STEVEN Pressley came back to haunt his former club on Saturday after guiding Fleetwood Town to a 2-1 victory on his return to the Ricoh Arena.
The likeable Scot was back in Coventry for the first time since getting sacked just over 12 months ago.
And he made it one to remember thanks to two second half goals by West Burns and David Ball, who cancelled out Marcus Tudgay’s equaliser.
A fourth defeat in six matches sees the Sky Blues remain inside the play-offs although seventh-placed Bradford City now sit a point behind Mowbray’s side but the City boss remains confident that his side can win promotion.
“We have to put defeats behind us,” said Mowbray. “We probably have to win half our games now to give ourselves a chance of at least making the play-offs and getting out of this league.
“We are going to have to win a lot more than half our games if we are going to threaten the top two.
“However, when you look at the results it is still possible to string some back-to-back results together.”
After sticking with the same side that comfortably dispatched Bury 6-0, Mowbray’s side made a positive start with Jacob Murphy dragging a shot wide and before Chris Stokes saw his header from a James Maddison corner well saved by Chris Maxwell.
At the other end Ball had what looked like a decent penalty shout turned down after Reice Charles-Cook looked to have brought him down but the scoreline remained blanks at half-time.
Shortly after the break Maddison hit a curling effort narrowly wide but against the run of play Fleetwood went ahead on 55 minutes when Burns headed Antoni Sarcevic’s cross from the right past Charles-Cook.
The visitors came close to doubling their lead but Ashley Hunter’s shot from inside the area was beaten away by Charles-Cook.
With 15 minutes remaining the Sky Blues got themselves back on level terms when Armstrong pulled the ball back for Tudgay to fire home from close range.
But Ball scored the goal of the game on 82 minutes by scoring a superb 20-yard shot which sailed past Charles-Cook into the top corner of the net to give Pressley’s side all three points.
“We are not going to get similar types of performances every week,” Mowbray added.
“I thought we huffed and puffed. I thought for the first 20 minutes we were very good and very dominant. We probably became a little bit over confident and played to their strengths, in trying to play through the middle of them. Whereas for 20 minutes we had played round the outside.
“They’re a decent football team. I saw them in midweek, dominate away to Rochdale. They have some good players and the position they sit in the league is probably a false one. But it is still a frustrating result for us.”
