Coventry City striker Cedric Roussel has admitted that he still does not know how the Sky Blues managed to throw away a two-goal lead in Saturday’s cup clash with Charlton.

City looked to be comfortably beating the Addicks at 2-0 just eight minutes before half time, but they capitulated and went in at the break on level terms.

Despite several bright moments in the second half Gordon Strachan’s men failed to break through and Charlton striker Andy Hunt struck with just minutes remaining to put the Londoners through.

Belgian ace Roussel netted his fourth and fifth goals for the club to give them the lead and was perplexed at the way the team lost it.

He said:

"We played very well in the first half, it was fantastic and we got two good goals.

"But somehow we let them get two goals back before half time which was crazy, I don’t know what happened.

"If we had gone in at half-time two goals ahead then we would have won this game easily.

"Even at 2-2 it was still a good chance for us to win and just before they scored we had one or two chances but it was not to be, that is football I suppose."

Although the game ended in disappointment the 21-year-old Belgian was delighted with his double strike.

He said:

"The first goal came to me from a Normann header and I just managed to knock it over the keeper.

"The second was a great cross from Gary McAllister and I was very pleased with the header, it was a good one."

Roussel praised Charlton for their fighting spirit but was insistent that the referee missed a crucial incident.

He said:

"We should have had a penalty. I was in the box and the defender pulled me down to stop me getting to the ball – that is a penalty."