Holden hails City’s strength in depth

The assistant head coach says all players have played their role in City’s run of good form, even those who haven’t played as many minutes.

The most recent examples of that are Kasey Palmer and Matty Taylor who came off the bench to score in City’s win against Bolton Wanderers last weekend.

Palmer, making his debut, nodded in the winner to send City seventh in the Sky Bet Championship, to record City’s fourth-consecutive win as part of a ten-game unbeaten streak.

“One of the pleasing things in recent games has been the impact from the bench which shows it is a team game,” Holden told BCTV.

“We saw that with Kasey and Matty coming on and getting their goals against Bolton Wanderers. Jay (Dasilva) came on and had a positive effect on the game too.

“I think back to Joe Morrell at Ipswich Town (3-2 W), he came on from nowhere and put on a really mature performance; Bailey Wright against Stoke City (2-0 W), he hadn’t played for nine months but put on a great show.

“That’s testament to the players’ characters, making sure that when they’re not in the team they train 100 per cent every day, they prepare as if they are in the team and that has stood us in good stead.”

Holden reiterated that City’s preparation in training remains the same, with consistency the key to success.

Speaking about the analysis process, ahead of their trip to Nottingham Forest, Holden said: “The process of analysing the game, win, lose or draw is the same.

“Irrespective of the result, we as a coaching staff analyse the game and deliver it to the players on Monday morning. Then we go to the training environment and put to bed any areas which didn’t work in the game before. We want to make sure the players understand and are on board with the messages.

“From there we move on, we don’t discuss it again and we shift the focus to the next game so we are ready for that.”

Tickets for City’s trip to City Ground on Saturday (January 19^th, 3pm KO) remain on sale. Fans should note, ticket will not be available to purchase on the day.

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