Players need to be brave, urges boss

MARK Robins has urged his Coventry City players to remain ‘brave’ to ensure their progressive footballing philosophy gets its rewards.

The Sky Blues chalked up a first win in six outings with a 1-0 victory at Rochdale last weekend and will look to follow it up today against Walsall.

Boss Robins stressed the attacking mindset will continue to develop for the long term – and both the players and the fans can see the progress.

The Sky Blues have created the sixth highest amount of chances in all England’s top four divisions as of the end of January and the highest in League One.

“I spoke to a supporter the other day that said it was brave [to play the way we want to] and said we could easily stick a big man upfront and go long,” said Robins. “But that isn’t the way we want to play. We will win more games eventually doing it this way.

“There is a process we are going through, the players are being brave. Last week it was a tough place to go to in Rochdale and with the playing surface and against a side we haven’t beaten for a long time – I think it was eight attempts – and to get the win in the manner that we did was excellent and some of the football we played was brilliant.

“There is a method and a way of going about things that we will continue. When you are going through that period people have to understand it because it is very easy to look at the run of results we had that weren’t great and I understand that.

“At the start of the process I said we are going to have to take some on the chin because we have to get to a point where those results will start to improve and turn, and now everyone understands the way we are going about things.”