Source: FOOTYMAD
Wood delighted to be playing again
Success breeds success Coventry City central defender Richard Wood is delighted to be back in the side after a short time out with a groin injury. The 25 year old had expected to be out of action for about four weeks, but his return the fray two weeks earlier than expected has been put down to the ebullient mood within the City camp now that they have put the miserable run of form behind them and are now, once again becoming a difficult team to beat. Wood started last Saturday's home game with Millwall on the bench, but was sent on in the second half and was soon in the thick of the action. Wood admitted, “When the team is doing well and you are out injured, you just want to be back involved as soon as possible so it pushes you a bit more. I had only trained for two days so I didn’t think I would be involved at the weekend but Thorny asked me to go on the bench and I said yes." “My groin feels all right. It first happened four weeks ago on Saturday and they said I would be out a lot longer than that, so I am just pleased to be back involved and getting into a winning team.” Wood was introduced to the play, as a replacement for Jordan Clarke, as Coventry were defending a corner and within seconds of him coming on, he was heading the ball clear. Millwall had their tails up when Wood went on and he had to clear the ball on three occasions in as many minutes, but the experienced defender was unfazed. He said, “That’s how I like it, straight back into it and it was good to get my first touch. It was Jordan’s first game back so I don’t know if he was struggling a bit and the gaffer just told me to get myself on." "He doesn’t need to say much to me because I know my job. He just told me my marker and I have played enough games to cope with those situations.” Wood admitted that Coventry City did not play to their potential against an awkward Millwall side who are fighting hard to finish in a top six, play off position, but he thought City fought hard with grit and determination to grind out a positive result in front of their own fans. “The lads did really well at Portsmouth and finished the game on a real high, but when that happens sometimes you get a bit of a low and can’t always maintain it,” he said. “It seemed that happened against Millwall but we have still got that side of us where we can dig in and grind out results." "We want to play good football but I don’t think it will happen every week in every game. Millwall did well and sat deep and maybe played better when they were down to ten men, but it just shows what good players we have got." “I thought the game was played at a slower tempo and there wasn’t much happening, so we know we can do a lot better and we need to get back to that, but we are scoring goals now and that’s what we need to keep going.” Coventry scored the winner late on in the second half and Wood revealed he played a part int he goal that Richard Keogh set up for Marlon King to score. Millwall were reduced to ten men less than two minutes into the second half when half time substitute Neil Harris was sent off for a late lunge and stamp on Aron Gunnarsson. They were temporarily reduced to nine men when Wood tackled Liam Trotter, who lay on the pitch while his team mates played on, but Coventry won the ball and went up the other end and scored. Wood said, “It was their fault because they played on after one of their lads went down. I think I smashed him from the goal kick but they had the chance to put the ball out.” The goal King scored was his second of the game and he later came close to bagging a hat trick when he had to injury time shots well saved. Wood praised King saying, “He’s a class player and he is showing what he can do now with the amount of goals he’s getting and he’s a great player to have. I can’t praise him enough and getting the rewards for all his hard work." "It would be great to have him next season but there are a few lads out of contract and no-one is talking about it really. We are just concentrating on getting to the end of this season and winning games, and we are all happy.”
