Coventry City manager Chris Coleman has admitted he and the team are under pressure to secure a win at The Ricoh Arena against Preston on Saturday.
The last four home games have not gone according to plan and the fans have been disappointed with the lack of form and points, but Chris Coleman admits that the atmosphere at a half full stadium can affect the team as well as the fans. He is determined to halt the poor run and Saturday's game with Preston is as good a place to start as any.
Coleman said to the CT: "It's a big stadium and we can't fill it, especially in the predicament we are in where we have not won for eight and I know that if we start slowly and Preston are on top then there will be that atmosphere, but we have got to deal with that. That is just football and life and you have to deal with it. It doesn't faze me and it shouldn't faze the players, but they are the ones on the pitch.
"If we win on Saturday we have got two games left and if we get anything from the last two then we can finish mid table and that's a progression because we have gone from being relegation candidates in my first year and then we couldn't get relegated last year, but if we can finish higher than last year and in the top 12 it is another progression."
"It doesn't matter how we play on Saturday, whether we play well or indifferent, the three points are there for us and we need them, simple as that." He added.
Preston currently occupy 14th spot in the Championship table, just one point above Coventry, but will be without their on loan defender Elliot Ward, who cannot play against his parent club. The Lillywhites have been going through a poor run of their own recently and Coventry City will be out to avenge their 3-2 defeat at Deepdale earlier in the season.
Coleman continued, "Preston were in the play-offs last year and they have since changed their manager and you always get that little interim period when he comes in. They won in the last minute last weekend but they are not really playing for anything themselves,but we have just got to go at it and say they it doesn't matter who we are playing on Saturday, let's get three points and get back to smiling.
"To be fair to the lads they worked hard at Sheffield but are just lacking a bit of confidence, defensively and offensively, and I don't think we deserved to lose the game, but that comes when you are on a bad run like we are on.
"Five weeks ago I think we would have won that game because we were in that mood, and now we are not."
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