Sky Blues' USA ace has edges to sharpen

COVENTRY City put a typically insipid start to the season behind them with a couple of recent victories – and Haji Wright was at the forefront of their revival.

- Chris Dunlavy

Last season’s joint-top scorer (alongside Ellis Simms) struck the 91st-minute winner in a dramatic 3-2 comeback win over Luton and followed that up by bagging his sixth of the season in last weekend’s unexpected 3-0 triumph at Middlesbrough.

An additional assist – his first of the campaign – for Josh Eccles also earned OPTA’s man-of-the-match award.

Should Wright continue in this vein until Christmas it would cap a highly impressive calendar year for the American international, who, pre-weekend, had scored 17 all-competition goals in 2024, plus two for his country.

Only one player – last season’s golden-boot winner Sammie Szmodics – has bagged more Championship goals in that period.

It is all a far cry from Wright’s early struggles at the CBS Arena, which saw him score just once in ten games following a club-record £7.7m switch from Turkish side Antalyaspor in the summer of 2023.

Played as a centre-forward in Mark Robins’ favoured 3-5-2 system, the 26-year-old struggled to impose himself on Championship defenders and was largely peripheral before losing his place in the starting XI.