Defender Dom Hyam highlighted the role of the fans in spurring the Sky Blues to victory last weekend against Nottingham Forest, as well as his excitement to see the away support at Barnsley tomorrow.
Dom started in the Sky Blues first game of the SkyBet Championship season last weekend, a dramatic victory in front of the Sky Sports cameras which saw his defensive partner Kyle McFadzean get his name on the scoresheet late on.
“We’ve got a little competition going so I’ll need to get one back on him!” Hyam admitted.
“It’s always healthy competition; we need to add goals across the team. We pride ourselves on earning clean sheets, but we also want to get some goals too. As long as we keep scoring as well, that will always help.
“If the defenders can get two, three, four goals each over the season that’s a lot of goals which can help the team towards our end goal. Set pieces are what we take really seriously as well, it’s a good opportunity to score or at least create chances.
“I didn’t score, but at least the ball was kept alive. Scoring goals as defenders is something we take seriously and we’re all in competition with each other.
“The fans played a huge part last Sunday; they were singing from the first minute until the last, and you could really hear it towards the end. It pushed us on to get the equaliser and that might not have happened in an empty stadium. We still want to win every game, but to hear that roar was just an amazing feeling. I’m glad that we could reward them in the end.
“We’re looking forward to the away support this weekend, that’ll be an experience for some of the lads, I’m sure. It’s been nearly two years, so it’s long overdue. It’s going to be a good occasion and a good atmosphere.”
Now that the season is underway, attentions turn to the Sky Blues’ longer-term ambitions for the Championship campaign. However, for Hyam the emphasis is all about not looking too far ahead.
“We haven’t actually spoken too much about where we want to finish, because we take each game at a time. We want to improve on last year, but it will be tough again. The Championship is such a tough division, we just want to focus on each game as it comes and not look too far ahead into the future, because then you could lose track of your focus.
“We’ve got a good, strong squad and the competition for places will only help. The standards in training have gone up; we know that if someone’s not performing in training there will be someone else to take their place, and that’s what we need to be competitive and be a good team. If you want to stay in the team, you need to train well and play well. Good competition is always welcome, so I’m looking forward to it.”
Next up for Dom Hyam is the away trip to Oakwell tomorrow, as the Sky Blues take on Barnsley for the second round of SkyBet Championship action.