Hughton hails team spirit as his Reds rally
NOTTINGHAM Forest boss Chris Hughton hailed his side’s character after they came from behind to snatch a 2-1 win against Coventry City.
“We were good first half but allowed them too much possession and too many balls into the box which didn’t make it as comfortable for us as we would like,” said Hughton.
“Coventry are a good side at home, they don’t lose many and they’ve been together a good while. They are well-drilled and, at the end, you could see we were hanging on.
“Sometimes you can get a lot from that type of victory.
“I did hear it has been quite a while since we came back to win a game after the opposition took the lead, so that is a plus.
“We showed really good character. I enjoyed the first-half performance. We were good.
“Young James Garner, who came in for his debut, had an effect on the game.
“But we let the levels drop in the second half and sometimes when you take the lead, it’s that balance between protecting a lead or trying to get another goal.
“In the end, we ended up dropping a little bit too deep but we had to defend really well, which we did.”
Sky Blues boss Mark Robins said his team’s defeat was “unjustified”.
“The two games against Forest, we’ve got nothing from them and we’ve deserved a lot more than zero, that’s for sure,” said Robins.
“It was certainly an unjustified defeat.
“The game gave us opportunities to get through them. We opened them up and they will be feeling relieved having got the win. It was a very similar feeling to their win at the City Ground really.”
Assessing the goals, the 51-year-old added: “In the first half I thought they were trying to switch the play a little too much and we got our positions wrong at times. “Certainly for the first Forest goal when they switched the play over Josh Pask’s head and he just got his movements wrong and he wasn’t able to stop the cross. But we were poor in the middle as well, so it was an easy goal for them.
“The second one was even worse. Dom Hyam hasn’t gone quickly enough and the ball gets played in (by Cyrus Christie) and Michael Rose sort of gets caught with his feet stuck and ends up bundling the ball into the back of our own net, so it was really tough for us.
“But they dusted themselves off and got on with it and I thought we were brilliant in the second half, I really did, and really unlucky not to get anything from this game.”