Kyle McFadzean insisted that him and his Sky Blues teammates are prepared for ‘eleven cup finals’ after victory against Sunderland yesterday afternoon.
Matty Godden’s 14th goal of the season after just two minutes was enough to win all three points at St Andrews against Sunderland and McFadzean was delighted with the victory:
“It’s a really good win” the former Burton Albion man told journalists.
“We move onto the next one, straightaway, and look forward to Ipswich next week. We just concentrate on every game now. Now that that’s finished, we move straight onto Ipswich.
"Adi (Viveash) had said let’s get a quick goal or get off to a great start, we did and after that we sat back a little bit. I thought we deserved to win, and we did.”
Godden bagged his fourth goal in five games after being fed through by Jamie Allen, and McFadzean was very complimentary of his teammate’s prowess in front of goal:
“He does that every day in training. He’s a world class finisher, and we’re happy to have him”, McFadzean said.
“He’s had a run in the team again after time out, and we’re seeing the best of him. He gets a chance, he doesn’t miss.”
Sunderland had the ball in the back of the net with 15 minutes remaining, but the officials chalked it off after consulting with each other. McFadzean was delighted with the clean sheet against a challenging opponent:
“I always knew it was going to be tight. They haven’t conceded many goals, and we haven’t conceded many either.
"I think we’ve got the second best defence in the league. I thought we could have made it easier for ourselves - we didn’t take our chances.”
McFadzean and his defence came up against an attacking Sunderland side who ended the game with three strikers and two wingers on the pitch. Kyle found himself marking front man Charlie Wyke, and managed to keep him quiet for the 90 minutes.
“I don’t mind who I’m up against”, he insisted.
“It was nice to be up against a big lad. I have played against him a few times, and Sunderland like to get the ball up there to him, but it was a good tussle.”
The win sees Coventry move two points clear of second place Rotherham United with a game in hand, but McFadzean is confident that the dressing room know the nature of the task ahead.
When asked about how it feels to move to the top, he replied:
“We’re not gonna go over the top, but it’s nice to look at the league. We have eleven cup finals left, so we have to concentrate on them.
"We’re looking forward to next week - it’s going to be a tough game but we’ve been there and won already this season so hopefully we can do that again.
“Today we’ve got the clean sheet we wanted, we need to repeat that in the next three games.”
The win also takes Coventry City five points clear of the play off places, but McFadzean and his teammates are aware of the task in hand.
“Five points is nothing. Until we can see the little P or Champions, I’m not happy. We can’t get carried away. We’ve got eleven games left, there’s a lot of points to play for and everything can change.”
“It’s exciting times for the fans, but we can’t get carried away. There’s a lot of points to play for.”