Goals at premium for winless City

KEY MAN: Coventry's Gael Bigirimana (left) has attracted praise from his manager

THE play-offs remain the aim for winless Coventry City, but the Sky Blues will need to find a solution to their goal drought in order to climb the table.

Tony Mowbray's men host Athletic on Saturday and are clearly hoping an expecting to pick up three points with a win that could see them leapfrog their opponents in the Sky Bet League One standings.

Coventry have failed to score in four of their seven outings so far, though - and have netted only three all season, the worst record in the division which is only just pipped by Athletic's four-goal tally.

Both teams will be looking to find their creative spark at the Ricoh Arena.

While clearly missing the influence of loan striker Adam Armstrong, who scored 20 goals for the Sky Blues last season on loan from Newcastle, Mowbray at least felt his central midfield man Gael Bigirimana (22) performed well in last week's 1-1 draw at Millwall.

"I think 'Bigi' was magnificent - his energy, his drive, his quality. He's still a young boy but he cares very much about this football club and he's growing into a leader," Mowbray told the Coventry Telegraph, of a player back at the club for a third spell after being released by Newcastle.

"I can hear him in the dressing room and he gets disappointed some times with the decisions of other players because he wants us to be the best team, as I do.

"He's back at Coventry to be successful, to become the top player we all know he can be. He looks a different player from the one we took on loan last season."

With a young squad at his disposal, the Sky Blues boss was relatively content with the point gained at The Den.

"It just seemed like it was David and Goliath and everything was going Goliath's way - every challenge seemed to be a free-kick to them - but we stuck to it and worked incredibly hard," he said.

"Apart from the goal we conceded, which was just plain sloppy, the defence played well against a team that always ask you questions.

"We haven't got a (Millwall striker) Steve Morrison in the middle. If we did we'd be putting balls in from everywhere like Millwall do, but whether we go out and try to find somebody like that is another decision we have to make."