Teenage City midfielder Conor Thomas spoke to his club's official website ahead of his side's League One match against Carlisle at Brunton Park tomorrow afternoon, Thomas buzzing after the Sky Blues defeated Bristol City 5-4 last weekend:
“We were all buzzing after Sunday to get our first win. The team spirit is very good at the minute, so to get that first win felt really good. The gaffer [Steven Pressley] wants us to play a certain way and in a certain style of football with and without the ball. Everyone has bought into that and believes that if we play that way, stick together and keep playing as a team then the results will come, and in the first two games we were unlucky not to get something out of them.
“Everyone will keep on with everyone else to make sure that we don’t get complacent. Obviously, we have only won one game and we want to get out of the situation we are in. We are a young team and a hardworking team, so hopefully we can follow up from the Bristol City win. We are a really tight-knit group and everyone is in it together, we want to do well for the fans and give them something to talk about football-wise instead of the other stuff that is going on, that is all we can focus on as players.
“It is without the ball that the gaffer is doing a lot of work and if we all buy into what he is doing, which we are. He talks about the pressing game and winning the ball back, hopefully we can be successful with that this year. The whole team has to buy into it, so if everyone is doing it then that all ties in with the team spirit and everyone working together. So, hopefully everyone just keeps working hard and we will get some results now.”
In team news for the Sky Blues tomorrow goalkeeper Joe Murphy has been nursing a foot injury all week but he likes extremely likely to feature given that back-up stopper Chris Dunn today had his contract cancelled by mutual consent with City. Midfielder Adam Barton also looks likely to play as he overcomes a slight knee inflammation, but the visitors will be without skipper Carl Baker who misses the match as he sees out the second game of a three match ban for a red card picked up in Coventry’s Capital One Cup defeat at Leyton Orient.
The referee for tomorrow's match is Paul Tierney from Wigan and he will be assisted down the lines by Glen Hart from Darlington and Kevin Mattocks from Chorley. Meanwhile the fourth official is Geoff Eltringham from Sunderland.