Haye targets winter return
Sky Blues Reporter MARK Robins is delighted with the way his Coventry players are shaping up despite slipping to their first defeat of the pre-season.
The Sky Blues boss says his 24-man squad that has travelled to Spain are ‘hungry’ to do well and he takes great encouragement from their efforts so far, including Tuesday night’s 3-2 defeat to French Ligue 2 outfit Valenciennes.
“We had a brilliant day in terms of preparation and then came up against a Championship side in France, and you can’t replicate that,” said the 47-year-old, who was particularly pleased with City’s second half showing. They had some real quality and we aren’t going to come up against that often, but it was a good exercise to try and keep the ball and get into our shape.
“After training in the morning, which we worked really hard in, it was a very good day for us. To come out with two goals and almost dominate the second half after they kept the ball very well in the first was pleasing.” Summer signing from Sheffield United Marc McNulty opened his Sky Blues account by scoring from the penalty spot before teenager Jordan Ponticelli added second, and his first goal for the club at senior level. We restricted their chances and got level through a penalty,” added Robins.
“Marc McNulty was just saying he’s got one shot and one goal which is a good ratio, so hopefully he’ll keep that up!
“Jordan Ponticelli came on for the second half and ran his socks off, so it was a very good performance capped off with a great finish that put us ahead at the time.
“Like I’ve said, in this heat and the way the lads have worked all week has been really encouraging and each member of the squad is showing they’re hungry to push each other.”
City’s next pre-season game is on Tuesday night at Barnsley.