David Bell thinks the Palace game is turning point
Coventry City winger David Bell thinks that the game against Crystal Palace last Saturday could be the turning point of the season and that the Sky Blues will improve from now on.
Bell, who has been out of the team with injuries for most of the season and has only started the opening game of the season against Ipswich was pleased to get 90 minutes playing under his belt.
Bell has had few chances in a Sky Blue shirt to show fans his worth to the club as he has only started nine games since he joined Coventry City from Norwich in January 2008
He told the CT: "Saturday was my first start since Ipswich back in August and I am delighted that I lasted the 90 minutes, I am really pleased to get my first full senior game under my belt and I want to play every game between now and the end of the season, and the whole game of every game at that."
"I am looking forward now, not back. My injury is behind me and I want to start and play every game for Coventry and help the club improve. My ankle is absolutely fine and as good as new, really, so it is just my match fitness that I have to work on now.
"It is going to take maybe four or five full games to get fully match-fit but I felt good on Saturday and was just pleased to get through the 90 minutes. I played my first full reserve game last week, which was the first time I had played 90 since March when we played Doncaster, so I was pleased to get that out of the way."
"But obviously there is a big difference between reserve-team football and the first team, where it is a lot more intense during the game, so I was very pleased to get through it.
Bell continued, "The gaffer wants 4-4-2 with two wide men with me and Macca getting balls into the box and I felt we did that against Palace on Saturday, and it paid off when Macca put a great ball in for Leon Best to score."
"I thought we were a threat from set-pieces and that's what the gaffer wants and the more balls we can get into the box then hopefully the more goals the strikers will score. On reflection of the whole game, a draw was probably a fair result but going on the second half I thought we edged it."
"We had two cleared off the line but it just didn't seem to want to go in for us, so afterwards we were disappointed not to come away with three points,but this is a base now for us to build on and hopefully start our season again."
"We are getting players back now and we have obviously got Richard Wood in from Sheffield Wednesday and Leon Barnett only signed a couple of weeks ago, so it was their first game as a central defensive partnership. Hopefully they will gel together and help at the back and we can get the balance of the team right and go on from there."
