Carl Baker produced one of his best performances in the sky blue of Coventry City in their 3-2 win over Birmingham in the Capital One Cup.
Baker grabbed the winner in the 96th minute, in the fist half of extra time and was many fan's man of the match.
The game was the first one since the sacking of Andy Thorn and the fist game Richard Shaw was in charge of, but it was the same side that surrendered a 2-0 lead to Bury a few days before.
Shaw said of Baker to the CT's Andy Turner: “The desire that he showed to close people down, I’ve never seen Carl tackle like that, not even in training, but he was sensational.”
Baker explained he was fired up for the encounter, he said, “I just thought driving to the game that I was going to give it everything I have got and wanted the fans to see me giving 110 per cent and hopefully they would get behind me. I thought I did that and I had a lot of the ball in the final third and things I was trying were coming off. I felt really good, fit and strong. I was expecting to hit a brick wall going into the second half of extra time but I still had energy on the final whistle.”
Baker's tackling was a revelation, but he was as perplexed as everyone else as to why. He said, “I don’t know where that came from. Carso and Shawsy spoke to me before the game about being in the right position, which was in and around Hayden Mullins.”
Baker fired in the winning goal seven minutes into extra time, he said, "It was the best feeling in the world.”
Now he knows what he and the rest of the team are capable of doing on the field of play, the challenge is now to keep it up.
Baker agreed, saying: “Yeah, definitely. I don’t want my standards to drop. I am feeling really fit and I want to look after my body and recover right for Saturday and the rest of the season. There will be games when I won’t play so well but I still want to be working hard.”
The big uncertainty is who will be in charge in the future, but more performances of the type on display against Birmingham, the chances are that it will be a Shaw and Carsley partnership.
“I gather the players are all behind Richard," said baker. "Me personally, I would love it because he is a great fella and he and Carso work great together. I have a lot of respect for them. They have been fantastic since they have come in and everyone can see the lads gave them an absolute shift and a lot of that is to do with them being in charge. It was a bit of a statement to be honest.
“It’s in our hands really and I think the lads know that. Hopefully Shawsy will get a little bit of time now and if we pick up results I don’t see the need to change.”
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