Coventry Unbeaten In Last 5 Matches

Coventry managed to enter into the draw for the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy second round after 1-0 win over Wycombe Wanderers. This was also the club’s first win in the last four matches, which made it more special for manager Steven Pressley. He would be hoping that his players managed to take this form into the league campaign, where they have only one victory in the five matches. As result of this victory, Coventry are unbeaten in the last five matches, while also conceding only one goal in the last three.

Pressley had a number of youngsters in the starting line-up against Wycombe in a move that was clearly designed to see the best team for the league campaign. After a goalless first half, McQuoid managed to get on the scoresheet and take his team into the next stage of the competition. It was vitally important for Coventry considering that they were recently knocked out of the League Cup in the first round. The confidence provided from these results is likely to help in the next two home matches against Gillingham and Yeovil Town. This was after three consecutive away matches in two different competitions.

Pressley says that it was certainly not a great performance from his team because they were not allowed to play their game by the opposition, but he is happy to get the result nonetheless.

“In terms of the fluency of our football I don’t think it was brilliant. That is credit to Wycombe who really pressed us and forced us into making mistakes at times but ultimately football is about winning games and getting results. Coming here with such a young squad and getting a win is a terrific result for us. Eleven of our 16 players are academy-based players and nine from the 11 that finished the game is probably a record for Coventry City, which is outstanding,” said Pressley.

Kavanagh Releases Large Number Of PLayers

The head coach of Carlisle United, Graham Kavanagh has a released a large number of player during this summer transfer window as he wants to trim his squad and make it more compact by allowing some of the dead weight on leaving the club. There have been however a few players in the squad who have opted to extend their stay with Carlisle United which is the case of the midfielders Paul Thirlwell and James Berrett.

James Berrett prolong his career at Carlisle United by accepting a new contract that will allow him to stay performing with the club for 2 more years while the 35 year old midfielder Paul Thirlwell is expected to sign a 1 year contract extension.

The relegation that Graham Kavanagh and his club suffered has made the tactician take a twist in the squad as a large number of changes and switches keep on happening but it’s with the ultimate objective of improving the squad and earning a promotion spot back to League One.

Dan Hanford is a new arrival that will be making his way to Carlisle United after being snatched up on a free transfer. Hanford is a 23 year old shot-stopper that has already worked alongside the first team coach Tony Caig on a number of occasions and Gravam Kavanagh revealed details concerning the new player.

“He knows what to expect. It’s obviously a position we’ve been looking at since we released Greg Fleming He’s looked good in training and he’s starting to understand the way we’re trying to work.” Kavanagh told the club’s website.

A few more arrivals are expected to make their way into Carlisle United as well as the future of certain players in the squad will be decided within the next few days or weeks.

BUMPY RIDE

Coventry City have been going through a bumpy ride for the last couple of years and manager Steven Pressley has accepted that it was never going to be easy to rebuild the club that had been in decline for more than a decade. Coventry were once in the Premier league not in the distant past, but they have since slipped down the tables and are currently playing in the third division. They could easily find themselves in the bottom of the pyramid if they failed to avoid relegation this season.

Coventry are perilously close to the relegation zone with several matches left in the campaign. This has led to calls for the sacking of Steven Pressley, but the manager has defended his actions so far by saying that the rebuilding job at the club cannot be done overnight. He has pointed out to the several years of decline that the club has had to go through. Despite the troubled times at the club, Pressley is confident that the fans will be able to come out much stronger. Coventry still could possibly get into the Championship via the play-offs.

After 32 matches in the campaign, they are 14 points behind Peterborough United. They finally managed to arrest the slide of three consecutive defeats with a draw against Shrewsbury.

“You always want to win but what we have to recognise is the building process, and we’ve probably been victims of our own success because the acceleration of the team was so quick and so good for the first four or five months. But I said during that period that with a young side and developing squad that there would be difficult periods along the way, and we’re going through that now. There is no way you will ever get a smooth rise with no blips along the way,” said Pressley.

