Fan's View: It's essential Harry Kewell stays on this summer

All the talk pre-match was of Coventry City's last visit to the Checkatrade Stadium in May 2015 when they inflicted relegation on us from League One.
Steve HerbertSteve Herbert
Steve Herbert

Here was the chance for a little bit of revenge.

A Crawley Town victory could have put a nasty dent into the Sky Blues’ promotion ambitions.

As it was, the Reds succumbed to the same sorry scoreline as of three years ago with a 2-1 defeat.

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One thing’s for sure, we’ve come a long way as a squad and a club since Crawley’s only Football League relegation.

Those that attend regularly this season can see the building job that Harry Kewell has been doing since last August.

The passing football on display is a pleasure to watch at times.

It might not always come off and League Two players will make mistakes at times.

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But the confidence and work-rate that HK has installed in his players to play this way is admirable.

I know I keep preaching this in previous columns, but stability is the key to success in any football club.

That’s why it’s imperative that Harry stays on this summer and continues the excellent job that he’s doing.

This summer Kewell and Feeney have the chance to add the players they feel we need to break into that elusive top-seven and give us a shot at returning to the next level and another foray into League One.

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If Coventry City are play-off standard then we certainly are.

For a good 70 minutes on Saturday the Reds were probably the better of the two sides.

The main difference was that Coventry had forward players that could finish.

Our attacking options have been limited all season.

We have struggled in front of goal at different stages this season, often relying on our midfielders and even defenders of late to score the goals.

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Talking of goalscoring defenders, another excellent finish by the vastly improved Lewis Young on Saturday.

I do believe that’s one more goal than his brother Ashley Young has in this campaign.

Lewis is a player that got quite a bit of stick in his early days with us.

But playing in such a terrible team under John Gregory’s leadership he was always going to be on a hiding to nothing.

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But under the late Dermot Drummy and now Harry Kewell’s management, he has absolutely blossomed, and is quickly turning into a crowd favourite.

It’s certainly going to be a tough call for player of the season this year, with Glenn Morris, Jimmy Smith and Lewis Young surely up there as the front-runners.

See some of you in sunny Devon this weekend for our trip to Exeter City, where we have the opportunity to upset somebody else’s promotion party. COYR!