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ROBINS HITS OUT AT ‘JOKE’ DEFENDING AFTER DEFEAT AGAINST CITY’S POTENTIAL PLAY-OFF OPPONENTS
COVENTRY City left themselves still needing four points from their last two games to secure a place in the League Two play-offs after slipping up to promotion rivals Lincoln in an actionpacked encounter at the Ricoh Arena.
The Sky Blues conceded in the first minute of a thrilling five-goal first half – forced to play catch-up as they came from behind twice with goals from Tom Bayliss and Jordan Shipley – only to let themselves down at the back where Mark Robins’ men were guilty of being bullied by a big, physical and route-one Imps’ side.
Danny Cowley’s men then secured the points with a fourth goal midway through the second half when they hit City on the counter attack after they’d had a penalty appeal waved on at the other end, Lee Frecklington adding to a Matt Rhead opener and Ollie Palmer brace in the 4-2 defeat.
City could have all but got themselves over the play-off line had they won their game in hand but defeat means they can still be caught by eighth placed Mansfield with two games to go.
Lincoln were on the front foot from the first whistle and took the lead three times in the first 45 minutes, being pegged back twice by the Sky Blues who shot themselves in the foot with some sloppy defending at the back.
The visitors scored their first after just 55 seconds when Rhead hit an unstoppable half volley into the top corner from their first attack, but Bayliss got City back in the game in the 16th minute when he was teed up by Jonson Clarke-Harris.
Lincoln then restored their lead on 37 minutes when Palmer got on the end of a flick-on from big battering ram Rhead – who City struggled to handle on the night – and bundled past Lee Burge.
But it was visiting keeper Ryan Allsop who was picking the ball out of the back of the net two minutes later when Shipley swivelled on the edge of the box and fired inside the post to pull City level for a second time.
However, Lincoln scored again before the break when Palmer grabbed his second from close range after Coventry failed to clear the ball from a cross into the danger area in some shocking defending at the back.
And despite a determined effort in the second half, City were caught on the counter attack with Rhead teeing up Frecklington to secure the visitors’ victory on 67 minutes.
Jordan Ponticelli and Max Biamou were thrown on in an effort to get back in the game but the in-form Imps shut up shop and defended their lead into seven minutes of added time.
Fuming Robins put his defenders on notice after the defeat. He was in no mood to pull his punches as he said: “The performance tonight in conceding those four goals was an absolute disgrace and I want a response from the players without a doubt.
“They’ve got their future to play for because if they don’t do it this year, when they’ve had opportunity after opportunity, I’ll be looking for reinforcements without a shadow of a doubt.
“They’ve got to be more aggressive, show more determination. The sup-
porters don’t expect to see that, they expect to see them going in and competing, winning headers.
“I just don’t understand it – it’s basic defending and we were poor, really poor. I’m really disappointed and really angry that we’ve thrown the towel in.
“They’ve got to show that they’re men, that they want this. This club has been starved of success – somebody was saying the other day that 71 points is the most the club’s ever achieved in a season – so we need to get the job done.”
He added: “Their first goal was a bolt out of the blue – he hit it brilliantly – so I can sort of accept that one but the other three were poor, easily stoppable.
“We’ve scored two really well-worked goals and they’ve scored goals where they’ve lumped the ball forward and we’ve not dealt with the aerial threat.
“You can forgive losing one of the headers but it’s the second phase and we haven’t dealt with that. There’s some poor decision making gone on – Rhead’s bullied our two centre-halves and Palmer’s done the same.
“It is difficult – it’s like playing against the old Wimbledon – but if you can’t stop that you shouldn’t be playing football.
“You expect your defenders to defend and we haven’t had it – and that’s the big disappointment because they’ve been really good most of the season. I keep saying the same things all the time because every time we have an opportunity to move forward we turn it down we do things the hard way. You could absolutely write the script.
“We played some really good football, we’ve had some decent chances as well, but we haven’t coped with their threat well enough because the lack of aggression. It’s not mental it’s a physical thing – the desire to go and head the ball and win tackles.”
“They’ve got big bodies in there and it seemed to put us under undue pressure. You’ve got to deal with that.
“The football game, we won it. What we didn’t win was the battle – they won that and it’s really disappointing, that we threw the towel in. It’s annoying, frustrating, but you can’t say anything because we’ve just been beaten 4-2.
“To concede four goals at home in that manner is a joke. If you’re not willing to put your head on things, to get hurt, you don’t deserve to win a game.
“We had three games to the end of the season and we needed four points. We can still do that – we’re three points in front with two games to go and other teams would give their high teeth for that.”