20-year old Ryan Haynes feels like he is ready to compete for a place in the Sky Blues first-team this season…
Academy Graduate Ryan Haynes has enjoyed a positive start to the new season, with a standout performance in the EFL Cup tie against Portsmouth in the week.
The fullback played 120-minutes and ended the game with a goal and an assist to his name. Haynes spent the backend of the 2015/16 season on-loan at Cambridge United, where new signing Lewis Page also spent a month loan spell in January this year.
Haynes spoke in the aftermath of the 3-2 win against Pompey: “It’s a massive season for me. I think I have done well in the pre-season and been a lot more positive in my play but there’s more to come; a lot more to come.
“Left wing-back is my favourite position to be honest because you have got the license to go forward and get at your man. At left-back you don’t always get the opportunity as much.
“But as wing-back you can get forward a lot and the switch is always on. You see a lot of the ball. Me and Andy Rose had loads of space the other night and it’s a question of using that well, it paid off because we both scored.
“The gaffer told us at half-time to pull our fingers out because we were 1-0 down and should have been winning. So we went out and gave it a right go and got the win.”
The Sky Blues have recruited West Ham’s Lewis Page during the summer transfer window, with the Hammers defender set be at the club until the end of this year.
Talking about the impact of Page coming in to the squad, Haynes added: “It’s competition and it does make me think ‘right, I need to step up here.’
“He’s come in from West Ham and he’s a good player. I knew about him before because he was at Cambridge where I was on loan just before me and the lads there said he was talented.
“But it’s competition for me and that will be good for both of us. When you get your opportunities you have to take them, and I think I have done that. I might have started the game poorly but I thought I finished it strongly.”