Boothroyd: Swansea Set The Benchmark For Us

Coventry City manager Aidy Boothroyd complimented Swansea City ahead of tonight's match at the Ricoh Arena, saying their opponents the set 'benchmark' for where they want to be.

Boothroyd also talked about the game against the Swans at the Liberty Stadium, saying despite losing 2-1, they dominated possession in the second half and were unlucky not to get a point.

'Kenny Jackett did a wonderful job there, Roberto Martinez and Paulo Sousa carried on the good work and made them very difficult to beat, and then Brendan came in, recognised that they needed a little bit more pace and he has got Scott Sinclair and Nathan Dyer who can catch pigeons,'

'Sinclair in particular is an outstanding player at this level.

'They work on manipulating the ball, shifting it from one side to the other, and they've got power, pace and goals.

'In many ways they are a benchmark for where we want to be, but it's taken them five or six years to develop that style and get where they are so we can't suddenly try to play like them.

'I don't want to play Swansea's style of football, or Barcelona's or Arsenal's, or Wimbledon's or anybody else's — I want to play our own brand.'

He also said that Swansea are beatable and are 'nothing to be afraid of':

'We showed them far too much respect that night and then awarded them a second goal at the start of the second half when Martin Cranie's back pass went astray,'

'But after that it was pretty much all us. We gave it a real go, dominated the second half and were disappointed not to get something out of the game.

'They're a good side, of course they are, but they are nothing to be afraid of. Like every team in the Championship they've got strengths and weaknesses, and we exposed those weaknesses at their place just as they exposed ours.

'We know it's going to be a tough game, but I can't think of any easy games in this division.'

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