‘The team morale we have is unbelievable, one of the best dressing rooms I have known’

KEEPER MAROSI REVEALS THE KEY TO SKY BLUES’ GLORY

WHEN Coventry City star Marko Marosi went agonisingly close to gaining promotion with his previous club last season he thought he was part of the best dressing room he’d ever experienced.

The goalkeeper helped Doncaster Rovers to the League One play-offs where they narrowly lost out to Charlton Athletic in the semi-finals.

A summer move to the Sky Blues followed and the 26-year-old admits it couldn’t have worked out more perfectly after going one better and winning the title and promotion to the Championship with an even more impressive group of players.

“I felt I needed a change, felt I was too comfortable and although it was a difficult decision, it’s turned out to be the best decision of my career,” said the popular stopper, speaking exclusively to the Telegraph.

“That team morale we have... The dressing room has been unbelievable. It’s one of the best dressing rooms I have been in.

“We had a good one last season at Doncaster and my fear was going to another club, ‘what if I don’t find a dressing room like that again?’

“But I tell you what, this is a better dressing room. Unbelievable!”

Marosi more than played his part in the season’s success, keeping 14 clean sheets and helping City’s rearguard become the tightest defence in the division, conceding just 30 league goals, only 11 at St Andrew’s, and losing just three times before the season was cut short following the win at Ipswich Town in early March.

And for Marosi, that narrow 1-0 victory at Portman Road was the moment he and his team-mates knew that nothing was going to stop them going up.

“The fans were amazing after that game, which was a big win for us,” he said.

“Afterwards we said ‘we aren’t going to lose again this season,’ because there was a genuine feeling that we weren’t.

“We all felt that we were just going to go and smash it now!

“We were that confident.

“Ipswich made it difficult for us, they were physical and they kick it long but they are a good team with some really good players, so it’s quite surprising to see where they are in the league.”

Sadly for City they didn’t get chance to secure the title on their own terms in the last nine games, although that takes nothing away from the final achievement, which was confirmed by manager Mark Robins on the squad’s Whatsapp group chat.

“The gaffer sent a message out and we had been waiting for what felt like forever, but we got there in the end,” he said.

“We were comfortable with whatever the decision was going to be but it was just that not knowing that was killing us. “Everyone knew the EFL meeting was happening and we were all just sitting by our phones waiting. We were all then messaging each other when we heard and obviously we’re just gutted that we can’t celebrate the right way with our fans in the city centre and all that, but it is what it is and we’ll take it either way. “It would have been nice to share it with the fans and our families on the pitch after a game, so we have missed out on that.”

Asked what will be his abiding memory of the campaign, City’s No.1 said: “For me it’s been the performances of all of us, never going away from the way Adi and the Gaffer had been drilling into us all season.

“We wanted to be brave and we were. We stuck to our guns and the performances have been outstanding. We’ve played out from the back and I don’t think anyone expected us to do as well as we did, playing every game away from home.

“But we made that stadium our own and it was kind of our fortress because it was never an easy game for teams coming to St Andrew’s, and everyone knew they were in for a tough game.

“We struggled to get that win away from home at the start but we knew it would come and there was never a moment we were panicking about it because we were always in a decent position in the table. We just stuck to what we knew and it worked out in the end.”

He added: “We lost a couple where we were very unlucky, apart from Rotherham away which just wasn’t our day, but the other two we lost, especially Shrewsbury, there were a few decisions that didn’t go our way.

“And the Tranmere defeat in the last few minutes was as unlucky as it gets.

“We could have had a win Bolton away straight away but that was a little bit iffy!”

Marosi quickly established himself as first choice ahead of understudy

Ben Wilson last summer but how does he feel he’s done personally?

“I really am pleased with my own season,” he said.

“I found it quite tough in pre-season when the goalkeeping coach Aled Williams was getting the bad habits out of me and teaching me new tricks.

“He helped me a lot and I feel it has been a successful season for me. It’s a shame I couldn’t finish top for clean sheets, which I think the Peterborough keeper got. But I kept 14 and I’m still happy with that.”

As for City’s defensive record, he added: “I wont take credit for that because I had an unbelievable defence in front of me, but it’s a nice stat to have on your CV especially given we didn’t have a home ground and every game was an away game.”