Sky Blues' USA ace has edges to sharpen
The Football League Paper|November 10, 2024
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
Sky Blues' USA ace has edges to sharpen

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.

This story is from the November 10, 2024 edition of The Football League Paper.

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This story is from the November 10, 2024 edition of The Football League Paper.

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