Cole Skuse admitted Ipswich Town struggled without their three front-line strikers during the loss to Coventry but insisted their absence couldn’t be used as an excuse.
The Blues went down 1-0 at Portman Road after Matt Godden found the net after 16 minutes following a neat turn and finish inside the box. And while Ipswich had the better of the play for much of the game, they never truly looked likely to find the back of the net.
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The defeat, Town's fourth in succession and seventh in their last nine games, came with James Norwood and Will Keane both out with groin injuries and Kayden Jackson serving the final game of a three match ban.
That left Freddie Sears playing as a lone striker, while teenager Tyreece Simpson was again called upon from the bench less than a week after turning professional.
"Yes because you are missing quality players," Skuse said, when asked if the absence of Norwood, Jackson and Keane made things difficult.
"But we still had Freddie Sears who has played in the Premier League (for West Ham) and then Tyreece Simpson, Dobs (Armando Dobra) and Teddy Bishop as well as an international in Alan Judge who can all play in forward positions.
"You're not talking about players of no calibre but we do have top, top players who aren't playing.
"We're just having that spell at the minute where we're not getting that rub. I think the lads up top were very good and Gwion (Edwards) played very well."
Skuse admitted the result was especially tough to take, given his side put in a much-improved display following Tuesday night's loss at home to Fleetwood.
"I'm not hiding away from anything, not making excuses - it's just a tough one to take," he said.
"It's never through a lack of trying.
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"They've had one shot and scored one goal and have something to keep hold of then, so that's really disheartening.
"I'm struggling for words. It's not as if I'm coming out and trying to shy away from the questions, it's just that it's a tough one to take today because I think we played really well. On another day it maybe could have gone our way.
"It feels like a real kick of the teeth. It's no consolation to say we matched them, because we were the better side, but they won the game."
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