Exclusive: Ian Holloway issues Coventry City top-six verdict after flying start to the season | OneFootball

Discovery+ and Quest pundit Ian Holloway says it will be tough for Coventry City to maintain their strong start to season, but is ruling nothing out, and says manager Mark Robins could be key to any Sky Blues success during the campaign.

Robins returned to Coventry for his second spell at the club in 2017, and guided the club to promotion from League One during the 2019/20 season.

The club’s first year back in the Championship season last season saw them claim a 16th place finish in the second-tier, while having found themselves playing their home games at Birmingham’s St Andrew’s Stadium.

This season though, Coventry have returned to their home ground, and have been something of a revelation in the Championship.

A 4-1 victory at home to one of this season’s promotion favourites, Fulham, in the final game before the October international break has put Robins’ side third in the Championship table, with 22 points from their 11 league games so far.

Now it seems that Holloway believes the nature of the Championship means that there is no guarantee Coventry can continue their strong start through the rest of the season, but that Robins will be vital to their hopes of doing that.

Speaking exclusively to Football League World about whether he believes Coventry can compete for the top six all season, Holloway said: “It will be very very tough for them to do. But if they’ve done it in the first nine or ten games, who’s to say that they can’t.

“It’s about consistency and it’s about depth. But it’s also about identity and I’m looking at them and their passing stats are good, their chance creation is good, so why not.

“The facts are that some people are a little bit surprised that they’re up there, but I’m not, because of Mark Robins, I think he’s done a fantastic job there, and I really rate him as a manager.

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“They’re bank homies as well, I think that’s six in a row at home now, and what adversity that was, getting your ground ripped away from you and having to go all the way up to Birmingham.

“But created a siege mentality last season and they look quality this year. So who’s to say they can’t stay there?

“We’ve to watch this space, but I’ve been caught before because of the quality of this division. So it’s very very tough to predict anything.”

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