It feels like a defeat – Ian Foster disappointed with Plymouth’s last-gasp draw

Posted Thursday, February 15, 2024 by PA

Plymouth boss Ian Foster spoke of his disappointment following a late Coventry equaliser in the 2-2 Sky Bet Championship draw.

Liam Kitching claimed the last touch on Victor Torp’s free-kick to claim the goal in the sixth minute of stoppage time which snatched a point for the visitors.

Morgan Whittaker – with his 17th Championship goal of the season – and Mikel Miller scored for Plymouth, with Ellis Simms briefly levelling for the Sky Blues.

Foster said: “We never get too excited when we win or too disappointed when we lose.

“Tonight is a difficult one. It feels like a defeat, it’s another point closer to where we want to be.

“I think you are always in danger to become too emotional, particularly after the game.

“We are disappointed in the manner of the (last) goal, and not to come away with all three points.

“Taking the emotion out of the game, we are quite pleased with how we played the game.

“We are desperately disappointed over the course of the 97 minutes, but we have got to be pleased with how brave we were and how we performed against a top team in the division.

“It was difficult, when you are planning the team for tonight, you have Saturday – and Leeds – in mind, and it’s the same when you are making substitutions.

“It was nice to get Jordan (Houghton) back on the field and Julio (Pleguezuelo) always does well for us.

“We found out again if you make mistakes in this division you get punished.

“We can take heart from taking a point from a top team, looking for promotion to the Premier League.”

Coventry boss Mark Robins, whose side return to sixth place in the table, said: “We managed to score at the last knockings and ended up getting a point from a position where we didn’t look like we would get anything.

“We were in total control in the first half, they are a good attacking side, with pace and a real threat.

“We got ourselves back into the game, but we didn’t defend properly. We allowed them to play outside, attack outside and allowed them to get crosses in and we didn’t defend those crosses properly.

“We looked a little bit lacklustre, but we attacked pretty well.

“It was a decent attacking game with chances either side. The decision-making was poor and we need to get on the training ground and work, but we haven’t got time.

“There was some good attacking play, but we have to be more ruthless.

“We have got a really good attacking threat, it is just what we did with it from back to front and how we get there.

“But we switch off and we need to have that fire in our belly to win the game at Stoke on Saturday. We came away with a point, we had brilliant support, so we will end it on a positive.”