SKY BLUES TOLD: TIME TO MAN UP
COVENTRY City must beware the dangers of ‘streetwise’ Accrington Stanley when they meet today, says manager Mark Robins.
The Sky Blues boss warned his side cannot be “old manned” by the Lancashire hosts who are unbeaten in the last three meetings between the sides.
City suffered a league double of defeats to last season’s League Two champions, and snatched a late point against John Coleman’s side at the Ricoh Arena earlier this term.
Robins admitted he had held a “frank but fair” dressing room discussion with his players after being given a lesson in a 2-0 home defeat last season – and he will reminding his squad of the threat Accrington will again provide at the Wham Stadium today.
“If you don’t do it right from minute one and allow them to get the rhythm then you’re in trouble,” Robins said. “I have said before, they are so streetwise.
“They’re confident in what they do, they do it really well and we spoke about them ‘old manning’ us in the past and I don’t see any difference in them.
“They play the game in a competitive way and we’ve got to be able to match that and try and play football and get a result.
“We didn’t come out on the good end of them last season and we’ve had a draw this season having gone a goal down and scored afterwards. But I think that we’re in a decent place, like I say mentally we’re OK. “I think we’ve got to come to terms with players that haven’t been there; it’s a tight ground, it’s a difficult pitch against a good team.”
Sean McConville, 29, and Billy Kee, 28, are just two of Accrington’s more experienced personnel that were vital in Stanley’s League Two title charge last season. The duo remain key to Stanley’s success and Robins admires the squad that his opposite number Coleman has built on such limited resources. “John has done brilliantly with Accrington,” he said.
“He’s brought some good players in, got some good loans in and he’s got some good players there. McConville is a really good player, a talented boy and so is Jordan Clarke who I had at Barnsley.
“They’ve got a good nucleus of the team, they’ve not got a massive squad but you know they work for each other and know how they play and know what the roles and responsibilities are, and they’re good at it.
“They’re a tough side. Billy Kee, again, I’ve not mentioned him. Billy’s been brilliant for them. They’ve taken Paul Smith on loan from QPR who’s talented and Offrande Zanzala who they took in the summer from Derby County.
“John takes players and moulds them into really good parts of their team, components of their team.”
After enjoying an unbeaten February and reducing the deficit on the top-six to seven points, Robins is hopeful of maintaining that momentum today.
Accrington themselves are unbeaten in their last three outings, which included an impressive 2-2 draw away to Sunderland, and the Sky Blues boss is optimistic that Coventry’s second visit to the Wham Stadium will be a more successful one than the first, when they lost 1-0 in October 2017.
“They were champions last season and they’ve gone up into this division and they were doing fantastically well,” said Robins.
“They’ve had a similar run to ours during the season and they had a great result at Sunderland the other day. They’ve drawn with Southend and you know they’ve had some really good games and some really good results.
“So we’ve spoken about them, we’ve looked at what they’re capable of and we know it’s going to be a difficult game but it’s a good game to look forward to and we can try to get something from that game where we didn’t get anything last year.”
They play the game in a competitive way and we’ve got to be able to match that and try and play football and get a result. Mark Robins