Mark Robins plays the blame game after Walsall beat Coventry - 7M sport

Mark Robins plays the blame game after Walsall beat Coventry



Posted Sunday, December 09, 2018 by PA

Mark Robins plays the blame game after Walsall beat Coventry

Mark Robins blamed the referee, his goalkeeper and a glut of wasted chances for Coventry’s late collapse as they conceded twice in stoppage time to lose 2-1 at West Midlands rivals Walsall.

Coventry were on course for three points due to Luke Thomas’ classy 18th-minute strike before disaster struck.

First, keeper Lee Burge’s error in rushing to meet a high ball allowed Luke Leahy to head Walsall level a minute into time added on.

Leahy then slotted home the winner from the penalty spot after referee David Coote awarded a penalty when Nicky Devlin went down under minimal contact from Abu Ogogo.

Robins was also unhappy with Jordan Shipley, Thomas and Jonson Clarke-Harris for missing three key second-half chances to seal victory.

He said: “From some horrendous decision-making, we concede the equaliser and then on the back of that, the referee’s given a penalty that’s never a penalty.

“I’ve just watched it back and it’s never a penalty in this world. It’s very, very difficult to take.

“Apart from that four-minute spell that’s cost us the match, I thought we were very good in the rest of the game.

“We can’t make decisions like that (Burge’s error). That one’s cost us dearly today.

“Burge’s obviously thought the ball is coming into the box, maybe it’s held up in the wind or whatever, I don’t know, but stay there and let the defender deal with it and see the game out.

“Having said that, we had chances to go 2-0, 3-0, 4-0 up. I mean great chances. And we haven’t put the game to bed. If we score one more at 1-0, we win the game.”

Walsall leapfrogged Coventry into 10th with victory – and it was extra-special for stand-in skipper Leahy, a boyhood Sky Blues fan.

His late brace ended a five-game winless run and delighted Walsall boss Dean Keates said: “In the second half Luke was outstanding. It was a captain’s performance from him in the last 15 minutes.

“We were a little bit scrappy, we lacked a bit of quality with our passing and we weren’t very fluent, but give the lads credit – they kept going and they ground something out.

“I’m not sure about the penalty, I’ve not seen it back, but I thought we did enough in the second half to warrant a draw.

“We’ve played better and lost games. So we will take it, we needed a win. I thought we deserved a minimum of a draw out of it and we will take what came at the end.

“It’s massive for us, it settles the nerves. We’ve hit a bit of a plateau, but what the fans need to understand is a lot of players have come a long way in a short journey.”

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