The Sky Blues are putting the finishing touches on preparations for this weekend’s meeting with Hull City, following a disruptive week.
City were unable to train on Thursday due to the snowfall in the area and now look to get out at the Sky Blue Lodge today to prepare to face the Tigers at the Coventry Building Society Arena.
Mark Robins’ side come into the game off the back of victory last time out against Huddersfield Town, as they rose to 8th in the Championship.
The fixture this weekend will mark the first of three in the space of a week, before the Sky Blues head into the international break.
Speaking to the media earlier today, Robins looked ahead to facing Hull City, whilst also providing a fitness update on Ben Sheaf and Jonathan Panzo…
Weather disrupting training…
“We couldn’t train on Thursday. The roads were difficult, so I turned everyone around I didn’t want them to come in for no reason, because there was nowhere to work.
“Hopefully we can get some work done this morning, but its only going to be limited because of working in a smaller area. We have the staff out on the pitch at the moment trying to clear an area so that we can train.
“Thankfully it’s stopped snowing and hopefully it starts to clear and thaw, then we can start to sort the plans out for tomorrow.
“It’s been a disjointed week in fairness, but it is what it is, when we get this type of weather in the UK everything just grounds to a holt.”
Coming up against Hull City…
“Hull have a really good squad. The new owner has put money in, and they’ve brought in quite a number of players.
“They’ve got some talented players in their ranks, and it will be a tough game tomorrow. We’re looking to try and use the confidence we have, but we have to do what’s right in this game.
“It will be a difficult task against good, talented players. Last week out they had a good result against West Brom, so we know what they can do.
“I’ve seen what Liam Rosenior has said about his team, that if they work hard then they’re a match for anyone and I think everyone is the same.
“They’ve got some quality and so have we. Both sides have got injuries. Every week you prepare, and you look at team sheets up and down the league and they’re the same, everyone has injuries.
“We’re not on our own, but it doesn’t make it any easier, we have to cope with it as well as we can and move on.”
Fitness update…
“Ben Sheaf is very close, but he hasn’t trained yet with the group. Liam Kelly has a little step back, but again, the state of the weather has hindered us a bit. They’re getting closer.
“Jonathan Panzo is fit, but he’s only trained a couple of days, so we will run the rule over them as we always do.”
Looking back at the season so far…
“It is incredible. To be where we are it’s unbelievable what the players have done. People need to look at that and get a feel for what’s been achieved by the group, it’s phenomenal.
“Also, when everyone saw we were bottom of the league for a while and the games we were playing we were losing, we tried to explain that other teams were getting minutes in their legs and we couldn’t.
“There’s no doubt about it, we were let down at the start of the season and if we had had a normal start to the season, we would’ve picked up more points and we could’ve been in the play-offs now.
“So, they deserve an enormous amount of credit, but there still a quarter of the season to go. We are in a really healthy position, where you probably wouldn’t have expected us to be.
“We’ve got a really difficult run of games now. I think with everyone fit; everyone would say we have a real chance.
“When you put all things into perspective, I’m really proud of everybody because to this points it’s been a tough experience for everyone, but they’ve been brilliant.”
Options for a three-game week before the break…
“We have a number of players that can come in. We have a three game week again, which can make things difficult.
“We have some travelling to do and we will face three really difficult games, against some teams who are fighting for their lives, but all have certain qualities.
“We have to overcome that and it’s a big week. A lot of managers have said it’s a big week going into an international break and it’s no different for us. We want to see where we can get to and how many points we can pick up.”