Coventry City fans are calling Mark Robins out after Stoke City win - Some are “stunned” by his “pettiness” | OneFootball

Coventry City fans have reacted to former manager Mark Robins' comments following their team's win against his Stoke City team.

Coventry City fans have reacted to their former manager Mark Robins' comments after their team beat Stoke City 1-0 at the bet365 Stadium.

The Sky Blues snatched a 1-0 win thanks to an 86th-minute winner from Ephron Mason-Clark - a result which keeps Coventry five points clear of Middlesbrough as Championship teams head into the third international break of the season.

But the comments of Robins - a figure once loved by Cov fans after his long-term stint with the club as their manager - after the match have prompted a response from Sky Blues supporters after they were posted to social media.

In his post-match interview following his team's 1-0 loss which was posted to the Stoke City club account on the social media platform X, Mark Robins defended his team, claiming that they had the better chances over the course of the game, and that Frank Lampard's side did not put them under too much pressure and played for set pieces and long throws.

The reaction of the former manager of their club after the match did not go unnoticed by Coventry City fans, with some expressing disappointment over his comments.

Others noted his "saltiness" following the match, though it's clear that many Sky Blues fans still consider Robins to be a "Sky Blues legend".

One Cov fan believes that Robins may be jealous of where Lampard has the club in the Championship right now considering he was never able to get over the line and into the Premier League as manager of the club.

Another City supporter believed Robins was talking "nonsense", and inferred that it was a regular occurrence whenever Cov lost under his management.

But others broadly agreed with his view that it was a tight match and struck a somewhat more conciliatory note.

And it was also pointed out that there might be a certain irony to a manager of this particular club taking advantage of long balls and long throws, considering their history under Tony Pulis.

Coventry fans haven't forgotten what Mark Robins achieved for their club

There was little question that the match between Stoke City and Coventry City was the Championship's match of the weekend. A crowd of over 27,000 turned out at The Bet365 Stadium to watch, and the match statistics do confirm that this was a very tight game, with only five shots on target throughout the entire 90 minutes.

In the heat of the moment, of course, managers may find it difficult to keep their emotions under wrap, especially when a defeat has just come against a club with whom they were involved for such a long time. Mark Robins isn't just any former Coventry City manager, after all.

His first spell as the club's manager only lasted a few months. Appointed in September 2012, it was only five months before he left to take up the managerial position at Huddersfield Town.

But it was his second spell with the club that would cement Robins' position as a Coventry City legend. Reappointed by the club in March 2017, it was less than a month before he led them to win the EFL Trophy with a win against Oxford United.

That second spell would last for more than seven years and would break a series of records, including the club's first promotion in 51 years and their first FA Cup semi-final since 1987. Robins was unable to keep the club in League One at the end of the 2016-17 season, but took them back up through the play-offs the following year and also masterminded their return to the Championship two years later.

Sacked after a poor run of results in November 2024, Robins could have justification at having been treated that way after everything that he'd achieved with the club. But he'll also have been involved in the game long enough to understand that professional football is a ruthlessly unsentimental business.

Indeed, with his former club and his current club going into their match in the top two positions in the Championship, it may even be considered that his departure from Coventry and appointment at the Potteries turned out to work pretty well for both clubs. And for all the comments about "pettiness", the replies to that X post from many Sky Blues fans confirm that they haven't forgotten what he did achieve for their club.