Mark Robins was left fuming for the second time in four days after watching his Coventry City side throw away more valuable Championship points.
The Sky Blues boss blasted his players on the one hand, accusing them of making elementary mistakes against a multi-million pound Watford side, against whom they performed impressively to come from a goal behind and take the lead at Vicarage Road.
But that slender advantage lasted less than two minutes as City conceded a soft set-piece goal and then pressed the self destruct button by conceding a late penalty for the second game running, to hand the Hornets the win.
“It’s been a harsh week,” said the Sky Blues boss after the 3-2 defeat.
“We’ve learnt some harsh lessons. We can’t keep giving chances to teams that have got better players.
“I should be talking about what a really good performance it was.
“Instead, I am looking at elementary mistakes that are killing us because we contrive to give teams chances.”
Reflecting on Gus Hamer’s superbly improvised header and Tyler Walker’s clinical angled finish to get City level and take the lead, he added: “The two goals were brilliant.
“Tyler Walker’s finish was absolutely outstanding, which is fantastic for us, we got our noses in front coming from a goal down at a place like this against a team that’s just been relegated from the Premier League.
“They’ve got good players and you can’t give them chances. Right from the second goal they conceded a throw-in, we concede the ball and then concede a corner which they score from.
“We’re just not giving ourselves a chance to grow into the game. They’re under pressure and they’re starting to feel it and we don’t give ourselves enough time to let them feel the pressure.”
City have shipped 23 goals in their opening 11 Championship games.
“The biggest thing for me is that we concede too many goals and we are soft,” said Robins.
“The goal we conceded for the penalty, Callum O’Hare’s arms are above his head and gives the referee another decision to make.
“We’ve given a second penalty away that’s cost us a game in a week, two penalties that we should never have been in a position to give them away and it really hurts.
“They’ve got to understand, I’m looking for warriors, it’s a tough league and I’m not expecting us to roll over and die, we can make sure that we’re more committed.
“It’s really difficult because they’re giving me everything, but we’re playing against individual players and teams that are better.
“As a team we’re starting to get there, we’re putting really good performances in and it’s very difficult when we’re losing games like we are, we have to be better and understand that we’re going to have to put bodies on the line on a more regular basis.”
