Coventry La La La
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Time to move on
Once again the questions put to Coventry City manager Aidy Bothroyd were about justifying signing Marlon King and his qualities as a human being rather than his quality as a footballer.
During a recent interview Boothroyd remained calm and polite, but was slightly irritated when asked if King's equaliser against Norwich justified a Championship club signing the controversial striker.
Boothroyd replied to the CT: "I get asked this question every week. I don't have a problem with you asking it, but it's not about justification, we've moved on from that now."
"It's all about him being a professional footballer and very good at scoring goals and he will score a lot more goals for us."
City supporters remain divided over King, but they are supporters of Coventry City Football Club and not fans of one player and football is a team game. They might not necessarily like the man, but they like the footballer and his contribution to the team.
The same cannot be said about opposition fans and some parts of the press, who delight in either shouting abuse or writing King's transgressions rather than his contributions on the football pitch.
King and Boothroyd have both claimed that players thrive on being singled out for abuse, but after a match winning performance over Middlesbrough a few weeks ago, the News of the World spitefully awarded the striker 1 out of 10.
King has been improving week by week and is now showing his quality on the field, not just with the ball, but in taking the pressure off other players giving them that half a second advantage.
Boothroyd continued: "He's a team player. Centre-forwards can be selfish so-and-sos but Marlon tracks back, works the flanks, always puts in a full shift."
"You want players who, whatever sort of form they're in, you know you'll always get a good work ethic from them. Team-mates want it, managers and coaches want it and, most important, the fans want it."
Michael Doyle, who was stand in captain last week in the absence of Lee Carsley, also praised King's work ethic saying, "Before Marlon came here Coventry people probably just knew him for his goals, but his work-rate is top drawer. He's everywhere and he just doesn't give up. He never makes it easy for defenders so he must be a real nuisance to play against."
"Against Reading he did everything but score and could have had a couple of penalties, so the goal against Norwich was a good reward for him, but he was really down at the end because we couldn't see the game out and get at least a point."
As for King himself, he agreed saying: "It's nice to score but very disappointing to lose in the last five minutes."
"We did tremendously well to keep four clean sheets in a row which is a testament to the goalkeeper, the back four and the rest of the team all working together, so it's hurtful to lose like that."
Much has been written about the poor standard of refereeing by Chris Sarginson last week in the game against Norwich and King was involved in two rather bizarre incidents of mistaken identity on Saturday.
Clive Platt was yellow carded for after King tripped Grant Holt, despite King pleading guilty to the offence. Later he was substituted by mistake when the fourth official held up the number 9 when Jutkiewicz came on as a replacement
King explained: "With the booking I said to referee 'it was me' but he just wasn't interested and I don't think the officials did us any favours. We should definitely have had a penalty early on when their defender brought Platty down. You expect decisions like that to be given because it was right in front of the linesman and that's what they're there to do."
"Aron Gunnarsson's red card was very unlucky. It was right in front of me and their player made a real meal of it. I said to the referee 'don't spoil the game; it's a booking but it wasn't malicious because he's not that kind of player.'"
"It's a shame because with 11 men on the pitch there was only going to be one winner, but we can't dwell on it.
"Everybody has setbacks, QPR and Cardiff have been losing games recently and the test is how you bounce back, especially with the games coming thick and fast at Christmas."
"That's what this league is like. We've got a team capable of doing things and we won't let our heads go down because of disappointments like that, just as we won't get carried away if we go on a nice little run.
"Some people might think that we're horrible to play against and bullies but we're not, we just give it 100 per cent. I know that if I come off that pitch and my legs are wobbling I've put a shift in."
"That goes right through the team, working hard for each other is what it's all about and that will pay dividends at the end of the season."
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