Mark Robins believes managing Coventry City fans’ expectations will prove to be his biggest job this season. The Sky Blues put in a bounce back performance full of endeavour and clear cut opportunities to score away from home at in-form Watford but just failed to put the finishing touches to the display, having to settle for a point at Vicarage Road.
Ellis Simms gave City an early lead from a headed corner and the visitors should have been comfortably ahead by half-time after creating a number of other chances to extend their lead. An inevitable fight-back from the Hornets came after the break, resulting in a poorly defended equaliser, but Coventry still had further attempts to win the game, most notably when Haji Wright threw himself at an Ephron Mason-Clark cross and, with all the goal to aim at, headed it onto the goalkeeper’s right-hand post.
“I thought you have got to score, got to score,” admitted Robins, after the 1-1 draw. “That’s the only disappointment for me. I can be hyper critical with the defending when they scored their goal and where people didn’t recover back in quickly enough, and people were getting tired and leggy. And I brought Haji on to try to give us that extra pace and energy on that left-hand side, and the right-hand side suffered a touch. But I am still looking for more from individuals because to win football matches you have to give everything. And whist they gave everything, it wasn’t quite enough because we didn’t take our chances.
“If they had a chance and took it we should have been three or four up. And we should have been, should have been three or four up. But at the end of it, I can’t believe I am talking about it because we have got to be happy with a point.”
Asked if the performance overall provided a platform to build on after the team’s sluggish start to the league campaign, the manager said: “Well I hope so. That sort of gives them some confidence but I think also, we have got to make sure we don’t get carried away.
“I said last week about managing expectations, which is probably my biggest job this season. Because if you look at something and say, ‘right, okay, this is where we need to be this year,’ your brain can’t handle it, especially when you have got young players.”
