Coventry CIty manager Mark Robins has said that his side now have a chance of progressing to the Second Round of the Checkatrade Trophy.
The Sky Blues led thanks to an early Jordy Hiwula goal but were pegged back and ended up beating Forest Green Rovers on penalties, meaning that City have to win at Cheltenham next month and hope that Arsenal U21's beat both Cheltenham on October 30th and Forest Green in November in their remaining matches.
Robins fielded a side which resembled an U23's side and said about the game to the media:
“If Arsenal win their next games and we win ours then we have chance of going through because we have the bonus point from winning the penalty shoot-out.
“We are using this competition to get game time for players who haven’t been starting regularly as well as giving young players a taste of first team action,.
“We finished the game with roughly an Under-23/Under-21 side. Other than Abu Ogogo and Liam Kelly, you have got Amadou Bakayoko who is 22 and Jordy Hiwula who is just over 23, and the goalkeeper is a bit older.
“But apart from that, every one of them is young.
“So Jack Burroughs gets a game, Jak Hickman starts the game and works his socks off. Brandon Mason comes back into the squad and gets just under an hour, which was good but he was out on his feet.
“We have had some good chances.
“Hiwula got an early goal and his confidence was up. Some of his touches were outstanding and there were some really good bits.
“But when he goes through you expect him to find the net.
“He came inside and pulled off a few tricks and then he got closed down and it comes out to Tony Andreu, and he knows he should have scored.
“He doesn’t have to blast it but that’s what happens when you are searching for a goal, you make the wrong decision.
“He just needed to side foot it into the net with a pass.
“Bakayoko opened up and tried to place his chance at the near post but it was never on.
“If he hits it far post it’s a goal or he could have squared it to Jak Hickman who could have had a tap-in, so there were opportunities to score that we didn’t take and the goal we conceded was poor.”