Mark Robins insists there are “mitigating factors” behind Coventry City’s recent shortage of goals.
Tuesday’s 2-0 defeat at Preston North End was the fourth game in a row in which the Sky Blues have failed to find the net.
City have suffered injuries to attacking players, with Tyler Walker sidelined and Matty Godden only recently returning to action.
Robins insists he isn’t unduly concerned by the goal drought and said it isn’t just down to the attacking players to find the net.
“It’s not a monkey on my back and it shouldn’t be a monkey on the players’ backs,” said Robins ahead of Saturday’s trip to Millwall.
“It’s something the media decide might be a monkey on people’s backs. There’s a lot of other things to worry about rather than that.
“We’ve got circumstances around it that are mitigating factors, with Tyler Walker being injured, with Matty Godden not being fit yet, with having to use players that are half-fit.
“It’s not just down to them to score goals, it’s down to other people.”
Despite the result, Robins could take positives from the performance at Preston, but had a message for his players for when they get a sight of goal.
“We played really well the other night without scoring,” he said.
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“That shouldn’t be a focus. It’s always an intention to go and score a goal because that’s what you play the game for, to create chances to shoot. I don’t think we did that [shoot] often enough.
“You can’t score if you don’t shoot and you’ve got to take those opportunities to shoot and make sure you do it with a meaning, not a half-hearted effort.
“If you get half a chance, shoot. Make them make the blocks. They [Preston] made some unbelievable blocks the other night.
“Let’s not forget, we’re at a level where we’re playing against really good teams and players. While we were really disappointed with the result the other night, the large parts of the performance were really good.”
