Coventry City boss pinpoints fire at Holiday Inn in Portsmouth as a key factor in Fratton Park loss

POMPEY came back from a goal down to beat Coventry City as they continue their promotion push.
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Brett Pitman’s 81st minute strike sealed victory for the Blues at Fratton Park on Easter Monday.

The win was promotion chasing Pompey’s seventh in a row in the league as they keep pace in the race for the automatic stops.

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The Sky Blues struck an early lead, with Hiwula’s strike in the 9th minute, but were unable to hold on to the lead as Portsmouth rallied in the second half.

Coventry City boss Mark Robins Coventry City boss Mark Robins
Coventry City boss Mark Robins
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Coventry’s Conor Chaplin delivers thanks to ‘unbelievable’ Portsmouth fans

Coventry's manager Mark Robins was left frustrated by the result and laid part of the blame for the defeat on a fire at the team’s hotel on Easter Sunday.

Firefighters from Southsea were called to the Holiday Inn in Pembroke Road, Old Portsmouth, at 6,20pm on April 21.

Speaking to Coventry’s website, Robins said: ‘We’ve created brilliant chances; we’ve scored a great goal.

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‘As it is, they are probably one of the best second half teams in the country and they’ve come back and what they have got in their armoury is different to what we have.

‘They have got that power that shone through from the set plays. When you have got a bit more nous which they have, the bench is strong, and you have got to try and cope with that, but we ran out of steam a little bit.

‘The front end tried to keep working for the 90 minutes in this heat, it didn’t help yesterday when we had a fire at the hotel, we had no food, so we had to order in from a well-known chicken establishment which wasn’t great.’

Three fire crews from Southsea were sent to the blaze at the Holiday Inn on Easter Sunday.

They discovered a fire in a bin and extinguished it using a water hose.

The hotel was not damaged and nobody was reported injured.

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