Mark Robins has revealed he’s had one or two ‘issues’ in his Coventry City camp.
The Sky Blues boss says some of his peripheral players are not happy with their lack of game time but he’s told them to ‘grow up’ and get on with pushing themselves into the first team picture.
One player who is a shining example of having done just that is Dion Kelly-Evans, who was handed his first League Two appearance of the season when he was sent on as a second half substitute against Swindon Town on Saturday.
The 21-year-old right-back helped City see out the last 25 minutes of the impressive 3-1 Ricoh Arena win with a positive contribution on the wing in place of Jordan Maguire-Drew.
“He did exactly what I wanted him to do and contributed in the attacking third as well,” said Robins , who was pleased with the Academy graduate who has been limited to three Checkatrade Trophy appearances this term, having slipped behind first choice right-back Jack Grimmer .
“But he has trained really, really well and is back on it and focused.
“There have been one or two issues in the camp where if people aren’t playing they are getting a little bit disgruntled but it’s ‘grow up’ time and they have got to get on with it.
“We have got 18 league games left and a serious challenge to mount.”
Kelly-Evans looked like the ideal candidate to go out on loan this January given his lack of game time, but he appears to have worked his way back into the manager’s thoughts.
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“It just shows you how things can change really quickly,” said Robins, of the young defender who made 32 senior appearances last season.
“His performance on Monday in the Under-23s and leading up to that, and his attitude, commitment and desire are why I re-signed him in the summer and he’s showing that again now.”
He added: “We needed him to go on to the right hand side and deal with Ellis Iandolo because he was causing problems at times.
“We needed to make sure he was taken care of because he was one of Swindon’s avenues, so I was really pleased with him.”
Asked if any of his players are likely to be farmed out on loan to get match minutes, Robins said: “I have no idea yet.
“I have to see who I can get in and see where things are, but I am not willing to make us weaker unless I have to do something in terms of balancing the books so I don’t necessarily see anyone going out. We have got to make sure everyone is ready for the run-in whether they are in the team, around the team, not played very much or whatever.
“They are our players and they have to knuckle down and get on with it.”
