MARK Robins hopes Coventry City can return to winning ways against out-of-form Birmingham City on Friday night in front of the Sky Sports cameras.
The Sky Blues lost 2-1 away at automatic promotion contenders Ipswich Town last weekend ahead of a tough run of games heading into the festive period.
However, Robins hopes his Coventry side can bounce back from their defeat at Portman Road at the first time of asking in front of their home fans.
Robins said: “It’ll be interesting game, Wayne Rooney has gone in, there’s an intent there from them to play a certain type of football. We’re looking forward to it under the lights and in front of the cameras.
“He’s come in in circumstances where the team was doing really well and things have changed slightly for them, ultimately when you’re putting your philosophy on the club that has an effect in a negative way before it starts to build.
“For us, it’s about us and how we’re doing and how we go about this game on the back of last time out, we played okay, we were a little bit unfortunate not to have got something out of the game.
“We want to get back to winning ways as quickly as possible, there’s no doubt we’ve got a tough run of games coming up but we’re looking forward to it.”
And after his substiutions made a big impact against the Tractor Boys, Robins admitted squad rotation is necessary to ensure his summer signings can adapt to the intense nature of the division.
Robins added: “The Championship is relentless and physical, everybody knows that, coming from a different team, division, country and type of football, [new signings] have to adapt and get used to the way things happen in England.
“That’s something that is always the most testing element for players coming over, they have to get used to the frequency of the games because they play once a week abroad.
“We have the international break where you try and get the balance between work and rest, we’ve done it different ways and there is no rhyme or reason to it.
“Ultimately, you’ve got to treat people as individuals, there’s a lot of variables in that and players’ circumstances are always taken into consideration.”
Robins also paid tribute to departing chief executive Dave Boddy who announced he would be leaving the club in January next year.
He said: “I’ll be sorry to see him go, he’s a brilliant person to have had around, he’s been fantastic for me and for the football club.
“He’s helped facilitate all of the decisions and options we’ve had and cifted through, we’ve planned the course and stuck with it and it’s been successful to this point.
“Things change, Dave feels it’s the right time for him to do something else, I wish him all the best in whatever he does, he’s a brilliant fella, I’ve really enjoyed working with him and I’ll be sad we don’t have those daily interactions anymore.”
Coventry’s clash with Birmingham takes place on Friday, December 8 with kick-off at 8pm at the Coventry Building Society Arena.
