FOOTBALL: THE SKY Blues entertain an in-form Fleetwood Town side on Saturday and manager Russell Slade is hoping to emulate his opponents by going on an unbeaten run of their own once he has that all-important first league win in the bag.
Uwe Rosler’s side come into Saturday’s match at the Ricoh Arena on a nine-game unbeaten run in the league, which has propelled them into the play-off places.
There is a mutal respect between both managers but Slade knows his side are in for a tough battle against a Fleetwood side who ran out 2-0 winners in the reverse fixture back at the beginning of September.
“I’ve got a lot of time for Uwe and I get on very well with him,” Slade told the Observer. “There is a certain stability at Fleetwood now that they’ve come through the leagues.
“They’ve certainly established themselves as a League One club, people don’t see them as a League Two side now, they are well established at this level.
“I think they’ve had an interesting season. They started very well and were in around the top six and then they had a period where they were finding it difficult to pick up results.
“They’ve now gone nine games unbeaten in the league and that tells you about how well they’re doing at the moment.
“It also shows how in this league you can put a run together and start climbing the table and that’s exactly what we want to do.”
Since taking over from Mark Venus just before Christmas, Slade has won one of his five games in charge and gone four league games without a win but he is determined to put that right against the Cod Army.
“It’s frustrating that it’s not come before now but we don’t just want that first win, we want a series of wins.
“We were very close at Peterborough and at home against Bolton where perhaps we should have picked up all three points.
“Even at Chesterfield we scored a goal which was ruled out and that would have put us in front.
“We’re not a million miles away, we’re just not getting the wins. But I think if we can get that first one then I don’t see why we can’t go on a 6-7 game run ourselves.
“I think we’ve remained competitive but we know how difficult the job ahead is.”
Some Sky Blues fans were critical of Slade’s tactics following last Saturday’s 1-0 defeat at fellow strugglers Chesterfield and the City boss was quick to point out that results must come ahead of performances.
He added: “First of all I’m still very disappointed with the result and that feeling doesn’t go away so easily.
“It wasn’t the result we were after and on reflection I do feel we deserved something out of the game.
“On the back off it we should have scraped a goal but we were not at out best and we’ve got to be doing better. We can’t control what has happened.
“We need to learn to adapt. What’s the point in us going all out ‘gung ho’ when we can’t protect a clean sheet at the other end of the pitch.
“We have to build a foundation. That’s what I’m trying to create, a foundation. Sometimes we go and win a tight match 1-0.
“Yes we want to be entertaining and creative, but it isn’t going to be very entertaining for our fans if we’re leaking goals every game. We have to get the balance right.”
