Coventry City favourite reveals how Sky Blues are handling play-off pressure

Coventry City have been preparing diligently with head coach Frank Lampard and his staff for Saturday’s make or break final game of the regular season when victory over Middlesbrough will secure the club’s place in the play-offs.

The players, however, have found time to relax and take their minds off their big game challenge by turning their sporting talents to another discipline – cricket!

Well, to be exact it’s not your traditional willow bat and hard ball on the plush pitches at Ryton but something more akin to French cricket in the confines of the relatively small first team dressing room.

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Explaining all, Sky Blues defender Jake Bidwell said: “Yes, I like a game of cricket to be fair. But it’s all good fun and I think, especially this week, it’s important that you don’t get too carried away. Everyone knows it’s a massive game, there’s no getting away from it, but you do need to relax at times because you can play the game six or seven times your head if you’re not careful.

“So it’s important to have things to take your mind off it and relax. And, yeah, going into tomorrow we’ll be fully focussed and ready to go.”

Asked how it all started, Bidwell said: “To be fair, the dart board got taken out of the dressing room and moved upstairs to the games room for a bit so then it got replaced by the cricket, and now we have got both.

“I think it was Kitch who started it off. There’s been a cricket set here for a while that’s not been used and I think Kitch (Liam Kitching) and Jamie Allen are probably the two main culprits.

“We play with a foam ball because it’s quite a small dressing room, to be fair, so a tennis ball would be popping about all over the place. But yes, it’s high speed and serious stuff!

“I think the bowler needs a helmet more than the batsman because it comes straight back at them.”

As for who are the players who excel at the game, he revealed: “Jamie’s probably the leading run scorer, to be fair. It’s all pretty much just batting until you get caught or bowled out really. There are no LBWs although there are a few suspect decisions, but it’s all good fun.

“Kitch is involved in a quiz as well, he’s the quiz master, so the atmosphere and bonding down here has been really good over the last six months or so. It’s a bit of a laugh for the lads, especially at this time of the season.

“Obviously we take training seriously when we’re working but it’s important that you don’t mentally tire yourself out if you don’t switch off at times. So it’s been a good distraction for the lads.

“Pato (Jamie Paterson) is always up to something so he’s got a lot to do with it as well and it’s been really good. It takes time to bring a group together. You can’t just throw 20 lads into a dressing room and expect them to become best mates. You bond over things like that and find things you’ve got in common and stuff.”

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