"I don't think any side in the country would relish coming into these two games on the back of each other," Coppell told Sky Sports.
"We came here and again amended the way we wanted to play and it seemed to be going all right and obviously to a certain extent we were frustrating United.
"We had a couple of injuries in the second half, significantly the Murty injury and the timing of it.
"That just left us a little bit transparent for the second goal and then with the third goal and sending off it looked as if there was no way back.
"Respect to my players, we kept going and sneaked a second goal and then you hope something breaks, but it wasn't to be.
"There is an awful lot of self esteem and respect with the performance here, but no points."
Sodje was sent-off for picking up bookings for fouls on Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Wayne Rooney - the second of which was after the linesman appeared to flag for offside.
Coppell added: "I looked across and the linesman's flag went up for offside straight away, but the referee gestured for tugging on the shirt.
"It was maybe a little bit of naivety from our player, but it did seem an awfully harsh decision.
"I don't know the sequence of events, but the referee ain't going to change it."