It’s amazing to see what Mark has achieved
FORMER BOSS MOWBRAY REFLECTS ON BITTER-SWEET TIME AT SKY BLUES – AND HAILS ROBINS’ ACHIEVEMENTS
FORMER Coventry City manager Tony Mowbray says Mark Robins deserves ‘huge credit’ for revitalising the Sky Blues.
Mowbray has spoken about his bitter-sweet time at the Sky Blues and what he expects from his old side when he brings his Blackburn Rovers side to St Andrew’s today.
Mowbray was City boss between March 2015 and September 2016, during which time he enjoyed a glorious five-month spell when a star-studded team took League One by storm and looked to be heading for a promotion push.
Sadly, it all fell a bit flat after Christmas and Mogga’s men pulled up short, finishing in eighth place, five points of the play-off places.
A difficult summer of recruitment, which he puts down to a lack of finances, left City desperately short on quality and, just 10 league games in and the 56-year-old walked away to spend more time with his young family.
A failed spell under Mark Venus was followed by a disastrous two and a half months under Russell Slade before Robins was brought back to the club, sadly, too late to save it from relegation to League Two.
“I think Mark deserves huge credit for what he’s managed to achieve, really,” said Mowbray.
“I look at that team and it’s only young Shipley who was around it then. He’s had a huge turnaround in players.
“And you find that’s what happens when there is very little finance at the club and it’s very difficult.
“You’re either bringing young lads from the academy through, which is what they do. You only have to look at James Maddison playing for Leicester in the Europa League, amazing.
“Adam Armstrong was a part of my squad and scored 20 goals and Ryan Kent played for Rangers last night in an amazing win away at Belgium; Joe Cole, who was probably on one of the channels presenting last night.
“We had a pretty strong team with Jacob Murphy, who went to Newcastle for £12m quid, he was on loan from Norwich at the time. John Fleck, who’s been playing in the Premier League with Sheffield United, he was our centre midfield player.
“We had some very talented young guys but it was their first loans really and they were trying to make their mark in the game.”
He added: “It was exciting that first season, it was an exciting time at Coventry. We were getting 15-odd thousand fans in the Ricoh Arena some days, the team was flying and we were expecting to score three or four each game.
“I think it was 6-0 at Bury in one game, it was a really exciting period. But as you say, they all went back to their loan clubs and we had the youth team left. Without money to go and buy players it was a tough period.
“I was living three and a half hours away from home and my kids were very young at the time, and in the end I just wanted to go home and be a dad, to go and do what I needed to and bring some discipline in their lives.”
It all ended after a 2-2 Ricoh Arena draw with AFC Wimbledon on a cool September night – the 10th winless league match of the new 2016/17 campaign.
“I wished Coventry all the best when I left and I think it’s amazing to see what Mark has achieved with them and where they are now, and how well they are playing, I would suggest, ” he said, as he prepares his 14th placed Rovers side for today’s match against his former club on less familiar ground at St Andrew’s. “I’ve been studying them for a day or two now and they gave Swansea a real good game the other night, in fact they should have won it when they had the ball cleared off the line and there were some good saves from the ‘keeper.
“They ask good questions of the opposition. They beat QPR but obviously Bournemouth went there and won. It’s a dangerous game for us, they’re no pushovers.
“But I expect the best from our group and as I say all the time, one game you’re playing a team who were in the Premier League last season and three days later you’re playing a team who were in League One, and they’re both really tough games.
“But we will go there and approach it with the expectation that we’ve got to ask questions of Coventry. No doubt they will ask questions of us.
“But we will go there with a positive mindset and see if we can reach the standards we expect of ourselves and see if we can get three points.”
I was living three and a half hours away from home and my kids were very young, and in the end I just wanted to go home and be a dad.
Tony Mowbray