Mark Robins criticises referee after Coventry’s defeat at Preston

Posted Saturday, October 19, 2024 by PA

Coventry manager Mark Robins was furious with the decision to rule out a late Haji Wright equaliser in his team’s 1-0 defeat to Preston in the Sky Bet Championship.

Emil Riis headed home a 72nd-minute winner after missing a string of good opportunities in the first half, making it just two wins in 10 league matches for the struggling Sky Blues.

But controversy came in the 83rd minute when Wright’s well-taken goal was disallowed for handball when the ball looked like it had come off the substitute’s hip.

“I’m going to see the referee in a minute,” Robins said of the chalked-off goal.

“[Paul Heckingbottom] is with the referee at the moment so once he’s finished I’m going to go in and see the referee.

“I want to know why that goal was disallowed. There was talk that it was disallowed for being a handball but there was no handball I’m being told.”

He went on to add further criticism of the officiating, feeling that the stop-start nature of the game did little to help his players in their efforts to get an important win.

“When we’re through [in transitions] and the referee blows his whistle and brings us back, you [can’t build] momentum that way,” Robins said.

“The fouls that you have to contend with against these because they disrupt the play. That adds to it.

“I’m disappointed. Really disappointed. I’m disappointed for the players because they’ve given everything. They’ve played some decent football and we’ve been in some decent positions.”

All in all, though, the visiting manager felt his players put in a good effort and lost out through fine margins.

“If you take the game in isolation, we’ve done very little wrong,” Robins added.

“The use of the ball was okay from time to time and there wasn’t a great deal in it. We probably cancelled each other out.”

Preston manager Paul Heckingbottom was in a more buoyant mood as his unbeaten run at Deepdale stretched to five matches.

“We’re delighted, first and foremost, to get the three points,” he said. “In the first half we were the better team. Their moments came in transition, we know what a threat they are.

“They were set up to do that as well and we took it as a compliment that they changed shape to nullify our space.

“They changed shape and put more and more attacking players on and loaded the ball in our box and we had to stay strong, which we did.”

He also added praise for match-winner Riis, who had been struggling to convert opportunities earlier in the game. Prior to his goal against Coventry, the Dane had only scored one in nine league matches this season.

“One thing I’ve been banging onto him about is being between the goal posts. In the first half, he’s in the middle of the goals. The header in the second half, he’s in [the middle as well],” Heckingbottom added.

“That’s the area of the pitch we want him in. There’s going to be times where he has to work wide for us, and you can see that in the second half when he ran the left channel trying to cut in, but he’s going to get his chances in the middle of the goal.”