Coventry’s Championship status may become under threat if they fail to take three points from the high-flying Canaries

Coventry City take on Sky Bet Championship leaders Norwich City in a midweek clash as they look to open up a sizeable gap between themselves and the bottom three.

With Wycombe Wanderers and Birmingham City beginning to look like relegation certainties, Mark Robins’ side will be hoping they have what it takes to steer clear of the dreaded third spot.

However, the only other two teams below them, Rotherham and Sheffield Wednesday, have both won three of their last five games, putting extreme pressure on last season’s League One champions. Furthermore, both sides will eventually have the opportunity to leapfrog Coventry with their games in hand.

The hosts are suffering from a four-game winless run that has seen them slip ever-closer to a third-tier return.

The fixture list doesn’t favour the Sky Blues either as they match-up against all of the division’s top three sides in the forthcoming week. Wednesday’s challenge sees Daniel Farke’s Norwich travel to St Andrews.

The visitors will be in high spirits heading into the encounter; they dismantled an underperforming Stoke City side with the returning Emi Buendia performing excellently in a resounding 4-1 victory at Carrow Road.

The triumph ended the Canaries’ four-match goalless streak that had fans concerned that their promotion train had terminated. It was their biggest win of their season thus far and will give the players a much-needed confidence boost as they face the Championship’s third poorest defence.

Coventry’s defensive fragilities have been exposed this campaign, and with defender Sam McCallum unable to face his parent club, the Sky Blues could struggle to contain Norwich’s scintillating attacking assets.

Moreover, their attacking output has also been insufficient for a team looking to survive, with the inconsistent condition of Matt Godden proving detrimental. The striker’s latest setback occurred when he was withdrawn after just 15 minutes against Millwall in early January.

The 29-year-old has been directly involved in the joint most goals for his side this term (six), despite playing in under half of Coventry’s 29 league games to date. The West Midlands outfit have netted only five times in the seven games since the Englishman injured his foot.

Robins’ side managed to tame the Canaries in November’s reverse fixture. French striker Maxime Biamou struck in the final minute of regulation time to level the contest and end Norwich’s three-match winning run.

The Sky Blues’ boss will be hoping to go one better on Wednesday evening and steal all three points and ruffle the feathers of the table-toppers.

Follow us on Twitter @ProstInt

[columns]
[column size=”1/2″][blog type=”timeline” posts=”10″ cats=”1139″ heading=”Championship” heading_type=”timeline” /][/column]
[column size=”1/2″][blog type=”timeline” posts=”10″ cats=”2161″ heading=”Coventry” heading_type=”timeline” /][/column]
[/columns]