Boothroyd's Eight: More Hits Than Misses

Aidy Boothroyd has made 8 permanent signings since taking over as manager of Coventry City and as the season approaches its halfway mark the majority of those to have arrived have made a positive impact on the Sky Blues squad.

Gary McSheffrey's re-signing provided an immediate boost to Boothroyd's standing with supporters, combining as it did the arrival of a top quality Championship player with the return of a local hero. Hampered by injury over the course of the previous two seasons, McSheffrey's class has been evidenct in recent weeks with a quartet of cracking goals.

Highest profile arrival of course was Marlon King and the jury remains firmly out on a player described by Boothroyd as a '£5m striker'. Perhaps inevitably King's form dipped from his adrenalin-fuelled debut off the bench against Preston but against Burnley recently he showed genuine flashes of quality and will surely benefit from getting that elusive first goal.

Lee Carsley's capture was another statement of intent from both the manager and chairman and despite the midfielder's 37th birthday being not too far away he has started all 18 of City's league games to date. Occasionally the impact that Carsley makes can be hard to spot from the stands but it may be the case that his influence on the team would only be fully appreciated if he wasn't to play.

Lukas Jutkiewicz is at the other end of his career from Carsley but the 21-year-old has made a positive start to life as a regular in the Championship, with respect to his stint in the SPL at Motherwell, the highest level of football he has played on a consistent basis. Jutkiewicz has shown plenty of bottle to take some important penalties and has forged good understandings with both Freddy Eastwood and Clive Platt.

Platt slipped under the radar during the summer, signed as a squad member capable of making the odd impact from the bench. The experienced frontman however is enjoying an Indian summer and has more than repaid Boothroyd's faith in him, his link with Jutkiewicz being responsible for some of City's best results so far including the away wins at Bristol City and Ipswich.

That success and the signing of King has inevitably led to a shortage of chances for Roy O'Donovan but the Irishman looks to have shown himself as a willing squad member, prepared to bide his time for a chance.

Like Jutkiewicz, Richard Keogh has taken well to life in the Championship and solved what has been a problem position for the Sky Blues over the past few years, with midfielders and left-backs having to fill in. Always prepared to get forward, Keogh's partnership with Aron Gunnarsson down the right side has a solid look about it.

That leaves just the forgotten man of the 8, Stephen O'Halloran of whom good things are said but whose City career to date has been stalled by injury.

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