Liam Kelly makes Coventry City point which could have changed play-off final

Coventry City captain Liam Kelly has opened up on the Sky Blues’ defeat to Luton Town at Wembley on Saturday.

Mark Robins side were left devastated after missing out on promotion to the Premier League by the narrowest of margins. Neither team could be separated across 120 minutes before the contest was settled by a missed Fankaty Dabo penalty in the shootout to leave the Sky Blues heartbroken.

It means Coventry will face another season of football in the Championship, but it has still been a remarkable campaign from a club who were playing in League Two just five years ago.

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And in the aftermath of what was a tough defeat in the capital, Kelly was clear when telling reporters how the match was settled by the finest of margins.

“The game has come down to the roll of the dice and a penalty shoot-out,” he said as reported on the club’s official website.

“We weren’t ourselves in the first half but we put in a good performance in the second half and if it was going to fall anyway, it was going to fall ours but it wasn’t to be and at times these things don’t happen.

“They were getting the better of us (in the first-half) and we didn’t look ourselves but half-time came around and we played the football we’d been playing all season in that second half. Had we managed to do that all game, it could’ve been a different story but it’s a cruel game sometimes.

“We got on top of them and were creating more and more and we got ourselves level. We felt like we were going to score again but it didn’t happen today.”

The Sky Blues captain also offered his backing to Dabo who became the unlucky player to miss the spot-kick which settled the contest.

“He’s very disappointed and you can see how much it hurt him, it would hurt anyone in this world,” the 33-year-old said. “He’s a strong character and he’ll bounce back and I’m sure the team will make sure that will happen.”

When asked for his thoughts on the season as a whole, Kelly added: “The manager said well done for the season, it’s come down to the roll of a dice.

“We need to take the performances through to next season now. It’s been a tough season and a tough few years, playing in Birmingham and all the other stuff, so what we’ve managed to do speaks volumes of the squad.”

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