SKY BLUES BOSS SLAMS SWinDOn AFTER DUO ARE inJURED
MARK Robins hit out at Swindon Town's strong-arm tactics after Coventry City surrendered a 2-0 half-time lead to draw 2-2 at The County Ground.
It should have been 3-0 soon after the restart with Callum Ball passing up a clearcut opportunity.
But Paolo Di Canio's high-flyers clawed back those two goals in the space of three minutes after the Sky Blues had been disrupted by injuries to midfielder John Fleck and defender Richard Wood.
Robins was convinced the home side should have been a man down at that stage after Jay McEveley escaped a second booking when he chopped down City skipper Carl Baker, And having seen his men survive some intense late pressure to salvage a point and extend their unbeaten sequence to five matches, the manager said: “There were elbows flying all over the place from their players and we ended up losing two men, one with a broken nose and one with a suspected fractured skull, so I'm not happy at all.“
Fleck was allowed to return home with the squad after scans in Swindon hospital but Robins admitted: “It was very worrying because he took a terrible crack on the head.
“He was knocked unconscious and blood was coming out of his ear so we didn't know if it was a tear or something more sinister.
“The game turned on that injury because he was doing a terrific job. We were in total control in the first half and we missed a glaring opportunity to kill the game * you expect the net to bulge there but it didn't, and it gave them that little bit of a lifeline.
“We knew there would be an onslaught at some stage and the injuries meant that I couldn't make the changes I would have liked to. Players tend to make mistakes when they are tiring, but I was disappointed that we couldn't see it out.
“They changed their shape which shouldn't have made any difference but it did, unfortunately, because we started to drop deeper * and when you do that it means that if you don't deal with the first ball they get a second bite of the cherry.
“Before the game we might have been happy with a point but it's another draw that should have been a win. We're talking about that quite often at the moment but three weeks ago we were talking about turning losses into draws so we'll take that.
“There was some really good stuff in there and some things that need working on.
“I can't help but be disappointed we didn't sustain it but we've maintained our unbeaten run and, given time, we'll turn over a lot of teams.“
MARK Robins hit out at Swindon Town's strong-arm tactics after Coventry City surrendered a 2-0 half-time lead to draw 2-2 at The County Ground.
It should have been 3-0 soon after the restart with Callum Ball passing up a clearcut opportunity.
But Paolo Di Canio's high-flyers clawed back those two goals in the space of three minutes after the Sky Blues had been disrupted by injuries to midfielder John Fleck and defender Richard Wood.
Robins was convinced the home side should have been a man down at that stage after Jay McEveley escaped a second booking when he chopped down City skipper Carl Baker, And having seen his men survive some intense late pressure to salvage a point and extend their unbeaten sequence to five matches, the manager said: “There were elbows flying all over the place from their players and we ended up losing two men, one with a broken nose and one with a suspected fractured skull, so I'm not happy at all.“
Fleck was allowed to return home with the squad after scans in Swindon hospital but Robins admitted: “It was very worrying because he took a terrible crack on the head.
“He was knocked unconscious and blood was coming out of his ear so we didn't know if it was a tear or something more sinister.
“The game turned on that injury because he was doing a terrific job. We were in total control in the first half and we missed a glaring opportunity to kill the game * you expect the net to bulge there but it didn't, and it gave them that little bit of a lifeline.
“We knew there would be an onslaught at some stage and the injuries meant that I couldn't make the changes I would have liked to. Players tend to make mistakes when they are tiring, but I was disappointed that we couldn't see it out.
“They changed their shape which shouldn't have made any difference but it did, unfortunately, because we started to drop deeper * and when you do that it means that if you don't deal with the first ball they get a second bite of the cherry.
“Before the game we might have been happy with a point but it's another draw that should have been a win. We're talking about that quite often at the moment but three weeks ago we were talking about turning losses into draws so we'll take that.
“There was some really good stuff in there and some things that need working on.
“I can't help but be disappointed we didn't sustain it but we've maintained our unbeaten run and, given time, we'll turn over a lot of teams.“
