Safety feels a lot closer now – Robins
WHILE Coventry City are still not mathematically safe from relegation just yet, manager Mark Robins admits “it feels close” after his side pulled off an impressive 3-2 win at Stoke.
The Sky Blues moved up to 15th place in the Championship on 51 points, a whopping 12 points off third from bottom Rotherham United, who lost again last night, after recording a third consecutive victory.
Asked if he feels his side are virtually safe, Robins said: “It certainly feels close, that’s for sure.
“The work that has gone on this season has been fantastic as usual and the players have been able to take that on and translate it into good performances.
“Away from home we’ve been abysmal but we have won the last two away games so it just shows you a little tweak in mentality amongst the players.
“At times we make the wrong decisions and do the wrong things but you can’t fault the endeavour and the desire. There has been some really good quality play, the goals were outstanding and we won 3-2 at a really difficult place.
“These are generally a really good and solid defensive unit that don’t give that much away. They have really good players, borne out with John Obi Mikel and Steve Fletcher going on at half-time. It’s a world away from where we are at the minute, so all credit to the players and staff as 51 points is outstanding with three games to go. How many points can we put on the board now?”
City needed to show good character to go on to win the game after Stoke equalised twice to make it 2-2 before Viktor Gyokeres popped up with the winner.
“You could tell Stoke had the extra day of rest and on the back of the week we have had with the emotion and adrenalin, it’s been a tough run of games – three of the most difficult games you could get in terms of the circumstances around them,” Robins added.
“You could tell there would always be a deficit in terms of the fitness but they have stuck at it and saw it out, defended well when they needed to and scored three really good goals.”
The only dampener on the night was skipper Liam Kelly going off with a knee injury after he slid into the post, although Robins doesn’t yet know the extent of the damage.