ANOTHER victory for Coventry City’s Under-21s has raised hopes of more breakthroughs from the academy next season and one player who has been tipped to make the grade next season and beyond is Ben Stevenson.
The young midfielder put in another impressive display after getting on the scoresheet in a convincing win over Brentford at the Alan Higgs Centre on Monday afternoon.
And Under-21 coach Lee Glover feels Stevenson has got the all-round game to challenge for a place in Tony Mowbray’s first team next season.
“The boys have turned in another good performance and I was really impressed with our attitude across the pitch today,” said Glover.
“We’re showing some excellent form at the moment with our third straight win and the boys should take a bit of confidence from that. Ben Stevenson was excellent again and he has really impressed me since coming back from injury.
“I think he’s given himself a real opportunity to push himself into the first-team picture. He looks like a player who can pick the ball up in midfield and turn the game to get us going forward.
“I’ve had a chat with him about some of the things he needs to do without the ball and he’s really took that on board. He’s been exceptional.”
Defender Bilal Sayoud completed another full 90 minutes at full back while Vladimir Gadzhev got 75 minutes under his belt in midfield and striker George Thomas was also singled out for praise by Glover having netted a brace, with Kyle Spence getting the other goal.
Glover added: “He (Thomas) plays on the shoulder of defenders and he is relentless with his movement throughout the game, and he has got people behind him who can service that.
“He has just said to me in the dressing room how disappointed he is with just the two goals as he got several other chances to score and he’ll want to be putting them away.
“Vlad put in a good shift and technically, his ability isn’t in doubt. He’s always looked good, even in training and we’re looking at his fitness levels so for him to get 75 minutes is great for him.
“We’re putting in a really strong end to the season but we’ve got a difficult end to the season coming up with Hull and Huddersfield. They’re games we should look forward to though with the form we’re on.”
