Coventry City manager Tony Mowbray has said that his side went out and stepped up their game in the second half of the 3-2 extra time victory over Portsmouth.
The City boss told the Coventry Telegraph: “I asked the question of them at half-time and I thought they went out and stepped up five yards and competed better, although I don’t think they were a huge threat to us.
“The penalty was a shocking decision, if I am allowed to say that.
“I genuinely thought he’d booked the player for diving and I couldn’t believe he’d given a penalty for that.
“Their other goal was a wonder goal, 30-odd yards right in off the underside of the crossbar. We could have had four goalies in and they wouldn’t have saved that!
“I think we grew into the game. It’s a pretty young side that needs to get the balance between playing how we want to play and playing with some passion, urgency and drive.
“You can’t win football matches by just playing nice football. I think you go through pre-season playing against some lesser opposition, as we did – with total respect we played Nuneaton twice and Newport and we had lots of the ball and passed it around.“So I have reminded them that the season has started and nobody gives you anything in football; you have to go and grab it; compete, run and tackle and fight and then play your football, so I thought we grew into the game and, ultimately, I thought we deserved it.
“We got stronger and stronger and could maybe have scored another goal to kill the game a bit earlier but we’re happy enough with it.
“So we dug it out in the end and I was really pleased that as the game ran on into extra time that we were the much stronger team, physically stronger and our ability to keep the ball meant that their attempt to build up some pressure never materialised because they never had the ball.”
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