MARK Robins felt his side’s midweek clash with Hull City came ‘too soon’ for his players after Coventry City slipped to a 3-2 home defeat which all but ended the club’s play-off hopes.
The Sky Blues twice came from behind to draw level courtesy of Kasey Palmer’s stunning free-kick and a Bobby Thomas header before the latter’s short backpass allowed Noah Ohio to win the game for the Tigers at the CBS Arena.
And playing just three days after their heartbreaking FA Cup semi-final defeat against Manchester United at Wembley, Robins felt the turnaround between the two fixtures was simply too quick.
Robins said: “The players have done brilliantly to get through it, there was absolutely no chance of recovery [from Sunday], the game has come too soon.
“The only downside is the lack of concentration around the goals we conceded because they were really poor. We’re just lacking in certain areas in terms of depth.
“It’s just ridiculous really, if we’ve got to play youngsters then that’s what we’ll do, it’s not ideal but there’s nothing to be down about, we’ve given absolutely everything.
“There were clearly things that were brilliant during the game and clearly things that were so wrong but because of the fatigue, the exertion and the psychological element, the turnaround is too quick.
“It’s impossible to recover from, you’ve only got two days to deal with it [semi-final defeat] and then you come back, they’ve been absolutely brilliant, I can’t criticise them.”
Hull took the lead on 31 minutes when Jaden Philogene’s deflected shot somehow found its way through the gloves of Bradley Collins before Palmer curled a sublime free-kick into the top left corner from 20-yards out five minutes later.
The Tigers reclaimed the lead in first-half injury time as Fabio Carvalho scored from the penalty spot only for Thomas to head in Jay Dasilva’s cross at the back post on 58 minutes to restore parity.
However, Thomas then played a short pass back to Collins which allowed substitute Ohio to steal in and bundle the ball over the line on 78 minutes to leave the Sky Blues nine points outside of the play-off places with three games left to play.
Coventry are next in action away at Blackburn Rovers on Saturday, April 27 with kick-off at 3pm at Ewood Park.
