In the wake of losing a game that they should have won on Tuesday night, Coventry City manager Andy Thorn has defended his players and taken a rare swipe at the officials.
City took the lead early in the second half when Jutkiewicz snatched a goal. He later went on to miss a couple of relatively easy chances while fellow striker Roy O'Donovan also missed a good chance to extend their lead.
Crystal Palace held on and grabbed an equaliser with a minute of normal time remaining and then snatched the winner after six minutes of added time with the last kick of the game.
Coventry left the field dejected and desperately disappointed and Jutkiewicz later tweeted, “Thanks for kind messages, we’re all really hurting tonight. I should have ended the game, but we’ll go again on Saturday.”
Andy Thorn later defended Jutkiewicz saying, “He’s got nothing to apologise for, none of them have! Lukas and O’Donovan ran themselves into the ground."
“We should have wrapped it up, but at the moment we’re getting punished for everything we do wrong and we don’t seem to be getting any breaks."
“I know it sounds like sour grapes, but for the first time ever I had a word with David Allison, the man who’s in charge of the league referees, after the game because we had a stonewall penalty in the first half."
"Gary McSheffrey back-heeled the ball to Roy and their defender went straight through him. I’ve watched it on the video and you’ve never seen a more blatant foul. Then the fourth official tells me there’s going to be four minutes of injury time but he puts up five and plays six and a half."
“You start thinking ‘is anything going to go right for us?’ I don’t remember it, but I can only think I must have kicked a black cat at some stage."
"The really encouraging thing is that we had terrific support from our fans down there and they stayed on at the end and gave us a standing ovation. That says it all."
"They know what we’re trying to do and although we’re as frustrated as they are I think this is pulling everybody together.”