Richard Wood's talk with boss produces positive results

15 February 2011 08:34
Defender has worked hard to get into team It took a lot of hard work and persistence by previous Coventry City manager Chris Coleman to prise Richard Wood from Sheffield Wednesday, only fr the manager to lose his job and be replaced by Aidy Boothroyd, whose opinion of Wood apparently was not as high as his predecessor. At the start of the Boothroyd reign at The Ricoh, Wood found himself on the sidelines and not always even on the bench, but hard work on the training ground and making the most of his rare chances have shown his boss what he can do and he has now had a decent run in the team and established himself as a class player. Hard work and natural talent have helped Wood, but so has the man management skills of the manager Aidy Boothroyd. Boothroyd is always demanding more and more from his players and Wood has responded with two goals in two games as well as match saving defensive duties. The 25 year old Wood put in a man of the match performance in last week's 2-1 win over Crystal Palace, scoring one goal and preventing at least a goal at the other end. His recent performances have now set the bar for Boothroyd who  is now determined to keep Wood at or exceeding the benchmark in every game. Wood revealed that his rise in fortune is down to a heart to heart chat with Boothroyd. Boothroyd said of Wood's game against Palace, “I thought Richard was brilliant on Saturday and that was his best game he has had this season because he played to his potential. He headed it and kicked everything against a very good player in James Vaughan." "It takes courage to put your body on the line and defend and get through sticky periods in games and the season and also courage to get on the ball and make good decisions with it.” In reply Wood said, “I would agree with the gaffer and that’s all he wants me to do. I had a chat with him a few weeks ago and I thought I did well at Leeds the other week, so hopefully now I can get a good run of games and play as I know I can do.” Wood has often been asked to play out of his preferred central defensive position and to play in the troublesome left back role, where he did OK, but was found wanting on occasion. Since his return to a more central role his form has blossomed. With two goals to his credit this season, he is determined to get more to help the team continue with their revival after their recent blip in form. Speaking about his part in the win over Palace and claims by some that the opening City goal was an own goal off Paddy McCarthy's back, Wood said,  “It came off my head and that’s doubled my tally for the season and I want more now.” Late on in the game Wood blocked a shot which could have brought the scores level with just seconds left on the clock. He described the moment saying,  “I just got my foot on it and it cleared the bar which was good because it is about time we got a win. We made it hard for ourselves at the end but we are well over due that win." “It was similar to the Cup game but that happens sometimes and they played with one striker up and then we got the goal so they changed to two up and then four up front in the end, so we knew we were going to be put under pressure but we managed to deal with it. We had a bit of luck and it was a nice three points.” The win was the Sky Blues first win in eleven attempts and lifted some of the gloom that has descended over The Ricoh in recent weeks. “It has been difficult but the lads, the gaffer and the staff have stuck together,” he admitted. “We have had meetings about it and we knew it would come. We just had to keep plugging away because we haven’t been playing too badly and just been losing by the odd goal." “I think a lot of it has been down to luck as well because we have always worked hard in every game and fortunately on Saturday we got our lead and took advantage to get a well deserved win." “The manager had been on at us this week to make sure we won so we could have a good Saturday night and he could have a nice birthday weekend." " We want to kick on now and have a good run to the end of the season," although a play off place is now seen as a long shot, the team are still aiming to finish as high as possible.  "We haven’t written off the play offs," said Wood. "There are plenty of games left and we just need to put a good run together and see what happens.”

Source: FOOTYMAD