Lessons learned before long Cup break after rise up table
COVENTRY City’s Championship recovery in recent weeks has been nothing short of spectacular as Mark Robins’ men have dragged themselves off the bottom of the league to the relative comfort of mid-table.
Just three weeks ago the Sky Blues were rock bottom of the division despite a gutsy 1-0 win at Cardiff. That was followed up with back-to-back victories over Sheffield United and Stoke in an impressive run that has (before last night) seen them take 16 points from a possible 21 to lift them up to 15th place on 23 points.
That, however, is still only three off the relegation zone and some eight points off sixth placed Preston North End in the play-off positions – all of which makes this week’s CBS Arena double against Wigan Athletic (last night) and Queens Park Rangers key games ahead of the month-long pause for the World Cup.
Final push
City’s dramatic recovery has, ironically, been built on outstanding away form and results that has seen the team go six games unbeaten on the road, including three wins from their last three trips. That’s in stark contrast to Coventry’s early season return when they were forced to play six of their opening seven games away from their home stadium and failed to pick up a single three points, and last season’s head start to the campaign when the Sky Blues won their first six home matches.
Having recovered vital ground in the last three weeks, Robins’ men had a huge opportunity to strengthen their position in the division against second from bottom Wigan Athletic and fifth placed QPR.
QPR, have stuttered in their last three games where they have lost at Birmingham and, most recently, went down 2-0 at home to struggling West Brom, sandwiched between a creditable draw at Norwich City.
But with confidence high in the Sky Blues camp, Saturday’s victory at promotion favourites Watford set City up perfectly ahead of two home games.
“Absolutely, it’s great,” agreed Robins. “The games are thick and fast and you don’t get time to turn around but we have to get that recovery in because Tuesday night will be a really tough game.”
The manager had set a points target from the final three games before the winter lay-off.
“There was a minimum and maximum we needed and we just need to pick up as many as we can,” he said, safe in the knowledge that his side already have three in the bag. “There were nine to play for (pre-watford) from three really tough games. We are improving and if we can get this virus out of our system there are some really good signs there.”
Seeing the back of illness
Callum Doyle was the latest victim of the virus that has ripped through Ryton, with the Manchester City loan defender forced to sit out Saturday’s match at Vicarage Road where he was replaced by Kyle Mcfadzean who dragged himself of his own sick bed to replace him, having been struck down himself just a few days earlier and unable to play against Blackburn Rovers.
Several senior players have been affected by the bug so far with some even playing through it and throwing up at half-time against Rovers and struggling through against Blackpool, when star striker Viktor Gyokeres was not fit enough the make the starting line-up.
World Cup training plan
Come 4.45pm on Saturday, City will have four long weeks before their next game – an away trip to mid-table Reading.
There are two ways of looking at it. It could be argued that the World Cup has come just at the wrong time, just as the Sky Blues are finding their rhythm and building momentum to climb the table. We all know what happened amid the disjointed, stop-start beginning to the campaign when the team was hampered by a string of postponements.
On the other hand, with injuries stacking up, it should provide Robins with time to get the likes of Martyn Waghorn (hamstring), Fankaty Dabo (thigh) and Liam Kelly (knee) back to fitness ahead of the festive programme.
So what’s the plan for the monthlong lay-off?
“We’ll use the break as best we can,” Robins told the Coventry Telegraph. “That’s the calendar and we’ve known that for the last 12 months or so, and we just have to make sure we make the most of it. I am going to give them some time off and we are going to have a training camp abroad for the week building into the Reading game.
“We are going to Spain, albeit somewhere different to where we usually go in the summer, but that’s getting too far ahead of ourselves because we have two big games before that and we have to focus on those.”