Chris Wilder felt his Middlesbrough side did enough to take something from the game, but ultimately lacked quality in the key moments and areas, while the manner of the Coventry goal left him scratching his head.
The defeat at Coventry left Boro in the Championship bottom three, while it was an eighth away game without a win for his side on the road - a run that stretches back to April of last season. Boro summer target Viktor Gyokeres scored the only goal of the game as the hosts picked up their first win of what has been a strange start to the season for them.
With Boro looking like a side still desperately lacking in confidence as a result of their poor start to the season, they struggled to create many clear-cut chances, particularly before the introduction of Isaiah Jones and Ryan Giles - the creative duo who had been left on the bench.
READ MORE:Feeble Middlesbrough fall to another away defeat at Coventry as Chris Wilder changes fail to pay off
Despite that, Wilder didn't feel his side were in any way blown away. Offering his verdict on the game, he said: “It was just exactly the same as every away game we’ve had this season - a typical Championship game with nothing in it.
"They made a bright start and we expected that because of them not playing at home and the enthusiasm around the ground because of the situation here. I thought we weathered that first ten to 15 minutes, which you have to away at most Championship clubs. And then I thought we were starting to get a foothold in the game before the goal, which is yet again, small and minor details.
"We had three throws on the left-hand side in quick succession and have given every one away. Then the third one they counter, one ball - and we talked about one ball before the game because of the threat of [Matty] Godden and most importantly Gyokeres running down the sides.
"One of my centre-halves, who is the quickest centre-half in the club, has tried to play offside. I’m left scratching my head. The level of attention and detail that goes into video analysis - we watched a lot of Coventry ahead of the game - and the main threat is Gyokeres who I thought was outstanding and the best player on the pitch. It was a good battle between him and Dael [Fry]. But what you can’t do, which we did, is step up on the halfway line to him because he’ll punish you and he did punish us. Then we’re chasing again.
"I thought for the next 20 minutes we got a foothold in the game we felt we were in the ascendancy. Then, in the second half, whether they sat in or, as is my opinion, we pinned them back, that was the case and yet again it was small details - final run, pass, cross, finish… we got into so many good positions to get something out of the game.
"In the 94th minute, Crooks runs through on the right and all he has to do is stay on his feet and square it to Rodrigo for an open-goal tap-in. He falls over and it’s chance gone. It was stuff like that all afternoon.
"For me, it was a typical Championship game with nothing in it, as has been the case for most of our away games. You’re left feeling you could have quite easily got something from the game, but we didn’t and we have to accept that."
Despite feeling his side did enough, the Boro boss did concede that his side were far from free-flowing, which he put down to the lack of confidence within the group as a result of the form.
“There’s no doubt about it, confidence is low right now," he said. "When you don’t win games of football, any team would feel that a little bit. I’ve got to say, I thought they accepted responsibility second half and stood up to the challenge. When you don’t get results that your performances deserve, you do lose momentum and you do lose a bit of confidence. You can see that.
"I’m by no means wanting to suggest we’re a free-flowing football team at the minute, but I did think we did enough today to get a result. Mark [Robins] might think about a different, but I think ultimately Gyokeres was the only difference in the result. Definitely second half, we just needed to find that moment of quality and we had enough territory and opportunities."
With so many of Boro's woes self-inflicted, however, Wilder refused to say that his side just needed a change in luck as he looked towards how they get out of their current rut.
He concluded: “It’s not luck. It’s happened too many times. I’m not saying this is a lucky win for Coventry because it wasn’t. But Championship games are decided on small details. It’s not been three or four nil and we got absolutely pummelled.
“That has happened four out of five games (away). That exact performance where we have done something stupid and we’ve had to get ourselves off the canvas and get ourselves back into it. The lazy criticism would be they are not trying, not working, not running round hard enough. That’s not the case because if it was, that ends up being three or four nil today.
"We were having a right go. The character and the togetherness of the group is good. There is a dip in confidence of course. The game gets decided in both boxes and it did today yet again."
