When Aidy Boothroyd first arrived in Coventry he was hugely impressed with The Ricoh, but so were the opposition, who invariable left with the lions share of the spoils.
It didn't take Boothroyd long to pinpoint where the problems occurred last season and that was the home form of Coventry City. In the 23 league games played at The Ricoh last season, City managed only eight wins. Compared with the teams in the Championship only relegated Peterborough (6) and Plymouth (5) managed fewer home wins.
Boothroyd has determined that no longer will The Ricoh be a happy hunting ground for visitors.
“This is a fantastic stadium,” said Boothroyd. “You come in here and see all the nice pictures of players like Cyrille Regis on the walls and visiting teams must love it. But then they go away with points and I don’t want that to happen any more. I want them to leave here with nothing.
“To finish 17th, 19th and 21st in the last three years tells me we are still quite far away from where we want to be. There is potential here but it needs some surgery, that’s for sure. We have got to find 25 points from somewhere if we are going to be successful and home form will be crucial because if you can get the place full and buzzing it makes life very difficult for the opposition."
“I want to attack and score goals because that’s what fans want to see, but this is the Championship and you can’t play like that all the time. I think it is important that I say those things first because at the moment the team is nice to watch, it has some really good players, but they play in front rather than penetrating and hurting."
“There are times when you have fight and scrap for points, when you have to be horrible and nasty to play against, difficult to beat. Above all, supporters want to see passion; you can’t always win but there’s a way to lose and that’s what I expect from my teams. They always work, they always run, they are always difficult to beat."
“If you can get that sort of mentality and belief going I think it spreads to the crowd and then everyone is in it together. I expect even more than that, so I am certainly excited about getting hold of some talent and really letting it realise what it can be because maybe in the past some of them haven’t been able to cope with what has been expected from them."
“Players who will run and fight for the cause can only get you so far, intricate little technical players who can produce quality passes will only get you so far, but if you can get both together then you have got a fantastic chance, and we are not that far away in that respect.”