Coventry boss jokes they would be in FA Cup final if Wright had cut his toenails

Mark Robins joked that Coventry would be in the FA Cup Final if Haji Wright had cut his toenails after the Championship side suffered Wembley heartbreak.

After Coventry fought back from 3-0 down to take the semi-final against Manchester United into extra-time, substitute Victor Torp thought he had won it – only for Wright, who had supplied the cross, to be ruled offside by the most marginal of VAR calls.

‘Had he cut his toenails we wouldn’t be talking about penalties,’ said Sky Blues boss Robins, whose exploits when United won the trophy in 1990 are believed by many to have saved Sir Alex Ferguson’s job.

‘Our performance will be spoken about for a long time. We are disappointed but we can’t be too down about it. For the last hour of the game we performed like Manchester United and that’s what I’m proud of.’

United were 2-0 up at half-time through goals from Scott McTominay and Harry Maguire and when Bruno Fernandes made it 3-0 in the second half, the tie appeared to be over.

But then Ellis Simms and Callum O’Hare scored to drag Coventry back into it and Wright converted from the spot to take the game beyond 90 minutes.

In the end Coventry’s nerves got the better of them in the shoot-out when O’Hare and Ben Sheaf missed but they had given Erik ten Hag’s men a huge scare.

Robins added: ‘They thought they had won and at 3-0 up you can forgive them for that. They started to tire and we started to make them work.

‘The offside might have an impact. We were 20 seconds from being in the Cup Final and then suddenly we were in a penalty shoot-out.’