Coventry boss Robins takes positives but praises Brighton's performance

Coventry boss Mark Robins took plenty of positives from his side's 3-1 FA Cup defeat at Brighton but was quick to praise the Seagulls' performance.
Coventry boss Mark Robins. Picture by Phil Westlake (PW Sporting Photography)Coventry boss Mark Robins. Picture by Phil Westlake (PW Sporting Photography)
Coventry boss Mark Robins. Picture by Phil Westlake (PW Sporting Photography)

Albion progressed with goals from debutant Jurgen Locadia, Connor Goldson and Leonardo Ulloa but Coventry hit the woodwork twice, before Jonson Clarke-Harris scored a late consolation.

Brighton sit 14th in the Premier League, while Coventry are ninth in League Two and Robins said afterwards: "I thought we were good. But first and foremost you've got to understand the age of our team as we're very young, the quality of the opponent we're facing and the quality we showed.

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"When you play in a game like this, you're hoping they (Brighton) have an off day and they didn't. They worked really hard, so credit to them.

"We found it difficult to cope with their movement, which we knew because they're a passing team.

"Their movement is good and then with young players they'll learning on the job and are looking to stop them. Down their right-hand side, they caused us problems and that was where the first goal came from.

"Rather than parking the bus, we wanted to come and take part in the game. It was important for us to do that, not just for today because it's a big learning curve for the players but also moving forward in our league because we want to try to get promoted as quickly as we possibly can because it's a tough division.

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"We don't come up against those type of problems every day but it was a good experience for us, in terms of learning and development but also I thought we were a threat.

"We didn't just sit back.

"This was a positive experience, even though we lost. Everything was there to help and aid the learning and give us the knowledge we can compete in terms of creating opportunities.

"There's a way to go until we get anywhere near that level but this should give us confidence knowing we can play, compete and score goals against Premier League teams and we could have had a couple more.

"I know they've been unfortunate and we've been a little bit lucky at times where they've had opportunities but I thought we were really good."

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