The Sky Blues Under-23s were held to a score draw against Cardiff City at the Alan Higgs Centre yesterday afternoon.
The visitors took the lead a minute after the restart, before Jordan Ponticelli came off the bench to score his first goal of the season for the 23s.
Talking after the game, Head of Under-23s Development, Jason Farndon admitted he was disappointed in the performance of the development side.
He said: “It was a disappointing game, I think the game lacked intensity, the game lacked any real spark from both sets of players.
“I don’t know too much about their team but it’s a mismatch of players, players coming in to get match minutes, return to fitness and it makes it a little bit harder to work as a team.
“Again, we try to preach if you don’t win the game you don’t lose it, Ponticelli comes on and he does what he does he scores goals.”
The Under-23s fielded a strong eleven, with the likes of Jordy Hiwula, Amadou Bakayoko, Josh Pask, Jodi Jones and Ben Wilson all starting against the Bluebirds.
Jodi started his third consecutive game for the 23s, completing another 90 minutes as he looks to close in on a return to the first team.
“Jodi’s going to have to be patient, he’ll have no choice.” Farndon said.
“It’s really difficult to get into the first team at the minute, you look at the bench on Saturday and its excellent.
“There’s getting back fit and there’s being ready to play in first team games and I think Jodi’s finding himself a little bit in the middle of that at the moment.
“He’s had two torrid years of injury and I don’t think it’s a case of you get back fit and you’re ready, it’s just a case of him getting used to the game and getting used to the speed of it and mentally preparing yourself to play football.”
The 23s continues to be a platform for players to stake a claim for first team football by turning in performances and impressing Mark Robins.
Jason used Zain Westbrooke as an example from last season to earn a first team opportunity and challenged the players in the development side to try and replicate that.
“It was stated at the start of the season that it was going to be difficult to get in the team and the run that the first team are on, player’s can’t really moan about the team selection but I think it’s a testament to how big and how good the squad is that players who were prominent last season are finding it hard to get in the team at this moment.
“The 23s gives them that chance to go back in. Max Biamou has played a little bit with the 23s, scored some goals and got in the first team and numerous players have done that during my time at the club playing in the 23s to get yourself back on the first team.
“Zain Westbrooke played pretty much a lot of last season in the 23s, his attitude was perfect and it looks like it’s given him a platform to develop into a really good young player.”