Devon joins Boro on loan
CITY under-23s skipper Devon Kelly-Evans has joined Nuneaton Town on a youth loan and goes straight into their squad for today’s trip to Halifax Town.
The 20-year old Academy graduate, whose twin brother Dion has chalked up 19 firstteam appearances this term, made his League One debut at Millwall in September but is in a long midfield queue at the Ricoh.
Boro boss Tommy Wright said: “I would like to say a big thank you to Coventry City, and in particular Nicky Eaden, for making this move happen.
“Devon is a talented young lad who is highly thought of at Coventry and we are delighted to have him on board at this stage in his development.
“He has a lot of good attributes and has been on our radar for over a month now. He will be a welcome addition to our squad.
Kelly-Evans is the second City player to have a spell at Liberty Way this term, Darragh Leahy making eight appearances. RUSSELL Slade admits Coventry City’s trip to Oldham today is a ‘must win’ game.
The Sky Blues travel to Boundary Park looking to halt their miserable 13-game winless run in League One and start clawing their way back in touch with their fellow relegation battlers before it’s too late.
Propping up the division, City are currently five points adrift of second bottom Chesterfield and eight off the safety cut off point ahead of the first of six games against bottom half or relegation battling sides Wimbledon, Gillingham, Swindon, Bury and Shrewsbury.
“It has to start now, that has been the message to the players,” insisted Slade, speaking to BBC Coventry and Warwickshire.
“We can’t wait, we have to start delivering immediately and they know that. If that’s the pressure we have to deal with that, and I’m sure they’ll rise to the challenge.”
The manager is clearly hoping this week’s Checkatrade Trophy success in securing a place in the final at Wembley will provide the platform on which to kickstart their survival push with 17 games to go.
“To get over the line and to simply have that winning feeling return and achieving something this week will hopefully give us a little boost Sky Blues Reporter for the next few games,” he said. “We know what we’re up against, we’ve seen the fixtures and know how important they are.”
Oldham have won three of the new boss John Sheridan’s six games in charge, lifting them up the table to within a point of 20th placed Swindon Town.
“I know John really well and he knows this league,” said Slade of the club that have a marginally worse home record that Coventry, having both managed just three wins in their own back yard but Athletic who have lost six to the Sky Blues; five defeats.
“It is the third time he has been with them so doesn’t need anytime to settle. They’ve won some and lost some since he has come in, but gained important points.
“It’s given them a chance, when you win a couple of games it does give you an opportunity to get out of that bottom four and that is what we’re searching for. It’s always a tough place to go.
“They’ll be difficult to beat, but their home form has not been fantastic either and let’s hope that can continue for one more week.”
Goals have been a huge problem for Oldham at Boundary Park this term - only eight have arrived in 14 outings - and Sheridan wants his men to be more gung-ho.
“It was a good, solid performance from us again, up against a good team at MK Dons,” he said after Tuesday night’s 1-0 defeat.
“I would have liked us to just have a go a little bit more and be positive going forward. We had one or two halfchances and a couple of headers in the first half and there were some good performances again, defensively.
“I don’t want to keep saying we defended well. I would like to say, ‘we could have scored three or four today’.
“We have to take it on the chin. We scored late on ourselves at Chesterfield and sometimes, you just have to accept it.
“We had two tough away games and to win one is not too bad. Coventry and Charlton are two tough games, but we have to be looking to get maximum points from both of those now in our next two home games.”
Sheridan believes there’s much more to come from Athletic’s new signings as he aims for a six-point boost from the next two home games, hopeful that Aiden O’Neill, Chris Taylor and Tope Obadeyi will have each benefited from recent runouts in order to start firing on all cylinders soon.
Obadeyi,a 27-year-old midfielder on loan from Dundee United, is the only one of that trio to have played more than a handful of firstteam minutes since the turn of the year,. They total than two hours of action between them in 2017 prior to signing for Athletic, 18-year-old O’Neill having joined on loan from Burnley and experienced midfielder Taylor on loan from Bolton.
“The players I have brought in haven’t played much football, so the two games will have done them the world of good,” said Sheridan.
“They have game-time in them and can only get better.”