COVENTRY City boss Mark Robins cut a frustrated figure after the Sky Blues fell to a 1-0 defeat to Rochdale at the Ricoh Arena and has called on his players to be more ruthless.
Despite dominating for large parts of the game, City came away empty-handed and Robins believes his side need to start taking their chances when they come.
He said: “I’m annoyed. First half we deserved to win the game, but we didn’t, and you can’t win a game if you don’t take your chances.
“When you create chances like that you’ve got to be cold, ice cold, and you’ve got to believe you can hit the target and we didn’t.
“The keeper has probably had to make one or two saves and it’s not good enough.
“First half I thought we were very good in terms of dominating the game and dominating possession, but then you look at the fitness levels of one or two and it’s annoying. They have to get themselves up to speed because you’ve got to make changes during the game.
“It’s frustrating because we work hard and they have to be fit and they’ve got to be right.”
Rochdale front-man Calvin Andrew’s goal separated the two sides after his effort was adjudged to have crossed the line swiftly after the restart.
However, it was a goal the manager believed was far too easy for the visitors.
“It’s one corner kick where we’ve switched off,” he added.
“Dominic Hyam’s man scores the goal and it’s too easy.
“It’s too easy to just say never mind we played really well and we were just unlucky.
“Unlucky doesn’t count, unlucky gets you relegated, it gets you in the bottom four. We need to be more ruthless.”
Conor Chaplin made his first appearance for the Sky Blues after signing from Portsmouth.
Despite not opening his account for the club on Saturday, Robins believes the striker will be a big part of the club’s success going forward.
“The reason we bought in Conor Chaplin is because he will convert more chances than the others,” said Robins.
Sky Blues will hope to return to winning ways on Saturday when they make the trip to Oxford United before playing host to Arsenal U23s in the Football League Trophy on Wednesday.
