Following the disappointing 2-1 reverse at home to Notts County last Saturday, Coventry City manager Mark Robins has asked the fans to have patience as he tries to rebuild the side and restore their fragile confidence.
Robins has promised to lift the club out of the doldrums, but has asked for time while he works to turn the club’s fortunes around.
Since Robins arrived at The Ricoh, the crowds have slowly begun to return to the fold, but now he is worried that Saturday’s defeat might reverse the trend.
Speaking to the Coventry Telegraph's Andy Turner, Robins said, "There were a few who came back to watch on Saturday and that was the disappointment because we had more in, but I just say to them keep coming because things will change and will keep improving. We need the supporters to stay with it because otherwise the anxiety creeps on to the pitch and they’ll start slashing at things and it will go back to football we don’t want to see."
Notts County brought 1,300 of their own fans to The Ricoh but an extra 800 City fans turned up to watch the home side which meant a gate of 11,882 were there to witness a lower than expected performance from the Sky Blues.
Robins commented: "Playing in front of the home fans is magnificent, especially when there are a lot in there because the atmosphere is much better. At the moment the sound reverberates because there is nothing to absorb it, so it’s slightly tinny, but, in fairness, away from home we’re getting great travelling support and I think one or two people are seeing signs of improvement and that’s what we all want, and we’re all united in moving towards better football, winning football and climbing the league.
"We’ve got brave footballers because they are passing it to each other but we need to work a little bit harder to get on the ball when we’re pressing. That’s the model I want to get to but it’s early days."
Robins accepts that Saturday’s performance was below par but he insisted that things are improving. "We’ve come forward by eight points since I arrived,” he said, ”which is how I measure it, and I think visually and statistically you can see that things are improving on the pitch.
"We want to play good football, I can’t compromise that. It might not always be pretty to watch but ordinarily we’ll try to pass it through the thirds and we’re doing it reasonably successfully. We just have to make sure we’re more clinical in front of goal and maybe pass the ball with more purpose for most of the time, but we have got players who have not necessarily been at 100 per cent in terms of where we’re at physically, so we’ve had those things to work on and it does take time, and we’ll continue to work with them. There has been testing done and we fall a little bit below the expected line at the moment, but they are giving me everything they have got.
"We’ve got to get the best out of the players at this moment in time while making plans for the future to get some help because we’re putting things in place that will benefit the club over a longer period. It’s not just the team that need a bit of TLC."
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