Mark Robins was delighted for striker Matt Godden after his last-gasp winner handed Coventry a 2-1 Championship comeback victory over Reading.
Godden calmly slid the ball under Reading goalkeeper Rafael to earn the Sky Blues all three points in his first appearance at the Coventry Building Society Arena since joining from Peterborough in the summer of 2019.
The 30-year-old missed a lengthy period of time last season through a plantar fascia foot injury and scored his first goal since April to send the Coventry fans home happy.
“Matty Godden has been working so hard over the last few months, he’s been really frustrated that he’s been out for the length of time he has been, but you can sort of sense that he’s ready,” said Coventry manager Mark Robins.
“We know exactly how he moves and we’ve just tweaked that a little bit this week.
“He’s worked really hard on that and his movement opened it up to get the next chance to be a left-footed shot that ended up in the back of the net for the winner.”
Godden came on as a second-half substitute following Jamie Allen, who netted the equaliser seconds after coming on to cancel out John Swift’s 40th-minute penalty.
Robins said: “The game needed a bit of energy and Jamie provides that.
“On the back of the week we’ve had, the travelling, road closures and things like that, I thought we might get a tired performance but it was the minds more than the physicality which I was pleased with.
“I thought we were really good value for a decent first-half performance and then speaking at half-time to them, to try and keep that confidence going.
“Whilst we haven’t got everything right, I thought it was a good performance and on the end of it were the supporters behind us to score another late winner deep in stoppage time.
“I don’t mind it but I think I’ll go on the ECG later on and see how I’m going! But it’s been a really good, solid week for us.”
Reading boss Veljko Paunovic claimed his side crumbled after they initially went a goal ahead against the run of play through Swift’s penalty, but also took aim at referee David Webb for his performance.
“This is football, today we were on the other end of the glory,” said the Serbian manager.
“Instead of the previous action on the corner kick where we had an opportunity to score in the very last second, we unfortunately crumbled and conceded a goal that wiped our opportunity to earn a well and solid one point.
“There is definitely disappointment the way we conceded, I believe that it’s on us. I think we lacked experience – a little bit of everything in those moments.
“We have to deal with this. We have to deal with the referee adding extra time to the extra time and not telling anyone.
“I don’t like to talk about officiating but it’s not the first time this has happened.
“Referees always get offended with their performance and they defend with yellow cards where us coaches have to stand in front of you guys and explain – they don’t have to do that.”
