Mark Robins laments ‘ridiculous decisions’ after Preston North End beat Coventry City

Coventry City manager Mark Robins felt ‘ridiculous decisions’ did not help his team as they fell to a 3-2 defeat against Preston North End on Saturday.

The Sky Blues suffered their fourth straight league defeat and remained in 20th place, following last season’s journey to the play-off final. Robins’ men took the lead on 33 minutes at Deepdale but still headed in at half-time trailing, following quickfire goals from Duane Holmes and Alan Browne.

Milutin Osmajic then made it three after a wave of Coventry pressure in the second half. Haji Wright pulled one back late on - his second of the game - but PNE saw the three points over the line to end their winless run. Post-match, Robins reflected honestly on his side’s performance but felt there were some contentious decisions over the piece.

“I think there was definitely nervousness,” he said. “First half we were pretty poor, we couldn’t really get out and they had a lot of the ball and their intent was clear. Ours wasn’t; we couldn’t move it. We turned the ball over too much, but then we took the lead - probably against the run of play.

“But then you’ve got a cushion and a starting point, and then within two minutes we’re 2-1 down and it just seems like ridiculous decisions - certainly the second one was offside. Initially the first movement is offside and then he’s given a penalty on the back of it, but two wrongs don’t make a right. Thankfully he didn’t get sent off, because he could have easily been shown a red card as it’s denial of a goalscoring opportunity.

“The second half was chalk and cheese really, it was a proverbial game of two halves, and we showed the intent that our team shows generally and has done for years and we’ve got to hold on to that. The second half performance was pretty good, apart from the goal that we conceded. The three goals we conceded were soft. They were poor, so that’s got to improve, but we looked better.”