Source: FOOTYMAD
Thorn to field his strongest squad for Carling Cup tie
Enforced absences weaken side Coventry City travel to Bury today for tonight's Carling Cup first round tie, but are determined not be be eliminated at the first hurdle for the third year running. Coventry City have gone out of The Carling Cup in the first round in the last two years when first Chris Coleman then Aidy Boothroyd opted to field what amounted to a reserve team and consequently they lost first to Hartlepool then last year to Morecambe The City boss Andy Thorn will select his strongest available side, but he will have to cope with some unavoidable absences. Captain Sammy Clingan is on international duty with Northern Ireland as they take on the Faeroe Islands in a 2012 Euro qualifying game and Carl Baker will miss the first match of his three game ban as a result of his red card last Saturday. Thorn doesn't want to go out of the competition too early, but in reality as his squad is so small, he doesn't have much alternative but to select from mostly first team players. He has just 21 fit players from which to select his starting eleven and seven named substitutes. Teenager Conor Thomas is likely to take Baker's place in midfield, but Thorn could opt to play Cranie further forward instead. McSheffrey could drop back a bit, but that would leave the front line even thinner than it is now. Thorn confirmed, “We’ll be as full-strength as possible. We can’t afford not to be. I want to go as far as I can in this competition because I set out trying to win every game, otherwise why would you be in the competition?" “There’s no point in worrying about injuries because they can happen any time, in training or in a game. This is a good test for us, and another 90 minutes will do the lads good.” Thorn said that he and the players had had a good post match talk after their opening day defeat to Leicester and have learnt valuable lessons. He said, “We sat down and had a good chat about the game. We picked up loads of things we hadn’t done well against Leicester and we’ve taken steps to get them sorted.”
