MIND OVER MATTER
APPROACH WILL BE KEY FOR CRUNCH CLASH WITH WYCOMBE IN RELEGATION FIGHT BUT IT’S NOT A MUST-WIN, INSISTS ROBINS
COVENTRY City fans will be looking at today’s clash with bottom-of-the-league Wycombe Wanderers as the very definition of a ‘must-win’ game.
But manager Mark Robins says that’s not the case within the Sky Blues camp, insisting it is just one of ten opportunities, albeit a “brilliant” one facing them between now and the end of the Championship season.
The danger of putting too much emphasis on the 3pm fixture at St Andrew’s, of course, is that could induce anxiety among the players.
“People will look at it from the outside and think those things but we have ten games and we can’t attach any more importance to it,” said the City boss. “We always say the next game is the most important but it isn’t the be-all and end-all.
“We have to look after ourselves, take on the information and see if we can transfer that into the match day.
“The game at Luton [on Tuesday] was one where we didn’t transfer it enough. I didn’t think it was a horrific performance by any stretch of the imagination but there were elements of the game that cost us in the end.
“We are trying to get that consistency, which comes from cutting out mistakes.
“There are one or two players who need their mindset adjusting slightly but if we’re on it, we’re good enough, there’s no two ways about it.
“But to attach more significance on one game isn’t what should happen, certainly not within the building, that’s for sure. “It’s a brilliant game for us, and brilliant opportunity. They are a really difficult team, competitive and we need to be competitive.” Wycombe boss Gareth Ainsworth, meanwhile, has adopted a ‘nothing to lose’ approach in an attempt to keep the pressure off his rock-bottom battlers who have lost five of their last six games.
Wycombe sit 12 points from safety, with Coventry in 20th place, six points above the drop zone.
Liam Kelly’s double – his first goals in more than two years – earned the Sky Blues a 2-1 victory when the sides met at Adams Park in December and the Chairboys have been contenders in most of the games they have played in their firstever season at this level.
“They have been competitive in all the games and I think there’s only one where they have lost heavily,” said Robins.
“I watched the game on Wednesday against Barnsley and it was a really competitive game.
“There are certainly some ele
We always say the next game is the most important but it isn’t the be-all and end-all. Mark Robins
ments of the game that we will show the players and speak about that we have to cope and deal with.
“They are an energetic team. He’s added players to it and they’ll come and have a real go.
“But we have nothing to lose either. There are ten games left and while everyone can attach importance to one game, we have to attach importance to all ten.
“So from my point of view it’s about us trying to play our own game, and earning the right to play our own game against a team that always give everything they can.
“It’ll be a tough afternoon, that’s for sure, and hopefully we can cause them more problems than they cause us.”
There are no new injuries for Wycombe, with midfielder David Wheeler and defender Jordan Obita the only players occupying the treatment room this week.
Defender Jack Grimmer, who left the Sky Blues in 2019, could face his former club.