Yahoo News Coventry City boss fires warning shot to players ahead of Legends Day
Mark Robins has fired a warning shot to his Coventry City players, saying they had “better be at it” when the club rounds off the 2023/24 campaign on Legends Day.
The Sky Blues host 17th placed Queens Park Rangers with neither side having anything tangible to play for except pride and, in City’s case, the chance to finish in eighth place in the division on 67 points, assuming Middlesbrough don’t win at home to Watford.
Coventry go into their final game of the season on a five game winless run in the league, putting a dampener on what has been an otherwise enjoyable season in which they got to a memorable FA Cup semi-final at Wembley and just fell short of the play-offs.
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Asked if it’s important to end on a positive, the manager said: “Yes, and honestly that’s the biggest thing because it looks too easy; it looks like we can’t win anything and I don’t want to sit there and watch that.”
He then warned: “I know the supporters won’t want to sit there and watch that, so don’t allow that to happen. But that will give me a lot of food for thought, so they had better be at it on Saturday.”
Put to him that the supporters deserve a good end to what has been an encouraging and enjoyable season in many respects, he said: “I think people will look at it in different ways. People will look at the FA Cup run and think that was incredible, which it was. It had not happened since ‘87 and was only the second time we have got to a semi-final and we were very, very close to getting to a final.
“So in that sense, yes, we have played some good football and had to adjust to things; a huge turn-around in players, as everyone knows, and the loss of two Coventry greats (Gyokeres and Hamer), probably, and two of the Championship’s top players. So there are all of those things to take into consideration and I think reflection will come in a week or two.”
He added: “We have to recover for what is a big game here on Saturday. It’s Legends Day as well and it’s always a good day for the football club to honour our past players and we have to remember that some of those won the FA Cup, so they were real legends, hence the name of the day. So we have got a bit of a way to go yet (to hit those heights again).”
