Coventry City would have been frustrated to concede a late equaliser at Wigan Athletic on Tuesday evening, meaning that the gap between themselves and the play-off places stands at four points ahead of this evening’s Championship action.
Viktor Gyokeres was on the scoresheet once again for the Sky Blues, as was Chuba Akpom for Middlesbrough at the top of the second tier’s scoring charts, but Coventry could not hold on as the Latics took a point thanks to an 83rd minute Kyle McFadzean own goal.
Mark Robins has had to roll with the punches this season at Coventry and they have been targeting a play-off push while dealing with some injuries to key players.
Robins provided the latest update on the recovery schedules of Jamie Allen, Kasey Palmer and Liam Kelly when he spoke to CoventryLive.
He said: “When we get to the international break we should have Jamie Allen back, so that starts to look a little bit better.
“Oh yes, a lot closer, so we’ll look to hopefully get him (Kasey Palmer) back training and he’ll be back leading into the Stoke game.
“If not then I’m hoping not long after.
“I’m hoping he’ll be okay for Stoke but it might be just after that.
“We just have to wait and see.
“He’s (Liam Kelly) getting closer but I just don’t know when we’ll get him back.
“It’s a week to two weeks but with his body we just have to wait for him.
“Hopefully it’s the week rather than the two weeks but we have an international break coming up and hopefully he’ll be available when we come back into training working into the Stoke game.”
The Verdict
The Sky Blues have a fairly manageable run-in and should be able to keep themselves in contention for the top six until the final few weeks of the season.
It is clear that they are a club heading in the right direction under Robins and the key opportunity to take them to the next level may come in reinvesting a portion of the recouped fee through a summer sale of Gyokeres into the squad.
The core is very strong but the squad is rough around the edges and with greater support in the transfer market, Robins would have the Sky Blues a lot closer to the top six.