YOUNG striker George Thomas has praised the togetherness of Coventry City’s Under-21s after they comfortably beat Premier League outfit Watford 2-0 at the Ricoh Arena on Monday.
With manager Tony Mowbray looking on from the touchline, Thomas scored the only goal of the first half to give the home side a narrow 1-0 lead at the break.
Winger Kyle Spence sealed the win 12 minutes from time and Wales international Thomas believes coach Lee Glover’s decision to get the under-21s to train together regularly had paid off.
He told the Observer: “Over the last few weeks Glovers, the coach, has taken us for more sessions where it’s just us rather than mix and match and I think that’s helped the team.
“It’s given us more togetherness and allowed us to get proper sessions in and it’s showed over the last six weeks.
“We’ve played well, we’re playing really good football, got some good results and it’s enjoyable.”
Thomas demonstrated his ability in front of goal with a well taken opener from the edge of the area shortly after the half-hour mark and he was disappointed not to have added to his tally.
“I thought I’d lost the chance before my goal because I took an extra touch, but I managed to create the space around me and place it into the bottom corner.
“I had a few more chances too, I had one that got blocked and a volley at the end but the goalkeeper made a good save, but it was a good all round performance.”
Recent signings Vladimir Gadzhev and Bilal Sayoud both impressed on their debuts, with the former lasting an hour while former Nike Academy player Sayoud lasted the full 90 minutes.
Both Dion and Devon Kelly-Evans also performed well but Thomas singled out fellow Welsh defender Cian Harris for praise.
He added: “Cian Harris is a really good footballer. He’s been told he needs to get a bit more physical and I think he dominated in the air against a good number nine.
“Watford are a Premier League side so we were expecting them to be a good passing side. They started off pretty sharp in the opening ten minutes and we thought ‘we’re in for a good game here’.
“Then we just settled down, played our game and it turned out to be quite a comfortable.
“I think they had a few senior players coming back from injury. They’ve got quite a senior squad compared to us, with a few first year pros and a few scholars, but I think we coped with their physicality well.”
