Mark Robins has his fingers crossed for January additions. Picture: PA.
SKY Blues boss Mark Robins has expressed his desire to add to his Coventry City squad, in the wake of overseeing a sixth Championship victory of the season away to Millwall last weekend.
City were 2-1 winners over Gary Rowett’s side at The Den on Saturday, with Gustavo Hamer bolstering the visitors lead six minutes after Jake Cooper’s 20th-minute own goal gave Coventry the decisive breakthrough in the capital.
And while Jed Wallace reduced the arrears 16 minutes from time from the spot, the Sky Blues were deserved winners against a Lions side that ended the game with ten men – Murray Wallace seeing red late in stoppage time.
Moving up to 16th place in the division, Robins says his clinical troops put on a much-improved showing in front of goal, and believes new additions would provide a much-needed aid to the injury problems that have faced City throughout the campaign.
“The transfer window is open and I’m going to need a little bit of help, so hopefully I get that,” said the 51-year-old.
“I’ve got a couple of things lined up and we’re going to need to do something to try and alleviate the issues we’ve had.
“They found their shooting boots [last weekend]. It’s a good start to the New Year, the only real complaint was that we didn’t finish the game off before or after the penalty, we had a number of chances.
“We scored two goals, which, considering we finished last year without scoring for four games, was nice to see us get back on the scoresheet.
“They were two brilliant goals and we really should have had more.”
Both Sam McCallum and Jordan Shipley were reintroduced into the side that went down 2-0 to Preston in the final game of 2020, though another change in the form of Matty Godden had to be made after just six minutes of play when the striker suffered a foot injury.
Coventry battled on without their leading man, and took the lead midway through the half when Jordan Shipley’s ferocious half-volley clipped the post and found the net, with the help of a ricochet off Millwall defender Cooper.
Moments later, the visitors’ advantage was doubled by Hamer’s darting volley through low past Bartosz Bialkowski – after his initial effort from a deadball situation was blocked.
While City should have made the game safe, the contest was brought back into contention by Wallace’s successful effort from the penalty spot late in the second half.
Robins’ team held firm to run out deserved winners in South East London, putting them in good spirits for an FA Cup third round tie at Norwich City on Saturday.
Daniel Farke’s Canaries have responded positively to a Boxing Day defeat at fellow promotion contenders Watford, taking a point in a 1-1 home draw with QPR, before seeing off Barnsley 1-0 last time out at Carrow Road – thanks to a second-half Emi Buendia winner.
