Yesterday’s goalscorer Dom Hyam expressed his delight to earn the Sky Blues a 1-0 victory over Barnsley in the SkyBet Championship.
It was Hyam’s injury-time winner which earned the three points for City, and with the addition of a clean sheet, the defender was happy with yesterday’s efforts.
“Can’t be much better, really. Three points, a clean sheet - a good Saturday afternoon’s work,” Hyam summarised.
“That’s the perseverance, that’s the character that we have. We go right until the end and we managed to get the goal. It shows our never-say-die spirit, and I’m just really happy that we got the three points.
“We all want to contribute goals from around the pitch. We can’t always rely on the strikers to get the goals, and luckily today I managed to get one.
“A lot of the goals in the Championship especially are scored on second-phase free kicks or corners, and I wanted to stay in and around it and just keep the bodies there and it was sort of a lucky deflection. I think it went through a defender’s legs, and I was just there and just thought, hit it on the swivel, and it flew in.”
Hyam also highlighted the threat which Barnsley posed throughout the 90 minutes, and the 26-year-old praised the team performance to earn the win.
“Every team in this division is a threat, with Carlton Morris up top, he’s a proven Championship striker and has got a few goals to his name, he’s dangerous. If we slip up, then he’s in, so we just had to keep our standards high at the back and trust that the attacking players would do their job as well.
“We kept on creating chances, for example Callum’s work at the end that got us the corner then got us the goal, so it’s all a team effort. We’ve just got to dig in and hope that the chances come our way.
“There’s about eight or nine teams in and around the playoff spots at the moment, and while we don’t really set ourselves targets, we’re an ambitious group and we went to be in and around it.
“There’s no reason why we can’t finish in the playoffs still, there’s plenty of games left, but it’s down to us. We’ve got to beat the teams in and around us as well, so we have to keep going and hopefully we can get in there.”
Before yesterday afternoon, the previous few fixtures saw Hyam take up the role as captain, and the defender reflected on his recent opportunity to wear the armband.
“I liked that responsibility; while there was a few senior lads out I thought that it would be a good opportunity for me to step up and thankfully the gaffer trusted me with that as well.
“It’s something which I’d like to do in the future, and we’ll see if and when that happens.”
Next up for the Sky Blues is a trip to Ashton Gate on Tuesday to face Bristol City, and Hyam highlighted the need to recover and go again.
“Another tough game, but these are the games which we want to play in. If you want to play in the Championship and higher you’ve got to go again, there’s no other way.
“I’ve got to be ready for Tuesday as the rest of the lads have, to try and put on another good performance and get the three points.”