'Scared stiff' - Mark Robins tears into Coventry City showing as Preston North End praised

Coventry City boss Mark Robins says Preston North End 'bullied' his team on Friday night - and left the Sky Blues looking 'scared stiff'.

The Lilywhites destroyed the home side - who are also in the play-off chasing park - in a brutal first half. Emil Riis headed the opening goal in after just 55 seconds, before top scorer Will Keane made it two on 20 minutes. The night got better for Ryan Lowe's side, when Bobby Thomas sent the ball into his own net shortly before the interval.

"It’s been as bad as it’s been for a good few years," said Robins. "Even the Stoke game, when we lost 4-0 last year, it was worse than that. Sometimes the game gets away from you early. Today was that. We conceded after a minute with a really poor goal, and we have to defend that better. They set their stall out from the first minute and we didn’t cope with that.

"We’ve been old-mane. They have an experienced line up and they have run harder than us and fought harder than us. They have done the dirty side better than anyone who has been here and they deserved to win there’s no doubt about it. It’s just the manner of the defeat. There was no pride in that. It didn’t even look like a performance - it looked like a group of individuals who looked scared stiff and let them get on top of us.

Robins added: "I put it down to the fact that we got bullied. So from minute one to minute 98 or whatever it was, we got bullied. There are physical games and then there’s tonight. That was more like when I played, what I used to face and play in and we just didn’t cope with it. We have had physical performances before and we have been fine but, for whatever reason, it just looked disjointed and like a team of individuals. That’s as far away from a performance of any of my teams as it has ever been. It was poor, there’s no getting away from it and we were bullied."

There was a long delay in the first half, as Tatsuhiro Sakamoto had to be stretchered off the pitch following a nasty fall. The 27-year-old came off badly from an aerial challenge with Andrew Hughes, on half-way. Robins could not hide his concern post-match.

"Tatsu has a terrible, terrible injury," said Robins. "I am just hoping and praying that he’s OK because that doesn’t look good at all. They are talking about a pelvic and spinal injury, so I am just hoping that he’s OK. It was the first header we have won and it was from the smallest player on the pitch. And he got battered. He got battered in that moment and he has landed really heavily on his hip and his back. And I am just hoping and praying that it’s not a significant injury, although it’s clearly a significant injury. But I am hoping it’s not terrible.”