Coventry Sphinx manager Luke Hopkins felt that being forced to reshuffle his side led to their Polymac League Cup Second Round exit with a 1-0 defeat at Highgate United.
Sphinx, who fielded new signing Ashley Cain, had been putting more pressure on Jay in the Highgate goal but were forced into a change when defender Adam Sullivan was forced off following an over the top challenge in front of the dug outs.
Sphinx boss Luke Hopkins felt that this reshuffle started the problems which saw Lei Brown slid in to score in the 75th minute for the only goal of the game and he told the Sphinx website: “First half I was pleased with the team performance, the tempo, the shape the discipline and the way we played to our game plan. At half time, we were happy with 0-0.
“On sixty minutes we lost our way when a nasty challenge on Adam Sullivan from a short pass saw him need to be replaced and we had a reshuffle. We lost our way a little with the shuffle and it killed us.
“Highgate got their goal from a chance we gifted them. For a team that have been scoring five or six each week, we had restricted them to three or four half-chances.
“The game came to an end on an unsavoury note with one sent off from each team and also Highgate’s Manager manager being sent off – not a nice way for two teams to leave a game.”
Source: Coventry MAD
Source: FOOTYMAD
