Yates elated with Harriers followers

Kidderminster manager Mark Yates was full of praise for the army of fans who backed their fruitless FA Cup quest at Coventry right to the finish.

Some 3,006 travelling supporters fans made the relatively short trip to the Ricoh Stadium to try to push the Blue Square Premier outfit to another memorable giant-killing triumph.

But second-half goals from Leon McKenzie and Leon Best were enough to send through the Championship side, leaving the Harriers faithful to cling to the compensation of saluting a gutsy effort by the part-timers.

It was quite some turnout for a club which has to get by on average gates of around 1,500.

Yates said: "The crowd were magnificent. They got behind us in real numbers and hopefully they went away as proud of the players as I was.

"I'll understand if one or two are a little bit frustrated, but we were playing against a team three leagues above us, away from home which is even more difficult.

"Like I say, I'm proud of the players and it's back to our bread and butter stuff. We've got players who can do the business at our level and do the club proud."

Yates admitted that the game plan was always to try to frustrate Chris Coleman's men, in an effort to bring nerves and anxiety to Coventry's football.

They were probably about 10 minutes away from doing that, until McKenzie's opening goal early in the second half.

Yates said: "We came to frustrate and we didn't want to open the game up too early. They've got some quality players, particularly up front. They are bound to be better technically and also stronger as athletes than my players.

"I felt it would be too much to ask of them to try to play them in an open game right from the start. We felt that if we could just stay in the game past the hour mark and beyond, we might have a chance to nick something.

"Unfortunately they've scored a goal 10 minutes into the second half and we had to change the way we thought and we had a real go.

"I'm proud of the players. One or two of them are disappointed that we didn't play and express ourselves as much as we would have liked, but it's a difficult place to come.

"They're a decent side with some very good players. We can be proud of our achievements and we can now concentrate on the League and the Trophy."

Coventry boss Chris Coleman was relieved his team took on to the pitch his pre-match message – don't make yourselves a headline for the following day's papers.

He said: "We took our place in the hat for the fourth round draw and that's the main thing. They made it very hard for us to break them down.

"I was hoping it wasn't going to be one of those days where we were a bit lacklustre and our finishing would let us down. But as soon as we got the goal it drew them out a bit but at 1-0 they've always got a chance, so I was pleased to get the second.

"It was important that we made sure we did not make the headlines for the wrong reasons."