Coventry City travel to high flying Doncaster Rovers on Saturday, but the Sky Blues will be in confident mood as there form, particularly their away form has been good with four wins a draw and one loss in their last six away games.
Coventry will have the league’s top scorer, David McGoldrick, in their side, but will be without club captain Carl Baker, who scored twice in City’s 5-1 home win over Walsall last week. Baker picked up his fifth booking of the season and will serve his mandatory one match ban.
Coventry City manager Mark Robins is unperturbed by losing Baker and has plenty of options to choose from.
He said, “When there is a player out there is always an opportunity for someone and it opens up and raises a challenge for whoever is going to replace Carl.”
John Fleck or Adam Barton are the two most likely choices to be selected to be given the opportunity caused by Baker’s absence.
Baker, who was most people’s man of the match in the 5-1 win over Walsall, scoring twice and making tackles and blocks in defence while making good passes and crosses as well as leading by example, will be missed in the City team, but Robins will prepare his side for the trip to Doncaster in his usual methodical manner.
Robins said, “He’s done terrifically for us over the last few weeks and we have to look how his absence will affect the balance of the team and try to get that right for Doncaster, which is a big game because they are joint top.
“It’s a tough game and the Keepmoat is always a difficult place to go. I watched them last week against Oldham and they won 1-0. They battle, scrap and fight and we have to match that.
“We will go there with a lot of confidence and rightly so because we have earned it, and we have to make sure we take that and the form into a really good stadium and enjoy it.”
The game promises to be a good one as Doncaster, like City, Rovers have performed better away from home than at the Keepmoat. They have only scored 12 times at home and only won half of their home games this season; however, they have won their last two home games.
Robins cautioned, “Some players have left and some come in and they have got some handy players at this level. They’ve got Billy Paynter, Chris Brown and Iain Hume who I know well from Barnsley and works his socks off.
Former Coventry City captain Sammy Clingan is now at Doncaster where he is hoping to secure a permanent deal and could face his former club for the first time since he left Coventry at the end of last season.
Robins continued, “Sammy Clingan is there now and James Harper, Rob Jones the big centre-half who was at Sheffield Wednesday last year and he’s a threat from set plays. They’ve got Tommy Spurr who was at Wednesday as well, so they have got some experience at Championship level who are acquitting themselves well, and it goes without saying that they are in a good position.
“So it’s another test we’re looking forward to and a different test because it’s away from home where we haven’t been for a couple of weeks.”
Doncaster have a couple of injury worries ahead of the visit of Coventry. Midfielders David Syers has an ankle injury while Martin Woods is nursing a thigh injury. Central defender is fit again after recovering from a virus infection and a strained back.
Doncaster’s assistant manager Brian Carey told BBC Radio Sheffield, "We''ve not too many concerns about the game being called off. We certainly wouldn''t want it to be called off because we''re on a good run. We''ve been fortunate because we''ve had a relatively settled side this season and we''ve found ourselves in a good position because of that.
"Kyle Bennett has probably been forced to come back a little earlier than we would have liked ideally and it takes time to get the body and mind back to where you want it to be.
"They''ve got some good players and they''ve found some form. Mark Robins has done a good job since he came in."