Source: FOOTYMAD
Baker in talks with Boothroyd
Midfielder argues for a chance Carl Baker has revealed that he spoke to his manager Aidy Boothroyd about his future at the club and asked if he would be playing regularly or if he was going to be a bench warmer. Boothroyd had already admitted last week that he had been approached by some players who wanted more pitch time. He said, “One or two have had a moan, that’s understandable because everybody wants to play, so they’ve been knocking at my door.” Baker confirmed he was one of those players who had knocked on Boothroyd's door, “I was definitely one of those. I think I was first in the queue!" he said. “I hadn’t played since November 20 and it’s fair to say I wasn’t happy having no involvement in the last eight league games. So I had a good chat with the gaffer on Thursday when we discussed our problems and what I needed to be doing to get myself in the team." Baker knows he faces stiff competition for a place in the City team and said, "It’s difficult for him because there are a lot of good players around here but I wanted a fair crack of the whip. He gave me that against Palace and I came up trumps so hopefully I’ll get a run of games.” Baker scored the second of Coventry's two first half goals in their 2-1 win over Crystal Palace in the third round of the FA Cup at the weekend. “I’ve not been happy with my personal performances," admitted Baker, " but it’s been really difficult because I haven’t played many minutes and it’s hard to get a rhythm going when you’re in and out of the team." “I think the more games I get under my belt, the better I’ll get, but it could be that he’ll play somebody else against Sheffield United, and if that happens I’ll just have to get my head down and wait for another chance." “ He’s a quality manager and we respect his decisions. I think the boys know that if you work hard in training and perform at the weekend the gaffer will be fair to you, if you deserve to play you will.” Boothroyd praised Baker, along with Stephen O'Halloran and suggested that the pair had impressed sufficiently t be in the running for future selection. Boothroyd said, "Carl and Stephen O’Halloran were outstanding and they’ve done themselves a power of good in terms of who I’m going to play in the next fixtures.” Baker was instrumental in setting Freddy Eastwood's opening goal for City and Eastwood returned the favour a couple of minutes later when Eastwood crossed for Baker to volley a stunning second goal. “It was a great ball from Freddy,”said Baker, “it was hanging in the air for ages so I just thought ‘I’m going to hit this and hope for the best’ and I made a really good connection. It was one of them that go into the top corner or over the stand, so I was just pleased to see it hit the net." There was a disappointing 8,162 crowd to see Coventry win at The Ricoh, but Baker said, “It doesn’t make a difference to me whether there’s 5,000 in the stadium or 30,000 as long as we get the win." "The gaffer said before the game that it’s up to us to get the fans in the stadium because if we’re winning games they will come, if we’re not, they won’t. We came out of the blocks and played really well in the first half and we deserved to be two up." "We knew they would have a really good go at us in the second half and I don’t think it was our greatest performance, but we did what we had to do, even it was a bit scrappy at times." " We were a bit nervous at the end because of the Christmas and New Year we had but, thanks to Keiren Westwood’s penalty save, we saw it through. I had every confidence in Westy because in my eyes he’s the best goalkeeper in this league.It saved us a long journey next Tuesday and it was vital to win and get that momentum back, hopefully it will give us a bit more confidence to take into the Sheffield United game." “When you’re losing games the press get on your back, the fans get on your back and it does make things more difficult. Hopefully this win will help things go the other way and we’ll get back to how we were playing early on in the season when we did really well." “At some point every team is going to have a bad run and hopefully we’ve had our’s now and we can kick on and start climbing back up the table.” Baker missed some of the season with a hernia problem and was set to be out of the game for a few weeks after having remedial surgery, but was back in action just a week after the operation. It proved to be an excellent decision to send Baker to Munich, Germany to consult the eminent surgeon Dr Ulrike Muschaweck. “That was amazing,” he said. “I had the operation and an hour later I was walking back to the hotel through the snow with our physio Michael McBride. It hurt a couple of days later and I said to Mick ‘this lady says I could be back playing in 10 days, there’s no chance.’ But after three or four days the recovery was unbelievable and I was back in training six days after the operation. I’m really grateful to her and to the club for sending me over there." Another City player, Danny Ward who was on loan from Bolton, had to have a hernia operation, but is still out even though his operation was done earlier than Baker's. "Danny Ward had the same operation and Bolton sent him to Manchester or wherever and he’s still out injured now, " said Baker.
