After missing the games against Sheffield United and Hull City, due to Covid-19, Sky Blues manager Mark Robins returned to preview the clash against Derby County.
Mark Robins resumed his managerial duties in person for the first time today, alongside a return for Assistant Manager Adi Viveash yesterday, after the Sky Blues managerial one-two missed the last two league games.
Robins confirmed that first-team coach Dennis Lawrence and head of goalkeeping Aled Williams are still unavailable, but nonetheless looked ahead to the weekend's early kick-off against Wayne Rooney’s Derby County.
“We’ve got to go there and do us properly, try and win the game because we want to win the game." Robins began.
“It should make for a really exciting game. I think that we’ve had a day less to recover, but these are a good side there’s no doubt about it.
"We played them twice at home and they’ve both been difficult games and I don’t expect anything different tomorrow, so for us it’s about looking forward to a really good atmosphere in a really good stadium.
“I’m really looking forward to this game. It’s a huge opportunity, huge significance for both teams and we want to get three points to right the wrong of Wednesday and to get back to being as close to our best.
“We’ve got some illness and some injury, we’re down to bare bones, there’s no doubt about and there’s not been any significant move on that front, we will be doing some work today, but we’ve got enough players to put in a decent performance.”
Watching on from afar, Robins reflected on the two performances that saw the Sky Blues pick up three points against Sheffield United and Hull City, commending the production of his side across the whole of the season.
“The two games were two completely different styles of football, we came into Wednesday and looked like we’d never played with each other before, but on Saturday it was a really cohesive side."
“I think the first game [agaisnt Sheffield United] was outstanding, it was a brilliant performance, to a man they performed to a really high level.
“It’s not through the want of trying, but there were individual performances that didn’t meet the required level [against Hull City], but generally they’re an honest bunch and they want to improve.
“You have to move on, there’s nothing you can do about it now and that’s been spoken about and today we just focus on the game tomorrow.
“I think that we shifted expectations hugely because we spent a lot of time in the top six, knowing that’s unrealistic because at home we’ve been ahead twice in a first half this season in twenty games.
“We need to eek bits out from now and until the end of the season, we have to be realistic in the knowledge that we’re actually doing really well. The style of football has changed, we’re playing a different brand of football from last season.
“The football has been exciting and scintillating a lot of the time this season and we’ve been competitive in games, so from that regard we’ve played remarkably well and the players deserve a lot of credit and a handful of performances should not overshadow the improvement that’s been made.”