Building block laid ahead of visit of Bluebirds, says Robins - The Rugby Observer

Building block laid ahead of visit of Bluebirds, says Robins

Rugby Editorial 24th Nov, 2020   0

Mark Robins has praised Coventry’s defensive resilience. Picture: PA.

A FOUNDATION has been set for tomorrow night’s clash with Cardiff City says Coventry City manager Mark Robins, after the Sky Blues put an end to a two-game losing run in Friday’s goalless draw against Birmingham City.

Coventry go into a crucial battle in the bottom half of the table at St. Andrew’s on Wednesday night and will aim to establish some consistency against the 15th-placed Bluebirds – knowing that a positive result will help avoid defeat for successive games for only the second time this season.

In the meeting between tenants Coventry – acting as hosts – and landlords Birmingham, a game of few chances unsurprisingly concluded with a stalemate, offering the Sky Blues a third draw this term and a ninth Championship point on the board.

Lukas Jutkiewicz was unable to convert a string of opportunities for the Blues, while Tyler Walker’s improvised first-half header drew a reaction save from Neil Etheridge.




With City staying in 21st place, Robins believes a second clean sheet this term is a good reflection of the tenacity of his side defensively.

“It was difficult, but we have to take the positives from the game,” he said.


“We’ve got a clean sheet, it was a scrappy second-half, Marko’s made a brilliant save to get us a point and their goalkeeper has made one or two really good saves from Tyler.

“We’ve got to take a point, it’s a building block because of what’s happened in the last few games, if you’re not conceding at one end it means you’re not wide open and we’ve not been keeping many clean sheets.

“It’s our second this season, we’ll take a point and move on.”

Cardiff have also been out of sorts so far this term with consistency in results hard to come by, taking three wins, five draws, four defeats in all and also registering a point last time out – drawing 1-1 away to Millwall in what proved a return to The Den for City manager Neil Harris.

Welsh international and Cardiff’s top scorer Kieffer Moore netted a late equaliser to take his tally to four for the season on Saturday, drawing level with Coventry’s Matty Godden and eight other players on four strikes in the Championship scoring charts.

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