City boss Nigel Worthington felt his players took more physical punishment than was necessary as they crashed to defeat at Coventry. Six yellow cards were handed out by Yorkshire referee Jon Moss at the Ricoh Arena, four of them to the Canaries, but it was the occasional flying elbow he missed that brought a polite rebuke from Worthington and midfielder Carl Robinson, who was one of the victims.

City boss Nigel Worthington felt his players took more physical punishment than was necessary as they crashed to defeat at Coventry.

Six yellow cards were handed out by Yorkshire referee Jon Moss at the Ricoh Arena, four of them to the Canaries, but it was the occasional flying elbow he missed that brought a polite rebuke from Worthington and midfielder Carl Robinson, who was one of the victims.

Robinson took an arm in the face just seconds into the match. Substitute Paul McVeigh appeared to suffer a similar knock in the second half, while Jason Shackell also needed treatment for a bang on the head.

Said Worthington: “It was a physical game. We've got a couple of players who might need X-rays when we get back to Norwich for cheekbones which the referee failed to pick up, which we're disappointed with, but it's a man's game and we get on with it.”

Robinson took a diplomatic line, but was clearly annoyed by one or two challenges.

“That's part and parcel of football. Nowadays you can't say what you really think and what you really feel about officials, so sometimes you've got to bite your lip,” he said.

“It was a physical game out there. We knew Coventry would be a physical team. They set their stall out early, there were one or two robust challenges. That is what this league is about. You've got to be able to cope with that.

“You hope the officials help you out a bit but today was a game where I didn't think they did.”