Coventry City boss Mark Robins reacted to his side’s heartbeakng Sky Bet Championship Play-Off Final defeat by Luton on penalties.

“Firstly congratulations to Luton. They’ve come out on top tonight, however tight the game may be. Congratulations to them and their supporters. They were outstanding and been outstanding all season. For us certainly the opposite of their joy is pain.

“And you’ve certainly feel a bit of pain. But once that pain starts to dissipate in however long it takes for it to go you’ve got to reflect on what an unbelievable achievement it’s been just to even be here today in a Play-Off Final, that’s keenly contested. The division is very, very tough as we all know and unfortunately we couldn’t make that next step.

“When you don’t do that, it means you aren’t quite ready for it. I mean, they lost in the Play-Offs, in the Semi-Finals last year and this season come back better, so that’s a challenge for for a lot of sides, for us we’ve got to look and see how galvanise.”

‘There’s plenty of work to do this summer’

“It’s how we move forward from it. There’s plenty of work to be done this summer, that’s for sure. But that’s the aim, we’ve got to try and get back here as quickly as we can or even better. So, while it’s painful, we’ve got to then get to a stage where we can reflect on what a magnificent achievement it’s been and the fact that really we’ve lost one in 20 games.

“When you take today’s game into consideration that stat is amazing. It’s incredible. So congratulations to the players and they’ve been fantastic. They should be proud of themselves and each other and the noise inside the stadium, you heard it, it was incredible.

“And we just couldn’t see it over the line. I thought the first half was a right off as far as we were concerned, which was a little bit of a surprise. But it was too many times we gave the ball away. There was no point playing for midfield players because we couldn’t get a grip on the ball. Viktor Gyokeres was ploughing a lone furrow and it didn’t work out.

“I think you have to credit Luton for that and for us, the change at half-time made a difference. And then we got the equaliser. We started to grow into it. More than that, I thought we would seem a more likely.”

And then it changed changed the game again when Gustavo Hamer gets injured and comes off. We tried to bring Kasey Palmer on just to give us that flair and maybe in the last 15 minutes, just try and get a chance to make something, create something or score himself. It wasn’t to be, I knew I’d have to take him off again in extra time if we got there. I took that gamble.”

‘We have to take our medicine’

“Josh Eccles came one we got a bit more energy back into the middle of the park, really had to make some enforced changes with Gus coming off and then obviously with with Callum Doyle coming off. I was desperately trying to get Josh Wilson-Esbrand on to try and give us a bit of impetus down the left. It just didn’t it didn’t work out that way today in the game because of injuries or whatever.

“So we have to we have to take our medicine and and start again in preparation for another Championship season and think about how well we’ve done this season and how we can move it forward again.

“Callum’s just fatigued. I think he was cramping up. It was a certainly a blow and for Gus to come off it was certainly a blow. Jonathan Panzo came on and he was getting up to the speed of the game, tried to roll his foot over the ball gets the ball taken off him and we were lucky when the referee had seen an infringement and which gave us the chance to go to penalties in the first place, that would be difficult to come back from. But then again, they’ve given absolutely everything and they should be really proud of themselves.”

‘Dabo is devastated’

“Frankaty Dabo is as you’d expect, devastated. Somebody has to miss. Someone was going to save it, someone was going to miss and unfortunately it was Franky. But you’ve got to say every one stepped up. The penalties were outstanding, the goalkeepers didn’t get anywhere near the first 10.

“And Franky lent back and was trying to smash it in and unfortunately for us it went high, wide and not so handsome. He’ll come back from that. You’ve got to, dit is part of sport. While he is very, very disappointed and the magnitude of the game is such you have to say how brave and courageous they were in even stepping up in the first place.

“We’re going to sit and think about this and let it sink in and reflection on it. You use this as fuel to come back stronger. If you can’t do that, then you’re in the wrong game.

“We have to use that to galvanise us to come again.

“I thought we were as poor as we’ve been in the first half, but then to get in at 1-0, it was relief. And then we tried to give them the right information and to ask one or two questions and they came out in the second half and played the way that we know we can play. But if you if you play the way that we set up in the first half, then you have to have the confidence to play. We turned the opportunities to play down. That’s a lot to do with them and the way that they pressed and the way they marshalled.”

‘Gyokereds has been carrying an injury’

“Vik’s been carrying an injury for the last two or three weeks. He’s had injections and trying to get through it through the game anyway, both him and Gusto so you’re sort of a little bit looking and hoping a little bit really that they don’t get clattered again, because it’s impeded them a little bit for a few weeks now.

“But having said that, we grew into it. Gusto scored a brilliant goal, Viktor’s worked his way inside and a great little ball back for him to come on to and slide. And from that point on I thought there was only going to be one winner. I thought we were really on top in the game and the only change in impetus was when Gus rolled his ankle and had to come off.

“And that was a blow, then you’ve got to try and twist a little bit. We’ve got a choice to stick or twist. We decided to twist and see if we could win it in normal time, I thought we were on top and it was worth doing. Those are the decisions that you have to make from time to time.

“We just ran out of squad really. I think that was a tough afternoon and difficult when you look back on what might have been and you shouldn’t have any regrets. I don’t think that we can any regrets other than that we took it really, really close and and just came up short from the penalty spot. There’s certainly no disgrace in that I think they’ve been magnificent this season.”

 


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