Mark Robins said he was proud of the courage his Coventry team showed in their FA Cup semi-final defeat to Manchester United at Wembley.
The second-tier Sky Blues came agonisingly close to a place in the final after an all-time classic in the last four, that saw Robins’ side fight back from three goals down to force a penalty shootout.
Coventry trailed 3-0 with just 19 minutes of normal time to go, as Scott McTominay, Harry Maguire and Bruno Fernandes put Manchester United in firm control.
Robins had said the Premier League side were ‘favourites by a million miles’ before the game, but Coventry produced a stunning turnaround. Ellis Simms pulled one back, before Callum O’Hare’s effort deflected over Andre Onana.
The equaliser arrived in the fifth minute of stoppage time, as Haji Wright’s nerveless penalty forced extra time, after an Aaron Wan-Bissaka handball. Coventry twice hit the woodwork, in normal and extra time, and thought they’d won it when Viktor Torp scored in the final seconds.
However, the Coventry celebrations were cut short after Wright was adjudged offside in the build up, and the Sky Blues lost in the shootout as O’Hare and Ben Sheaf missed from the spot.
Robins, however, praised the performance of his team who he believes will go down in the club’s history.
“We conceded too many poor goals. We knew we had to make changes which we did at half-time. We spoke about not having regrets. We started to look more of a threat,” Robins said to ITV.
“To come back from 3-0 down is incredible. Some good quality football. We were really disappointed at the end.
“We hit the bar and had a goal disallowed. It was a really difficult game. We lose Tavares to injury and had to make another change.
“If you can attack them you can really hurt them. I can’t be prouder of them. They did fantastically well. I think we’ve made Coventry proud.
“You get to penalties and it’s a lottery. You don’t hold anything against anyone if they show the courage to take one in a cauldron.”
“It’s a toe nail. Those lines are the bane of our life,” Robins continued on his side’s offside winner.
“You don’t get a chance often to go to an FA Cup final and we were really really close.
“We have to pick ourselves up because there’s a game on Wednesday.
“There’s always a bit of gamesmanship [in penalties]. We needed to score the five goals. We scored the five in the summer and missed the sixth and Luton went up. It feels like a kick in the teeth.
“I’m really proud of them.
“We’ve just said to them they’ve put themselves right up there in the history of the football club. People will talk about this game for a long time.”
Read – Maguire admits ‘world wanted’ Coventry to win semi-final
See more – Five of the best FA Cup semi-finals of modern times
