COV BOSS ROBINS DELIGHTED TO END TOUGH WEEK WITH THREE-POINT HAUL

MARK Robins, always genuinely complimentary about Stoke City, couldn’t help but notice quite a big difference between their squad and his at Coventry when he looked at the back of the matchday programme.

Robins guided Coventry to a ninth win in their last 13 trips to Stoke, this time courtesy of a second-half goal from Ellis Simms. It was a result that keeps Coventry sixth in the jam-packed race for the play-offs – and Stoke are 19th, only three points above the relegation zone.

Both clubs gave their squads an overhaul last summer but

Coventry’s tight recruitment plan has helped to cover the losses of key players Viktor Gyokeres and Gus Hamer. They have scored in each of the 17 games since drawing 0-0 with Stoke in the reverse fixture in November and Robins was pleased with what happened at the other end too. “It was our first clean sheet in 12 games, which was brilliant,” he said. “After the week we have had with the travelling (they drew with Plymouth on Wednesday), when the fixtures came out we knew it was going to be a tough week. And then they moved the Millwall game closer to Plymouth, and that was even more difficult, so I have been a bit concerned about the week with such a small squad. I mean, when you look at the back of their (Stoke’s) programme they have got about 10 more players than us and we both made six changes. “But we dug in, and needed to because it wasn’t a great game and not a lot of quality on show, and the bits of quality that were on show involved Ellis Simms. I think his goal was brilliantly taken and I think he got confidence from his goal on Wednesday evening, and they are not easy because he had a lot of time to look at it and he found the back of the net well.

“It was a good move with Haji nicking the ball and then Callum released Ellis really quickly and he put it in the net with a good finish. That came on the back of the chance in the first half, which was actually three chances to score and we didn’t. They threw some bodies behind it but I don’t know how we didn’t score.

“Had that gone in we would have opened it up then but, again, you have to show concentration and it looked like a really tired performance from both teams because of the amount of games that we have got. They are a good team but lacking in confidence.

They play backwards too often and that invites teams on.”

He added: “They fought and closed us down quickly and fortunately we were able to keep their chances to a minimum but I thought we defended a lot better today. I thought Bobby was outstanding and Binksy did really well. Jay Dasilva and with Joel in the first half and Milan in the second, we just kept them at bay. We made some decisions that opened us a little bit but we got away with it and defended when we needed to. “It was important to win the game and thankfully we came away with the three points.”