Sky Blues captain Liam Kelly spoke to the press yesterday following City’s 3-0 defeat at the Coventry Building Society Arena against Bournemouth.
An early strike from Jamal Lowe plus two goals from Dominic Solanke sealed the three points for the visitors, and following the game Sky Blues midfielder Liam Kelly reflected on the scoreline.
“I don’t think 3-0 is a fair reflection of how the play went; we created good opportunities, dominated large spells of the game, but you’ve got to be clinical in football and for their first two chances, especially in the first half, they converted them.” Kelly mentioned.
“That’s what has given them the three points, but the positives to take out of the game are that we did play well, created opportunities and they had to change shape at half time to deal with that, but on the whole it is disappointing to come away with nothing from the game.
“They’re obviously a very good team, a team which is looking to get back into the Premier League, and they’re looking on track to do that. We knew that it was going to be a difficult game, a tough game, but we’re just disappointed that we perhaps weren’t as clinical as we could be.
“I think there is a lot of belief within the squad, and I think that is one thing which we have been pretty good at throughout the season – when we’re one or two goals down, going into the later stages of games we always manage to come back and get something from the game.
"It just appeared one game too far with too many goals to do that today.
“But that’s what the squad is capable of, we’ve just got to make sure that we don’t give ourselves too much to do at times.
“Six points from the last nine is a good record, but we’re disappointed because we want to get more. It’s a disappointing day in terms of the result, but in terms of the performance the lads have done themselves a good amount of credit today."
Yesterday’s contest provided an opportunity for the 32-year-old to return to the side, having entered the field in place of Gustavo Hamer on 76 minutes, and Kelly reflected on his return to action.
“I’m happy to be back in the squad and back playing, but obviously I’m disappointed with the score because I think that we deserved from the performance more than what was given to us today.
“It’s been a frustrating time for me, picking up injuries and having a long spell on the side-lines, but it’s been pleasing to see the boys doing so well. It creates a happy training ground because they’ve been flying, especially the past few games, going and getting some big results with some big scorelines.
“I’m over the moon with the players, and personally happy to be back involved. Hopefully there will be more involvement and more results because we want to finish on a high.
“I’ll just keep working away, keep working hard in training to hopefully get a place in the team and more minutes on the pitch. That’s the aim for me for the rest of the season, to help the rest of the team.”
Next up for Kelly’s side is a visit to The Hawthorns on Saturday to face West Bromwich Albion, and the Sky Blues captain looks forward to the challenge.
“They’ve got good quality players, and they’ll be looking to finish the season strongly. It’ll be a tough game, a tough place to go, but we’ll work hard this week to make sure that we’re ready for it.”