Mark Robins said his side gave everything they had in their defeat against Hull City at the Coventry Building Society Arena.
City came from behind twice in the game, but were unable to get in front, as a Noah Ohio goal late on gave the Tigers the win.
Robins told how a lot of his players were struggling heading into the game, following excursions of the last three days.
Reflecting on the game…
“First and foremost, it’s easy to focus on the goal because, yes, they haven’t had to work hard for them, but we can’t be too critical of them at all. The levels they reached on Sunday and to turn that around and to even play tonight is testament to them.
Callum O’Hare couldn’t make it and that just shows energy that was expended on the weekend, he was plus 17km, which is significantly more than normal and that includes high speed running, accelerations and decelerations that count to the load.
There was a lot of players who were struggling. Bobby Thomas to play a full game again off the back of it was outstanding, so you can forgive the mistakes that people have made.
Liam Kelly was outstanding, to come in when called upon and play the way he did was outstanding.”
Injuries and energy levels…
“The turnaround in game has caught us short. Victor Torp couldn’t play he was injured, and we’ve now lost Joel Latibeaudiere and Luis Binks.
It’s difficult to field a team and that was the concern going into the game because everyone is at risk of an injury.
You can focus on the negatives, but you have to acknowledge that they’ve put in an unbelievable shift, and this is at the end of a season where we played in the semi-final of an FA Cup on Sunday and the emotional side of that and recovery off the back of that has been really short.
We gave everything we had and the energy from the crowd was brilliant, and I think they understand and whilst it’s really disappointing, I think everyone understands and there won’t be any criticism levelled at the players.
We have to understand that if we’re in this position how do deal with it and go about it and conserving energy by retaining the ball against a side who like to have the ball, but credit to all of them, they’ve been incredible with their energy levels and some of the quality on show was there for everyone to see.”
Giving everything in the last two games…
“It’s a tough evening and we gave everything we could, we’ve just come up short it’s as simple as that and there’s no disgrace in that.
They’re disappointed in the dressing room, there’s no doubt about it, but we’ve just said, do not hang your heads.
We have to puff our chests out, because the energy levels they’ve put in in the last 72 hours has been incredible.”
