Robins hails players as Coventry defeat Bolton

Posted Sunday, February 09, 2020 by PA

Mark Robins hailed his Coventry side as they managed a hard-fought 2-1 win over League One bottom side Bolton.

The Sky Blues scored early on through Amadou Bakayoko but were pegged back by a Dennis Politic goal before substitute Max Biamou snatched it for Coventry at the death.

Robins said: “It was hard-fought, there were concerns about energy levels but we were OK.

“The quality was lacking a little bit thankfully we come out on the right side of a great result. It’s a brilliant, brilliant massive result.

“We have to be grateful to Marko (Marosi) because he’s made two fantastic saves.

“They were unlucky but we should have killed them off – we had chance after chance but we’ve not been ruthless enough and that keeps teams in it and they grew in confidence. They threw caution to the wind which helped us get the winner.

“I can’t underestimate how big that is but we move on with three points – we’re in for a good game against Portsmouth on Tuesday, we have to recover well and move on.”

Coventry took the lead after just two minutes. A marauding Fankaty Dabo capitalised onto a Bolton mistake to bomb down the right side and the full back’s cross was perfect, finding Bakayoko all alone at the back post to nod past Remi Matthews.

Politic had looked most dangerous throughout for the away side, and he duly equalised for Bolton after 76 minutes.

Chris O’Grady drilled a low cross into the box from the left, the perfect height for Politic to volley home from close range.

But Coventry pushed on to try to find a winner and that came after 90 minutes from Biamou with a scrappy finish.

The Frenchman managed to attack a loose ball and poke Coventry ahead, much to the dismay of the away side.

Bolton manager Keith Hill said: “It was close but a key component of winning football matches is making better decisions when under pressure and I think we are disappointed with both goals we conceded.

“Coventry are an excellent side and we found the first 20 minutes very difficult but once we become competitive and aggressive in and out of possession it became a good game and I’m disappointed we didn’t achieve at least a point.

“With the second-half performance I’m pleased, encouraged playing against what I consider one of the best sides in the league.

“We are trying to salvage our identity from the remainder of the season while winning football matches.

“We have to make better decisions in games in key moments and we haven’t done today. I’m encouraged with the performance, but not the result.”