Coventry City boss Aidy Boothroyd was full of praise for his highly rated 'keeper Kieren Westwood after his heroics kept the score at Cardiff to 2-0 when it could easily have been 6-0 or even more.
“Keiren was terrific but it is very disappointing when we have to rely on him like that, said Boothroyd. "You want him to be able keep saves like that for the death, giving us a clean sheet and three points.”
As for Westwood himself, he was hugely disappointed with the performance his team mates put in on Boxing Day, but expects them to react with a good display on television today when table toppers QPR visit The Ricoh.
“It was a disappointing result and performance at Cardiff,” said Westwood. “We are in the top six now and we have to go to places like that against another top six side and give a good account of ourselves. Coventry are a surprise package and a team not to be messed with who shouldn’t be taken lightly but we let ourselves down on Monday."
“The only good thing is that we have got a game so soon after and we have to make sure we put the Cardiff performance to bed and have a right good go against QPR and show that we are a good side and that we do bounce back quickly from defeats and if we want to stay in that top six we have to do that, there are no questions about it.”
Tormentor in chief to Coventry City was former Sky Blue Craig Bellamy to made Coventry full back Richard Keogh look very ordinary, but Westwood was reluctant to point the finger at any single player for the poor game.
He said, “Let’s not beat about the bush, Bellamy is a good player and it wasn’t just about Rich Keogh. We can’t single people out because, collectively, it just wasn’t good enough. It is obviously something we will have a chat about and analyse what went wrong and try to put it right against QPR.
“His class told, he’s a Premier League player who is on I don’t know how much a week and has played at the highest level, but I just don’t think we started well enough or got ourselves going."
"The longer the game went on at 1-0 we had a few little cheeky chances and I thought we might nick a goal, which would probably have been unjust, but I wouldn’t have cared and maybe we would have gone on and got another to nick it, but the way the game had gone I would have taken a 1-1 draw. We missed the chances we had and they got their second and saw out the game, but while it was 1-0 it was always a precarious scoreline for them.
“If only we had hurt them from one set play and the more nervous they might have got but it is all ifs, buts and maybes and we just didn’t play and we let ourselves down.”
In typically modest fashion, the 25 year old Irish international custodian said, “I would rather win than take all the plaudits because at the end of the day we still lost 2-0 so I am not going to dwell on the game. I wouldn’t if I had made a mistake so I will move on and try to get a victory against QPR."
“It was nowhere near good enough as a group and we have just got to put ourselves right. We have set standard for ourselves this season and anyone who watched the game on Monday would be thinking, ‘Wow, they had an off day,’ and I think that’s what we have got to put it down to and move on."
“We need to pull our fingers out and give a good account of ourselves against the league leaders who will be coming to us on a high after their 4-1 win on Boxing Day.”