Source: FOOTYMAD
Clarke determined to learn from past mistakes
Academy graduate making his mark in City side. Coventry born defender Jordan Clarke has vowed to learn from past mistakes and improve himself as a player. Since breaking into the side this season he has had good games as well as bad games and it is the bad games that have sometimes cost the Sky Blues dear. He had a disaster of a game at Swansea in September which saw him dropped from the side and on his return he was given another stern lesson at Leeds in February when their wingers tore him to shreds and he had to be replaced. These setbacks have only served to strengthen his resolve and he is now more determined than ever to learn and prove that he can handle the rough and tumble of Championship football. His determination culminated in an England under 19 call up earlier in the year. Since Andy Thorn took charge of the team he has once again given Clarke the chance to prove his abilities and the 19 year old defender has grasped the opportunity and has now made three successive starts, but his progress was halted when an ankle injury left him sidelined. He recovered from the knock and was back in defence last Saturday putting in am impressive performance in the 2-1 win over Millwall at the weekend, although he did not make an encouraging start to the game when he made a few misplaced passes and had trouble controlling the ball, but he soon put that behind him and got on with the job. Clarke admitted, “I think I started a bit slow. When I hit my first pass I was thinking, ‘Oh no, don’t have a bad day today,’ but after that I thought I worked my way into it and had a couple of decent one-twos down the line and then I felt I started the second half a lot better. “I made my first two tackles and thought my distribution improved. I wouldn’t say it was a great performance but overall I wasn’t disappointed." “I missed the Derby and Portsmouth games with an injury to my right ankle, which gave me a bit of a scare because I had an operation on it last year, but it is OK.” His ankle injury meant he missed training sessions and his fitness suffered as a result. “At half time the gaffer told me to give him all I have got and if I haven’t got anything left then come off. I was cramping up a little bit because I haven’t trained for 12 days and I thought, for the benefit of the team, if they break on us I would be a liability. “I spoke to the physio and said I would give it ten minutes and they took me off but I wasn’t injured.” Clarke was pleased with the team's performance over Millwall, but conceded it wasn't their best game. He said, “I thought we started well for the first 25 minutes and had them against the wall but then the tempo dropped toward the end and their goal was down to a lack of concentration." "Then in the second half I think we were a lot better, although when they went down to ten men they seemed to be harder to break down, but we defended well, managed the game well and when we got forward we tried to pass the ball well to create chances and spaces. “Overall I thought it was a decent performance, I wouldn’t say great, but decent and we got another good result and the lads want to keep that going until the end of the season.”
