Coventry boss Mark Robins praised Sunderland as 'easy on the eye' and 'one of the best teams we have played' after the Sky Blues' 2-1 win at the CBS Arena. The Black Cats enjoyed more than 71 percent possession against Coventry but it was not reflected in terms of goals, with Amad's stunning finish in injury-time proving no more than a consolation after Jamie Allen and Viktor Gyokeres had given the hosts a commanding lead.
It was Sunderland's second away defeat in the space of five days, and it completed back-to-back league defeats for only the second time this season, with the Wearsiders dropping one place to ninth in the table and with the gap between themselves and the play-off spots widening from one point to four. But Robins is an admirer of the side that Tony Mowbray has put together, saying: "I thought it was a really tough game and hard-earned three points.
"They are one of the best sides we have played here. They are a physically strong side, young players who are really hungry to do well.
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"The squad he [Mowbray] has put together is really good, nice to watch and easy on the eye and difficult to play against. I thought we were brilliant, really good in terms of in possession.
"We turned the ball over too many times which gave them the ball and with the quality they have got, as we saw at the end with Amad, if you give him the ball... We think we have won the game and there's two minutes to go and we give away a stupid goal.
"That's annoying because of the way they have worked and the way we waited for our moments against a side who, in possession, are one of the best teams we have played."
Both Mowbray and Robins were bemused by some of referee Dean Whitestone's decisions, with Sunderland feeling that the official had missed two fouls in the build-up to Coventry's opening goal, while the Sky Blues thought Gyokeres got little protection throughout. Robins said: "I think it was a difficult game to manage from the referee's perspective.
"There were a lot of talented players who were comfortable on the ball and can go by you in the blink of an eye. They can drift across and triple up on the side and come back inside and beat you and open things up, and if you allow that to happen they are really dangerous, and you saw that all game.
"They [Sunderland] were banging Viktor from behind and they are fouls that weren’t given today, but they are normally given every week. It was just a different game because they glide. We have defended pretty well but if we touched them they went down, went down a bit easy if I am honest.
"Were they fouls? I don’t think so. But they give as good as they get and although they aren't the biggest side in the division they are really strong who will put their bodies in to roll you out of the way to try to create space for themselves."
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