I was right to play Thomas say Boothroyd

Last updated : 31 January 2011 By Covsupport news/RD

Coventry City manager Aidy Boothroyd came in for some criticism for electing to play the 17 year old Conor Thomas at Birmingham on Saturday, but the City boss has stood by his decision claiming it was the right one to make.

Boothroyd said, “It was a big game to throw him in, but he’s a big talent and the fact that Sammy Clingan had tweaked his ligament again meant I didn’t want to risk him. Conor’s been around the first team squad for a good three or four months and you’re never going to find out about players unless you test them. I’ve always believed that you should stretch talent, and that’s what we did with him. He’s 17, only just passed his driving test, but he didn’t look out of place."

“I didn’t have too many other options, to be honest, because the depth we’ve got isn’t fantastic. That’s all right, I’d much rather go for quality than quantity, but we need to get our big players back, add to what we’ve got and see where that takes us."

“We’re not that far away from either end of the table at the moment, so we’ve got to make sure that we focus on some of the really good stuff that’s going on at our club."

“We brought six thousand fans over from Coventry and they made a lot of noise, got behind the team brilliantly. The support is there, they want us to do well and so do the players and everybody else connected with the club.”