Coventry City have endured a topsy-turvy start to the campaign and they currently lie in 14th after a great win at Birmingham City last night. Five points from the play-off zone and five points from the drop zone, this is a critical phase for the Sky Blues. They have languished in the Championship ever since relegation from the Premeir League and there have been more brushes with bankruptcy and relegation than promotion.
In fact, they have endured two last-day survivals in the last four seasons but hopes were high of a revival under Chris Coleman and their new owners. But the bugbear of inconsistency still haunts Coventry and, as givemefootball.com discovered, Coleman will be hoping that the 1-0 victory at St Andrews is a catalyst to kick on and challenge the top six.
IT WAS A GOOD WIN FOR YOU AT BIRMINGHAM AND YOUR GOALKEEPER KIEREN WESTWOOD HAD AN EXCEPTIONAL GAME?
It looked like there was two of him in goal - Kieren was absolutely tremendous. I can't remember one save in particular that stood out as there were so many of them. In the second half he was absolutely outstanding. We had 11 players who were up for it and I thought they were all tremendous although obviously Kieren was particularly outstanding.
WERE YOU PLEASED AT KEEPING A CLEAN SHEET AS THERE HAVEN'T BEEN TOO MANY FOR YOU THIS SEASON?
Birmingham are a very dangerous side offensively and strong going forward and we did well to frustrate them at times. When we got the goal they got frustrated because they couldn't find a way through us and then the crowd turned on them, which was what we wanted. We gained confidence from that and should have scored a second when Jay Tabb has lifted one over the crossbar. Overall it was a good performance from us because this is a notoriously difficult place to come.
THERE HAVE BEEN SOME GOOD AND SOME NOT SO GOOD PERFORMANCES THIS SEASON HASN'T THERE?
That's the thing with us sometimes, we think we have to win and be entertaining. Well, I'll settle for winning; I don't want the reputation of playing nice football with a team at the wrong end of the league - it's all about points. I want a winning team and I believe that the players we've got have the ability to take us quite a few places higher, but to do that we need to be mentally tough. We've got the chance to put a run together. It's so tight in this league but as I keep saying, our goal hasn't changed - top half of the table at Christmas.
DID YOU FEEL THERE WAS ANY PRESSURE BUILDING ON YOU AFTER RECENT RESULTS?
Pressure? I don't buy that. Pressure, anxiety, stress - whatever you like to call it, we're paid to deal with it. If you can't handle it, go somewhere else, go and do another job. There's no panic here. I'm not worried about it. A lot of our play has been excellent but we haven't been scoring at the business end and we've been conceding goals, so everybody has got to have a look at themselves. We've proved we can beat the best teams in this league and we've got to show it again.
CLINTON MORRISON SCORED AGAINST BIRMINGHAM BUT THERE HAS BEEN A SHORTAGE OF GOALS DURING YOUR RECENT POOR RUN OF RESULTS HASN'T THERE - WERE THE PLAYERS FEELING THE PRESSURE TOO?
They'll claim that they're not being affected by it if they're not hitting the back of the net but they are. They're human beings. They'll probably change their routines, change their boots or whatever. That's strikers for you - they're different from everybody else. Some players will be more nervous than others, but they've got to get through that - stand up and be counted. That's how you progress. There's no use shying away from problems, you solve them by meeting them head on, not by trying to go round them.
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