Chris Coleman admitted his Coventry City side lost the physical battle against Derby County on Saturday, and refused to blame the pre-match loss of defender Ben Turner for it.
‘Ben was going to be important because Rob Hulse is a big boy and tough to handle and we were looking at Ben to do a job on him.
‘But he had been up all night with a migraine and we lost him in the warm-up.
‘To be fair to Marcus Hall that’s not his fault either. He has played all over the back four this season and he has come in again at the last minute.
‘Our start had nothing to do with that, we just couldn’t cope with Derby’s tempo. They were quicker to every ball and they won every challenge in our box – that can’t be right.’
Only the lack of a third Derby goal kept the contest going into the second-half, and home boss Nigel Clough was a worried man.
He said: ‘At 2-0 it is lovely but it is a dangerous scoreline because if they get a goal back early after the break – like they did – it makes for a nervous second half.’
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