Astonishingly, the management of Coventry City has recently fired Mark Robins, the manager, over a contentious issue, just as they are about to bring in a man city assistant coach.

Coventry City match reaction from CoventryLive as Sky Blues boss Mark Robins gives his verdict on his players’ performance against Preston

Mark Robins admitted that his Coventry City players were “bullied” from the first minute to the last by a determined Preston side at the CBS Arena. The Sky Blues boss was beyond angry after a dreadful performance which saw North End secure maximum points with three first half goals to leapfrog the home side in the race for the Championship play-offs.

Asked by CoventryLive what he put the first half display down to, the manager said: “I put it down to the fact that we got bullied. So from minute one to minute 98 or whatever it was, we got bullied. There are physical games and then there’s tonight. That was more like when I played, what I used to face and play in and we just didn’t cope with it.

We have had physical performances before and we have been fine but, for whatever reason, it just looked disjointed and like a team of individuals. That’s as far away from a performance of any of my teams as it has ever been. It was poor, there’s no getting away from it and we were bullied.

“It’s difficult to say things have to change because we have the same players who have been there all season. This is the time when you need everyone fit and firing to cope with the demands, and this is why I have said we are a little bit down in numbers. And then you get injuries to key players and it affects it because the changes you can make are limited.