Coventry City have been handed an injury boost ahead of Bristol City’s trip to The CBS Arena with Frank Lampard confirming Ben Wilson is once again available for selection.
The Robins make the trip to the Midlands on Saturday afternoon as they look to bounce back from their FA Cup defeat to Wolves last time out. Even with a moment of magic from Scott Twine, Liam Manning’s side were not able to cause an upset and book their place in the fourth round as they were beaten 2-1 by Vitor Pereira’s team.
Despite their frustrating defeat last weekend, City come into Saturday’s game in good form having claimed 10 points from their last four Championship games. A win over the Sky Blues would help cut the gap to the play-off positions and boost the Reds’ hopes of finishing in the top six.
Manning will be without Marcus McGuane who has been ruled out with concussion, but Rob Dickie is back in contention after a spell out of the squad with illness. Similarly, Coventry have several key players sidelined, but Wilson is fit again having been out of action for more than three months with a knee injury.
The 32-year-old has only started three league games this season with Oliver Dovin filling in between the posts during his absence. While it seems likely Dovin will keep his place against City, Wilson looks set to return to the substitute bench at least.
“Ben is training now,” Lampard told Coventry Live. “He’s available, maybe to start it’s early days, but he’s available having trained. Oliver [Dovin] is playing well, he’s a young goalkeeper and I think there is a lot more to come from him as he gets better.
“He wants to do that. He’ll have had a good feeling from last week of being the match-winner of sorts. There are things to improve but he’s a good talent, trains well and he’s taken the opportunity. He needs to keep it going.”
Although the return of Wilson is positive for the Sky Blues, none of Haji Wright, Ephron Mason-Clark or Ben Sheaf are yet ready to return to the fold against Manning’s Robins. While Lampard has been reluctant to put an exact timescale on all three players’ recovery, he did admit that he was hopeful Mason-Clark could feature in early February.
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Since Lampard arrived at The CBS Arena, Coventry have been rather inconsistent, winning three, drawing three and losing three of their nine opening league matches under the former England international. At home however, they have been slightly more reliable. The Sky Blues have not lost any of their last five games in front of their own fans in all competitions, while Bristol City are without a win in any of their last five games away from Ashton Gate.
Although the Coventry boss has been buoyed by his team’s record on their own turf since he took over from Mark Robins, he is keen to further extend their recent run of form when the Reds come to town this weekend.
“I want more. I’ve only been here a short period of time and there is a lot of work to be done,” Lampard explained. “It won’t change overnight. I want to see more things that I like. I’ve seen some things, but other things not so. It’s very normal when you come into a club mid-season.
“Our home form has been good but it can be better, for sure. I’ll be very demanding with that. These full weeks are great because they give you training time. It can sometimes be a game, game, game but we’re still very wary of recovery, having come off the back of that busy schedule.”