Shock Eccles call explained by City boss

WHEN Mark Robins revealed his Coventry City team to face Bristol City on Easter Monday, it raised a few eyebrows.

It looked, on paper at least, like the manager was going to switch to a back four with right wing-back Julien Dacosta dropped to the bench and the versatile Josh Pask coming in at what appeared to be right-back.

Holding midfielder Josh Eccles was also included ahead of out of form Gus Hamer, who was among the subs, with the 20-year-old expected to be deployed in the middle of the park, as he was when he went on for a late eye-catching cameo against QPR.

But no, when the players lined up for kick-off it became clear that not only was Pask deployed at left centre-half of the back three – a job which he did admirably throughout – but Eccles was tasked with filling the right wing-back berth.

That was no mean feat for the development player making his full Championship debut, up against forward Nahki Wells and full-back Steve Sessegnon.

“The reason Josh was in the team was to give us that element of control on the righthand side,” said Robins, “but also when he got to the final third you know his delivery is good. We have not had that and unless Fanky is flying and fit you don’t get it.

“Julien has done it on occasions but he had a tough afternoon on Friday, and he’s got to come back from that.

“And while it was Josh’s turn today, hopefully we can get Fanky back and get some confidence into Julien and a bit of understanding.”

While Eccles is making excellent progress with his development, having impressed on loan at League One Gillingham earlier in the season, and clearly trusted by the manager, Robins revealed that Dabo is ahead of schedule.

But for the time being, Eccles can be proud of his progress.

“That’s a decent performance,” said Robins, who explained the Coventry-born player’s versatility.

“He played all the way through the Academy when he was a defender and then became a midfielder.

“But he has loads of technical ability. He has a load of different attributes and I wouldn’t like to pigeon-hole him.”