Coventry Sphinx manager Luke Hopkins felt his side were poor but they got the result that mattered.
Speaking to the Sphinx website, Hopkins said about his side’s 2-0 win at Heather St Johns in the FA Cup: “It seems that consistency is our problem and we just aren’t at the minute. Whether that is because we are a very young squad as a whole or we become too comfortable after a win but that has been the story of the season so far and it’s a trend i really want to shake off.
“We started the game bright and alert but didn’t take our chances for the first 25 minutes. Cutting and Gummery both worked chances for themselves but were hitting posts and keepers and it didn’t happen.
“The first goal came from young Natty after we moved him into a more central role and it was a good strong headed finish from a Cutting cross.
More chances came and went and the game should have been out of site and gone but it wasn’t, Heather had plenty of play but none in dangerous areas and all their chances were from 30 yards plus, so I’ll take that. No point in trying to cover up the possession chart would have been royal blue but as it was all in their half we can deal with that defensively.
“Second half, we started straight away and had one disallowed for offside again, far too many of them this afternoon and it was a common theme when we didn’t need it to be.
“But the second goal came thanks to some nice play by Gummers, who dropped in, collected the ball on a half turn and played a great clip ball for his strike partner Rickie Cutting to slot past the keeper and make sure it was in with his blast finish with a goal that’s opened his account for the season where I expect 25 goals plus from him this year.
“All in all, we got the result that mattered, we’ve got Bedworth United in the next round and we are under no illusion that we need to be a thousand times better to compete in the game at all.
“We will look to improve the performance and with the merry go round having just started, we are always looking to strength the squad going forward, allowing us to compete on all fronts, league and cups.