Coventry City boss Chris Coleman had told his players not to let the travelling fans down on their short trip to Peterborough tomorrow.
The Sky Blue are expecting up to 3,000 fans to turn out to support 'City's late push for a play off berth. With over 2,000 tickets already sold to Coventry fans and another 1,000 made available yesterday Mr Coleman is keenly aware of the expectations being placed on him and his players.
Mr Coleman said, “I am loving it at the moment and that’s always the case when you and the team are doing well and there’s a buzz of excitement about the place, but we mustn’t get carried away because we know what football’s like and there is always a kick up the backside just waiting around the corner, but the players are not daft.
“The club have asked for another 1,000 tickets so we should be taking a big crowd across and I want the players to enjoy that because they have put themselves in that position, but I don’t want them to forget why they are in the position. It is hard work, graft and appreciating each other.
“It is no coincidence that the supporters are turning out and they deserve it because they have waited long enough for a bit of excitement and now we are giving it to them. That gives us a little problem because there is no hiding."
"We have dangled a carrot and it is being nibbled, but we have got to keep putting performances in and getting positive results.I hope no-one is expecting us to go and play lovely, flashy football and score lots of goals because every game we have played and been successful in we have had to work really hard for."
“They have all been tight games no matter if they have been at the top or bottom and the main thing is the players turn up with their sleeves rolled up, first and foremost for a battle and a fight. Anything on top of that is the icing on the cake. We have got to enjoy the support we are taking because that tells us that we are going in the right direction."
"Our supporters have been magnificent and what we have done is given ourselves a really good opportunity to give ourselves a really exciting end to the season.”
With Wood, Bell and Barnett definitely missing and Clingan a possible absentee, Coleman will have to tinker with his squad, but Ben Turner has made welcome progress and impressed in recent reserve game win over Nottingham Forest and may be in contention to start.
Coleman explained, “Forest had £10-12 million of talent in the side and Ben and Jermaine Grandison were up against Dele Adebola and David McGoldrick, so they did very well, Ben was a bit tired and got a kick in the ankle, but he rested yesterday and if we decide to go with him tomorrow he will be better for having that 90 minutes.”
“We have to turn it into a positive and say the lads coming in are coming in to a winning team and they will want to hold their place down and hopefully we will get the best out of them,”
When asked about his nomination for Championship manager of th month, Coleman was unimpressed, saying, “I don’t want it. I am not interested. I don’t mean this disrespectfully but I have not even looked at it. I won it last year and the wheels came off, so I don’t want to think about it.”