheets.

“We keep setting records, it’s phenomenal,” he said. “To come here and get a clean sheet is phenomenal, there won’t be many that do that.

“When you come to somewhere with Premier League quality and Premier League speed, because they move the ball quickly you have to match them out of possession, and I thought we did that really well.

“We cut their chances down to a minimum. They missed one across the face of goal, which should have been a certain goal, but we defended well overall.

“We looked a threat on the counter-attack and that’s how the goal came about. We had chances in the first half – Vik had a brilliant one when he was put through.

“The quality of the goal was outstanding. Jamie (Allen) put in a fantastic delivery and Viktor did really well to get a decent contact on it, keep it down and put it in the far corner.

“I don’t think anybody would begrudge us the win.”

The victory was achieved despite off-field problems that could see City homeless for the third time, with the owners of the stadium they rent now in administration.

It did not seem to affect the players’ performances though.

“People label me a fire-fighter and that is probably fair to say,” Robins said. “All my jobs have had things needing to be sorted out and this one still isn’t. We have a lot of work to go to get it to where we need it to be.

“You feel like you are getting punched in the face and you keep having to get up but what else can you do?”

Watford manager Slaven Bilic refused to criticise his players for coming up short.

“Games like this you are of course disappointed and frustrated but not angry,” he said. “I said that to the guys after the game. Of course heads were down but I said ‘fellas, we did everything’.

“There was not any complacency, it wasn’t that we didn’t take the game seriously, we were on the front foot.

“We had everything apart from the hardest thing, the area where we normally have the most quality. Today it wasn’t there.”

Watford’s clearest chance was put over the bar from all of two yards by Ismaila Sarr but again Bilic was not willing to play the blame game.

“He was unlucky,” he said. “I would be negative if he wasn’t there for the cross. He was exactly where he needed to be and I want him on Tuesday to be there again – and he will score.”

Keinan Davis saw a Watford goal ruled out at 0-0 and Bilic admitted the striker had fouled Kyle McFadzean in the build-up.

“Unfortunately the linesman saw it,” he said. “I believe it was a foul, to be fair. The only thing that was strange was that the linesman gave it.”