Jack Rudoni has urged his Coventry City team-mates to embrace talk of the club’s imminent promotion to the Premier League.
After recent near misses, against Luton Town and Sunderland in the play-offs, Sky Blues players could be forgiven for trying to keep a lid on the growing excitement at the CBS Arena.
However, Rudoni’s sparkling, match-winning cameo against Derby County on Friday night not only gave his side a 3-2 victory, it put them 12 points clear of third place and felt very much like another important hurdle cleared.
Promotion is all but certain and Rudoni rejected the usual ‘cliches’ about not done until it’s done – and told Frank Lampard’s squad to seize control of their own destiny.
“Of course it's close, we're not going to sit here and do all the cliche stuff. It's close. So let's just win the games and get up,” he told Sky Sports.
“But, no we're staying focused and we're a good side, we believe in ourselves, so, we've got to keep going and we'll do it.”
Rudoni game off the bench to put his side 2-1 in front, only for a disputed Ben Brereton Diaz penalty to level the game. The 24-year-old stuck again with ten minutes to go with a high-class finish that proved to be the winner.
He praised his team’s mental fortitude. “I've only trained like two days so I came on, the gaffer was like ‘Are you sure you've got 30 in you?’ I was like ‘Yeah, sure’.
“I’m buzzing to come on and help the team, and I thought I may have won it with the first one, but then the penalty gets given.
“Whether it is or it's not, I don't know, I haven't seen it. But we just had to respond again that's what us front players are here to do. Just had to chop them and put one in the corner.
“I mean, that's been us all season, really, whenever we have a setback, the fight from the boys, everyone, has been brilliant.
“Any setback we never dwell on it we just come back and how many late goals and stuff we score to win? It shows the spirit of the team 100%.”
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