Former Coventry City player and manager, Bobby Gould, who was a radio pundit at Saturday's FA cup game at Portsmouth, has spoken about 'City's central defender James McPake.
Gould, who saw James McPake for the first time on Saturday, was impressed by what he saw. He said, "He's some player, a typical Scottish centre half who looks as hard as nails. I really like the look of him."
Coventry City manager agrees with Gould's assessment, saying, "James has been brilliant since he came back. He's an old-fashioned centre-half who throws his head at the ball and has got no airs and graces."
McPake has been out injured for a long time since joining the Sky Blues from Livingstone in the January 2009 transfer window. First he had to have a double hernia operation then suffered a shoulder injury.
McPake has said he is still far from being fully fit, telling reporters, "I would say I am still another five or six games away from full fitness. I was glad to get 90 minutes because it has been a while, in fact I can't remember the last 90 I played."
"I have missed a lot of football in the last year so I am still some way off being where I want to be. We have got a lot of competition for places and that's football. It keeps everyone on their toes and keeps people playing well. All I can do when I get to play is try to do as well as I can to stay in the side."
"I thought we did well as a team and I was happy with my performance and I think everyone else was happy with their performances as well," he said reflecting on Saturday's 1-1 draw at Pompey.
"It was a good test and a good game when I thought we gave a good account of ourselves. We were disappointed with the goal we conceded but on the whole I thought we defended well and played well."
He concluded by saying, "We just didn't defend it well enough because when you play against a Premier League team if they get half a chance they take it. I am confident about the replay,I don't see why we can't get a result. We did it last year against a Premier League team and we will be confident with them coming back to the Ricoh."
"Hopefully Saturday's draw will give us confidence in the league as well. We have been on a good run, albeit we lost to Nottingham Forest, but we would have been high in confidence anyway, regardless of this result."