Coventry City travel to Elland Road today to take on a Leeds side, where, in the past City have traditionally not done very well.
The City boss Andy Thorn is well aware of the poor record Coventry have at Leeds, but he is also aware of how well his side normally do against better sides in the Championship and with this in mind, he is expected to return to Coventry this evening with some points.
The records show that Coventry City have only picked up one point on their travels this season while Leeds have won four out their five home games and that makes them hot favourites to win this encounter.
The last time Coventry took maximum point away from Elland Road was fifteen years ago, but Thorn remains undaunted.
He told the CT, “It you can’t get inspired at Elland Road you are not going to be inspired to play anywhere. There is a really good atmosphere and I am going up there with a team that believes they can win anywhere and hopefully things will work out well for us.
“It is a lovely place to go and if you want to play football you can play there. It’s normally backs to the wall stuff but we are going to play the way we play and hopefully show a lot of character and hopefully get a result. They are going to come at us but we won’t roll over, that’s for sure.”
He continued, “We’re a big club with a big stadium as well so it is about time we fulfilled what we’re about. We’re looking forward to pitting our wits against them. We’ve not done too bad against the teams up near the top end this season and it should be a good evening.
“They have got a lot of good players. Ross McCormack scored a lot of goals at Cardiff and Andy Keogh at Wolves but I like to think we have some good players as well and we are certainly not going up there to be in awe of them. We are going there to get a result for us.”
Despite his ever upbeat and ebullient mood, Thorn knows he will have to depend once again on several of his younger and inexperienced players. He will be trying to avoid a repeat of the experience when an experienced Ipswich side tore his own inexperienced side apart and beat them 3-0. A game from which he and his youngsters have learnt a lot from.
Thorn admitted, “Ipswich was a learning curve because I thought we got caught in the headlights a bit. It was possibly my fault in playing the young boys in one too many games and I’ll accept that but we learn from that.
"In an ideal situation I would be able to take one or two of the young boys out.”
Thorn knows he will have to try something different if his side are to get a result from the game tonight and has been working hard on the training ground with his squad.
He admitted, “We have got to try something different because we haven’t managed it away from home yet, but on the back of what happened on Saturday and some of our performances this season, we’ll go there with a game plan and do that to the best of our ability. And if we keep doing the right things I am sure it will come.”
Thorn will give goal keeper Joe Murphy a late fitness test today after he was knocked out on Saturday following a clash with Forest striker Ishmael Miller, but he is expected to be fit to travel.
Gary McSheffrey, who spent time on loan at Leeds last year, is not expected to be have recovered from his back injury and is unlikely to be involved.
Source: FOOTYMAD
