FRUSTRATED boss Mark Robins is hoping for an immediate response from his Coventry City players after handing Bristol Rovers their first three points at home at the weekend.
The Sky Blues welcome third-placed Sunderland to the Ricoh Arena on Saturday, with nearly 5,000 Black Cats fans expected to flock to the city for the League One clash which is being shown live on Sky.
Coventry then play host to second-placed Portsmouth on Tuesday night.
With two tough games in the space of four days against promotion hopefuls, Robins is hoping to quickly put the disappointment of Saturday’s 3-1 defeat at Rovers to bed.
“It was majorly disappointing,” he said.
“We started off really brightly and we could’ve been three up before they shot.
“Then we’ve had a ten-minute spell where we shoot ourselves right in the foot and give them the game.”
The Sky Blues were not able to make it three wins from three at the Memorial Stadium as goals from Gavin Reilly, Tom Lockyer and Ollie Clarke inside the opening 25 minutes were enough to see off City.
Dominic Hyam pulled one back for Robins’ side just before half-time but that was as good as it got for the visitors who had a ‘goal’ from Conor Chaplin ruled out for offside in the dying embers of the game.
“The first goal seemed to unsettle us that much that we dropped off another ten to 15 yards and gave ourselves a major headache,” said Robins.
“We tried to close those gaps, but it wasn’t sinking in, we went into that mode of fearfulness and the gaps between each other need to be kept reasonable.
“When we go goals down we also need to pass with purpose, we can’t just keep lumping balls forward as we don’t have those players.
“Eventually we got into dangerous areas, we had a goal disallowed but it was too little, too late.”
Robins added the Sky Blues would have to go back to the drawing board to put things right if they want to come away with positive results against high-flying Sunderland and Portsmouth.
“We need to go back and have a look at it (the defeat to Bristol),” he said.
“I’ve never seen a game like that.
“I’m left here scratching my head and you can’t legislate for the way we started and the chances we created.
“We gave them the three points, they didn’t have to work for them.”