Sky Blues Under-23s Head Coach Luke Tisdale was pleased with sides performance, as they secured a 1-0 win against Mickleover FC last night.
City arranged a friendly fixture against the Non-League side after Monday’s Professional Development league tie with Swansea City was postponed.
Tisdale gave his thank to everyone at Mickleover and stressed the important of the 23s playing more minutes this season.
“I have to thank Mickleover for taking the game.” Tisdale said.
“They played Saturday, Monday over bank holiday and then they play and FA Cup game Saturday and then they play again Tuesday, so for them to be able to fit us in I have to thank them and all their staff for having us over.
“Playing against Non-League sides helps the under 23s because development football is all about preparing players to play in men’s football, so to be able to play against teams like Mickleover gives us a good variety to the programme and lets the players experience playing in stadiums under the floodlights and in front of crowds.
“All of those things are important for their development, and we weren’t able to do that over the last two years and we’re trying to do that more this season.
“Me and Andy Young identified that during the planning stage over the summer that the 23s don’t play enough games, the league programmme doesn’t provide enough game opportunities, so we want to play at least one game every week providing we can find the opposition.
“Mickleover gave us that opportunity and we’re looking for another game next week and those minutes help because it prepares them for the intensity of games and there’s never a bad opportunity if you’re on the pitch, you’re always developing and learning so the more games the better.”
It was a Fabio Tavares goal that secured the win for the Sky Blues in a night where they controlled proceedings.
However, Tisdale is looking for his side to be more ruthless in front of goal, after spurring several opportunities throughout the game.
“The game itself was a really good game. We have quite a few players who have been out with injuries and Covid over the course of pre-season and they haven’t been able to play in the first two or three 23s games so we had to get them 90 minutes in a competitive environment.
“From that sense the game was a success for us because we were able to get some of those players closer to fitness and hopefully some other players that can be involved moving forward.
“First half we were really good, we played some really good football and created five or six clear cut opportunities which we should have scored and we should have scored more than one and that will be the big lesson from the night that we weren’t ruthless enough at all.
“Defensively we were good and we were structured and didn’t give them many chances in the game but the fact is we didn’t kill the game off and let them come back into it during the last ten minutes which is disappointing and if we want to achieve anything as a group going forward this year we have to make sure we take our chances to get the rewards for our football.”