The Sky Blues coach spoke after the Under-21s' final game of the season and despite being defeated, he believes there is plenty of potential...
Coventry City professional development coach Dave Hockaday believes “the future is bright” with the Sky Blues after the Under-21s played their final game of the season.
City lost 1-0 to Leeds United but had a number of chances to win the game after conceding a goal due to a defensive error from a Trialist.
Since Hockaday has come in the Under-21s’ form has picked up and with their season now over, the former Leeds manager admits he has enjoyed the job since he was appointed in February.
“I have really enjoyed it so far,” Hockaday said.
“When I came in we were on single figures points-wise and generally we were all over the place.
“But there are a lot of talented players here with a lot of hunger so it didn’t take me long to organise the group. We’ve played great stuff at times and there were lots of scouts here today too, so that’s proof really that the lads are progressing, we do have some really good footballers.
“The future really is bright, the first-team have a huge game on Sunday make no mistake, but we do have some really good young talent here.”
The Sky Blues may have lost today but in the second-half, City created plenty of clear-cut chances with Bassala Sambou missing two great opportunities and Blair Turgott also provoked a great save from the United stopper as he went through on goal.
Hockaday believes it is a problem throughout the club that the chances being created aren’t being finished and was disappointed to lose 1-0 after a much improved second-half display.
He continued: “In the first-half, the lads wanted to go out and play football instead of being savvy and thinking about how to win the game. That’s the difference between a park player and a professional footballer.
“Their goal resulted from a poor back pass, we’ve hit the woodwork twice thanks to Maddison and in the second-half it really was one-way traffic. When you have that many chances you’ve got to win the game.
“Five or six clear cut chances not being finished – it really is an endemic throughout the whole of the club right now. But that aside we gave some game time to some first-year scholars who look the part and as I said before we do have a bright future.”