The Sky Blues first-team coach is pleased with the development of 19-year old Kyle Spence during the pre-season period...
Coventry City’s first-team coach Jamie Clapham took charge of the Sky Blues against local side Rugby Town last night, with City emerging 2-1 victors.
Academy graduate Kyle Spence, who rejoined the Sky Blues during the 2015/16 season, was City’s standout performer claiming a goal and providing the assist for George Thomas’ sidefoot finish. Clapham was largely happy with his side’s performance, with the game a good fitness test in 30 degree heat at Butlin Road.
Clapham said: “It was a good pre-season workout for them, we had a certain amount of players that had game time on Saturday and we wanted to flip it around to give others a chance today.
“The rest of the squad have been put through their paces back at the training ground so everybody should be on a level playing field in terms of their physicality. We’ve got Thursday and Friday before another pre-season fixture on Saturday and a big push before the season actually starts.
“I don’t think there should be any panic in pre-season games, we’ll look back at the goal we conceded and assess what went wrong. It’s all an exercise of fitness, the group showed good character to come from behind and controlled large parts of the game.”
City’s first team coach has been back in training today at Ryton with the squad, ahead of the trip to Newport County on Saturday. The 40-year old was particularly complimentary of Kyle Spence, who continued a good run of pre-season form with a goal against Rugby.
Clapham added: “I think Kyle has had a really good pre-season, he looked lively on tour and played well again tonight. He looked good when he came on against Sturm Graz to win the penalty and it’s a real plus. We’ve scored a couple more goals and the boys have gained in match fitness.
“Towards the end, it was difficult to break down a defensive barrier of 6/7 players. We’ll look at how we can do that, how we can achieve it. We may have tried to force it at times.
“Looking at the pitch, it was a difficult surface. The main thing is they have all come through the game and you can see the different aspects of what we are trying to instil - the formations and systems. The style of football we want to play.”