Sky Blues defender Jake Bidwell reflected on a memorable win over Birmingham City at the Coventry Building Society Arena, backed by a record-breaking attendance.
Goals from Josh Eccles and Viktor Gyökeres gave the Sky Blues a comfortable two-goal lead at the half.
More chance came, but the Sky Blues held on for a solid 2-0 win against midlands rivals Birmingham City to record their 20th clean sheet of the league campaign.
Talking to the press after the game, Bidwell said:
On the performance against Birmingham City…
“We’re doing the business and we’ll see where that take us, another good win and a performance today but we’ve got to prepare ourselves to go up to Middlesbrough and get a result.
“If you offered this scenario to anyone at the start of the season, we would’ve taken it.
“It’s in our own hands, so we’ve got to keep doing what we’ve been doing for these past 45 games and go up to Middlesbrough and get a result.
“The early goal settled the place down a bit, as I image people were a bit nervous coming in, but it was a good start and a really strong performance after that.
“I can’t really remember us giving them a chance, they hit the bar late on but that was it.
“We kept pushing all the way through the game, but if you asked anyone coming to the ground today would they take a 2-0 win in the fashion we did I’m sure they would take it.”
On the record-breaking attendance…
“It was unbelievable.
“I was in the corner when that first goal went in and I can’t ever remember playing in a game where I’ve heard a noise like that, my ears were ringing.
“Credit to the fans who come out in numbers, they got behind us and we got the job done.
“The backing speaks volumes, with the cost of living crisis, that’s something the gaffer spoke about earlier on this season, so for people to come to the game and get those numbers behind us all over the country all season is amazing.
“The support has been unbelievable all season, so hopefully there’s a bit more to come.”
On the penalty incident…
“I was quite close to it, I think it hit his hand but whether it was deliberate or not is down to the referee’s interpretation these days.
“Sometimes you get them, sometimes you don’t, it’s one of them.
“From our point of view we’ll say it is, from their point of view they’ll say it isn’t, it can go either way.”
On his goalscoring chance…
“That was years of not practicing on the right foot.
“The first one was a good save, the second probably a better chance to be fair but I haven’t struck it as cleanly, think I got a little bit excited with that one but hopefully I get another one before the season is out.”
On preparation for Middlesbrough…
“We’ve got a bit longer than usual to prepare, so it’ll be a bit of a different week to prepare.
“We’ve got a process and a way of working that we’ve stuck to all season and Adi, the gaffer, and Dennis will draw us up a game plan and we’ll work all week.
“Nothing will change in terms of the process, we’ll go up their looking for a performance, we’re not the type of team to go up their and look for a point, we play on the front foot and that’s what we’ll be in the game.”
On the transformation since the start of the season…
“I said it before, if you said at the start of the season we would be in this position after those first seven games then you’d take it.
“We’re a tight group of players and staff, we look out for each other and that can take you a long way, we’ve got a great togetherness and hopefully there’s a few more games to come this season.”
On recording the 20th clean sheet of the season…
“We’ve got a process and a way of working, thats not just the goalkeeper and the back five, we attack together and defend together.
“It starts with Viktor and Matty, they work hard and then everyone takes the lead off that and once it gets into our box we’ve got defenders that put their body on the line.”