CONTENDERS

Coventry City were expected to be contenders for promotion in League One, but they have been disappointing so far and have managed a mediocre 10th position after just over half of the season. The fortunes of the team did not improve even into 2014 after they could only manage a 1-1 draw with Oldham during the weekend. Coventry manager Steven Pressley, though, was extremely upbeat after the match, as he believed that his team should have had all three points rather than just one. He said that Coventry were the only team in the match looking to get a win.

The positive for Pressley comes from Coventry’s recent form, as they are undefeated – apart from the 2-1 win over Swindon – in the last few matches. They will be now looking to convert the draws into victories, as there still remains a possibility of qualifying for the play-offs. After a 4-2 win over Peterborough United in the last match, Coventry looked confident in all areas of the, but they were unable to convert their chances into goals.

Oldham Athletic took the lead in the match through Clarke-Harris just the stroke of half-time, but Coventry managed to get back into the encounter through Baker’s goal in the 73rd minute.

“When you perform like we did you need to score more than one goal and we’ve got to keep a clean sheet. Oldham are a very well organised side and we can’t concede the goal that we did just before half time. Like Peterborough it was a goal from a set play and we talk about responsibility and not letting your man score but what also came out of today was that we were still that goal down with 25 minutes to play,” said the Coventry manager after the match to the club’s official site.

MORE PLAYERS IN

The manager of Coventry City, Steven Pressley, is looking to bring a couple of players in his squad before Thursday which is the deadline for making emergency loan signings.

Coventry City’s performance in their last couple of home games has been disastrous. First they were defeated by Tranmere Rovers by a huge margin of 1-5 last Saturday and then, yesterday, they suffered another heavy defeat against Rotherham United.

Because of those two defeats, the Sky Blues have moved down to no. 13 in the League One points table.

Coventry is not looking that strong upfront at the moment and Pressley is aware of that weakness of his team. Thus, he is looking to sign a quality striker on loan and the first name in his list is reported to be Chris Dagnall who plays for Barnsley in the Npower Championship.

Coventry had come into the ongoing League One with -10 in the points’ column. If that had not been the case, they would have been in top 10 in the League One points table by now. They have actually secured 31 points in the League One this season, but, because of that penalty of 10 points, they have got only 21 in the points’ column at the moment.

Talking to the reporters yesterday, Pressley said, “I think it’s time to bring a bit of fresh energy in the camp. We are looking to secure the services of a couple of guys in the next 2-3 days. Let’s see what happens.”

“The players who are in the squad at the moment haven’t performed poorly so far. But, bringing some new guys in is definitely going to help us.”

Coventry City’s next match is against MK Dons. That match will be played at Stadium mk on Saturday.

SECOND DEFEAT

Coventry City recently suffered the second consecutive defeat after losing 2-0 against Brentford in the League One. These two defeats have taken the wind out of the team that had gone six matches without defeat previously. After the match, manager Steven Pressley said that the team lost their focus midway through the match. They will be hoping to return to winning ways with the match against Stevenage during the weekend. As a result of the good form in the month of September, Coventry have been able to move into the 22nd position in the table.

This is extremely impressive considering that this is the season with a deficit of 10 points due to a penalty. Donaldson opened the scoring for Brentford in the 22nd minute, but Coventry always looked like being able to get back into the match because the deficit was only one goal. However, Martin Taylor’s goal in the 68th minute brought about a significant change. Coventry were unable to recover from then on in and they lost the match. They have so far taken 14 points, but they sit in the table with only four points. All the teams around them have played the same number of matches – nine.

Pressley has said that there were times in the match when the team looked like accepting the defeat and that should not repeat.

“We lost our way a bit. We stopped doing what we work towards all the time, our passing became a bit lethargic and we didn’t keep passing the tight areas like we normally do. In the end we went down 2-0 and on reflection Brentford deserved that but the one thing that disappointed me was the way we lost our spirit. That’s not the type of performance I want. In football there is a manner to lose them and today we looked like we just accepted that,” said Pressley.