Callum Ball, on a season long loan from Derby County, has said that he believes that Coventry City are poised to start climbing the League One table.
The 19 year old centre forward admitted that confidence in the Sky Blues squad is still fragile, but winning their first game of the season and earning a point at home to promotion challenging MK Dons last Tuesday have helped boost that confidence.
Ball watched most of the 1-1 draw with MK Dons from the bench thought that Coventry could have won the game after being on top for much of the first half but once the Dons had equalised Richard Wood’s opening goal, their heads dropped and confidence flagged. Ball believed that had confidence and morale been higher their heads would not have dropped and they would have gone on to win the game.
Speaking to the Coventry Telegraph's Andy Turner: Ball said, “We were on top in the first half and could have gone on to win the game by three or four. We certainly created plenty of openings in a really good first 20 minutes when MK Dons were not in the game, but once they scored our heads went down and in the second half we sat back too much. If we had carried on going forward, as we did in the opening spell, we could have gone on and nicked it.
“Even though they are a good side and a point is better than nothing, it is still a bit disappointing that we did not wrap it up when we were on top. Their equaliser took a wicked deflection and I am not sure who the ball hit but otherwise the shot would have gone miles wide.”
Ball could not feature in the game at Oldham as Football League rules say that no more than five loan players can be named on the team sheet and this came as a disappointment to the striker who had score the goal for City in the 6-1 defeat to Arsenal in the Capital One Cup last week. He was named as a substitute for the home game against MK Dons as another loan signing Reece Brown was ruled out of contention with flu.
Ball only had 15 minutes on the field after coming on as a replacement but he revealed that he nearly had to be replaced himself after taking a heavy blow to his head minutes after coming on.
He revealed: “I took a heavy blow to the front of my head just after going on,” said the teenager sporting an egg-shaped bumped on his forehead after the 1-1 draw, but there was no cut and I did not need to have treatment or go off the field. I was not too happy with the ref over that, because at that late stage we were pushing on to try and snatch the winner.”
More on this: http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/coventry-city-fc/coventry-city-fc-news/2012/10/04/92746-31964244/?