TONY Mowbray has admitted confidence in the Sky Blues camp is low following Tuesday night’s 2-0 defeat at Barnsley.
Marc Roberts headed the Tykes in front on ten minutes and Ashley Fletcher sealed the win on the hour mark after taking full advantage of a mistake by City goalkeeper Reice Charles-Cook.
Adam Armstrong had perhaps the best chance of the match for the visitors when he let fly from 25 yards out in the first half but Barnsley goalkeeper Adam Davies was equal to his effort and forced the ball behind for a corner.
“We are frustrated and disappointed,” said Mowbray. “Everyone is down on confidence.
“The players have been great all season but we need them to get back to the high levels they have shown and we need to do that on Saturday.
“We needed the players to turn up and not enough of them did. My standards are high and they did not do enough all night long.
“Barnsley are a powerful side and their two centre backs were colossus, they played like men. We gave a chance to two youngsters at the back and we have had to do that due to injuries to Ben (Turner) and Reda (Johnson).
“They played okay and I don’t think they were at fault for the goals but overall tonight was not good enough. There aren’t really any positives to take from the game.
“As I said the players have done great all season and we need that one win to get some belief back.”
The result leaves the Sky Blues still inside the play-offs in sixth position but Barnsley are not level on points in seventh.
Mowbray praised Tuesday’s travelling fans, with over 500 making the long journey to Yorkshire, and he is urging them to stick with the team heading into the business end of the season.
“I want to thank the fans who made the trip up here,” he added. “There’s a lot of them who have come from Coventry.
“They got behind us and supported us all game. We need them to keep their belief, because it starts again on Saturday at the Ricoh.”