After losing to Hull at home, Coventry City bid farewell to any lingering slim aspirations of qualifying for the Championship play-offs. Mark Robins acknowledged that his team “ran out of steam.”
The Sky Blues were responsible for their own demise that evening, giving the Tigers the lead and third goals on the board through mistakes, and giving up a contentious penalty for the second that the manager and replays indicated was given outside the box.
But even though they were clearly trailing from their weekend exploits, City persevered until the very end, showing great character and effort to tie the score twice with brilliant free kicks from Kasey Palmer and Bobby Thomas that found the far post. In this article, Sky Blues reporter Andy Turner examines some of the key talking points from the 3-2 loss at CBS Arena on Wednesday night.
Startling statistics supporting weariness
Wednesday night’s 3-2 loss to Hull City was mostly attributed to physical and emotional exhaustion from Sunday’s thrilling FA Cup semi-final performance. Mark Robins felt unable to start Haji Wright, Ellis Simms, Milan van Ewijk, and Callum O’Hare, four players who had finished the entire distance at Wembley. The manager disclosed that the latter had run twelve and a half miles during Sunday’s thrilling match against Manchester United, and he was so broken that he was unable to even make the bench.
“The turnaround has occurred far too quickly, as evidenced by Callum’s inability to participate in person,” stated Robins, revealing the information obtained from the player’s GPS vest. “After running more than 17 km on Sunday, we wanted him to be on the bench, but he just wasn’t able to physically recover, even though some of the other players had done something similar.” There’s no way to get over that.
“They typically cover 12, 13, and 14 km, thus 17 is not included. They played for around 130 minutes, and there was also the psychological component of having to get up for the penalty shootout if you scored at the end of the game and it was disallowed.
“They haven’t meant to make the mistakes, but they have done it because they are extremely tired,” he continued.
When you need VAR, where is it?
Considering that both players played the entire game on Sunday, it was even more impressive that Ben Sheaf completed 76 minutes and Bobby Thomas completed 90+8 against the Tigers. This may have contributed to the center-half’s under-hit back pass to Brad Collins, which allowed Noah Ohio to steal the game-winning goal and deny Coventry a well-deserved draw.
However, Hull was granted all three goals, with Joel Latibeaudiere pulling down Liam Delap for a penalty that replays confirmed was given just outside the area, and Collins botching what should have been an easy stop from Jaden Philogene for the first. When you need VAR, where is it?
“Where it should be!” was Robins’ unequivocal response to that.
He went on, “Both teams made an effort to win the game, but they didn’t have to because we gave them some extremely easy goals where, for whatever reason, there wasn’t enough focus or communication, but that needs to change. And the letdown lies in it.
Notwithstanding the setback, the supporters once again displayed grace by attending in large numbers (just over 25,000) and cheering the team on from the beginning to the end. Even though the majority of them were aware that the evening would not be easy, they nevertheless showed up wearing their Wembley flags and producing an amazing environment by singing “We’ll Live and Die In These Towns” with newfound vigor before the game began, followed by a selection of player songs. Additionally, they expressed their outrage at the unfairness from Sunday, which is evidently still ongoing, by repeatedly saying “F*** VAR” and then saying, “We won 4-3, we won 4-3…”
After another amazing season despite losing on two fronts in the league and cup, the fans demonstrated that their bond with the players is stronger than ever by rallying their team to victory when City had their opponent pinned in but was unable to score another goal.
Doug’s expensive lesson
Robins did not mince words when he stated that his players’ inability to complete their play-off campaign was due to a too small roster.Doug King requested an FA Cup run, and while he and the supporters received an amazing experience, it eventually hurt City’s league season finale. The Sky Blues were simply overcome by injuries and a lack of depth, and the owner needs to take note of this and learn from it if he hopes to see his goals for the team realized for the upcoming campaign.
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