Mark Robins’ eye-catching Coventry deserve their headlines, Liverpool have a bargain in Andrew Robertson and Wolves are already good enough for top flight
Amid all the hoopla over the departing Mark Hughes, it is right to take a moment to praise Coventry City. They were deserved winners of the third-round tie at the Ricoh Arena, despite giving up the greater number of chances to the visitors. The Sky Blues played with a determination and energy you might expect of a team assuming the David role in a Goliath encounter. But they were also calm on the ball and often quite cute on it, too. Their play was all the more striking, given the starting XI had an average age of 24 (and that is including the 36‑year‑old midfield warhorse Michael Doyle). Especially eye-catching were the rangy 18‑year‑old midfielder Tom Bayliss and the full-back Jack Grimmer, whose sweetly hit 25-yard strike decided the game. With a combination of youth-team graduates and free transfer signings, Mark Robins has built a side with a sense of promise about them and some of that was translated on Saturday. Paul MacInnes
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