Mark Robins insists his Coventry City team were denied a "nailed-on" penalty in their 0-0 draw with Bristol City as, in his view, Joe Williams wasn’t penalised for an apparent blatant handball on the goalline.
Matty Godden connected with a Kasey Palmer set-piece in the 50th minute, his header on its way to the far corner only for a combination of Andi Weimann, Mark Sykes and the crossbar - although Robins perceived it to be Williams and Rob Atkinson - to prevent it from crossing the line.
There wasn’t a huge collective protest but two Coventry players instantly ran to referee James Bell pleading their case for a penalty only to be waved away by the Yorkshire official.
Speaking after the game, Robins said he felt it was a penalty at the time and even more so having viewed a replay but also accepted it was a difficult decision for the referee and his assistants to call.
“For me, it was a penalty,” Robins said. “It’s come in, Williams has thrown his hand in the air. Sometimes you look at it and go, ‘that’s handball’, then you look back at it, and it’s handball. He’s diverted it onto Atkinson’s head.
“Difficult for the referee to see but it’s there, it’s a nailed-on penalty we didn’t get. But you get them sometimes, sometimes you don’t. It’s just gone against us tonight.”
Coventry had to repel 40 crosses from City, with Coventry defenders Callum Doyle, Jonathan Panzo and Kyle McFadzean constantly heading balls away and Robins was impressed with how his side dealt with the host’s attacking patterns.
Ultimately, although City had the lion’s share of possession and the action increasingly moved towards the Sky Blues penalty area, it was Viktor Gyokeres who had the best chances of the night, firing wide in the second half after dribbling his way past Zak Vyner and Andy King and then denied by an excellent Dan Bentley when 1v1.
“A good point, I think the clean sheet is outstanding. Lots of crosses, too many crosses at times but we defended really well when they were called upon,” Robins added. “We dealt with their threat. They’ve changed, Nigel’s changed them - they have loads of energy, loads of pace and they’re a threat; they run off the back, they try and get overloads - they’re a good team.
“But we’ve got to be disappointed as well that we didn’t take one of our chances. (With) a little bit calmer heads, we may have picked out a pass. Matty Godden’s in really good positions.
“I’m not criticising anyone. Vik’s not that player yet; he’s power and he’s direct and scores brilliant goals. He was unlucky the goalkeeper has made a save but a bit of calmness, a bit of finesse and Tyler Walker’s in, Matty Godden’s in but he chose to take the shot. No criticism but maybe there’s another option, we’ve got to try and get that and then we become a little more multi-dimensional.
“But we took their press out of the game, they are a really good pressing team, a really good high pressing team. They’ve had the most shots from counter-presses. You’ve got to be careful you don’t over-commit bodies but we dealt with it pretty well.”
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