The Sky Blues Under 23s continued their unbeaten start to the Professional Development League with a 1-0 win over Birmingham City.
Will Bapaga’s goal was the difference as the Sky Blues made it back to back wins last week to climb to the top of the PDL.
The victory came off the back of last Monday’s 2-0 win over Hull City at the Alan Higgs centre, in which the 23s then had three days to recover until they had to travel to St Andrew’s to face Birmingham.
The Sky Blues dominated the first half and were unlucky to not have doubled their lead, before a fight back from the hosts in the second half which saw some fine saves from Tom Billson, to help continue the unbeaten run.
Speaking after the final whistle, Under 23s Head Coach, Luke Tisdale had this to say:
“First half we were really good, we started where we left off against Hull, dominated the ball, played out from the back and played the way we want to play imposing the game on them.
“We probably didn’t create enough chance again so that thread continues, but we did work the goal well and we told the full backs they can push out and be the outlet.
“Second half the flow of the game allowed them to get back into the game and dominate the ball, so we get chances on the counter.
“Then two outstanding saves from Tom Billson were match defining moments that won us the game late on.
“Whether we stay unbeaten or not is not important though, we are going to lose game, but it is important we get players into the first team.
“People like Brandon Mason came in and he has played in the Premier League and then comes into a 23s game and work so hard to get his shirt back and that is the mentality the whole team has at the moment which is good.”
Tisdale was also full of praise for young Billson, who helped the Sky Blues secure the three points with two saves in injury time.
“He has certainly improved since coming in as a first-year pro, he still has a lot of areas for development.
“We talked about our last away stadium game at Burnley where we didn’t play out from the back and we didn’t want to be seen as that.
“We want to be a team playing out from the back and Tom is a big part of that and he may get it wrong once or twice, but you can’t fault his work ethic and he is a great shot stopper which the two saves at the end of the game proved that.”