Thomas eager for game time

Conor Thomas is eager to get in as many minutes as possible between now and the end of the season as Coventry look to up their promotion bid.

The highly-rated Coventry-born midfielder was on the receiving end of a nasty pre-season training tackle by former team-mate Gary Deegan which tore ankle ligaments, resulting in him making just two substitute appearances up until January. Thomas has come off the bench a further seven times since the turn of the year and, after enjoying 90 minutes for City's Under-21 side in Monday's 3-1 defeat to Leicester at the Ricoh Arena, the 19-year-old is keen to play a bigger part over the final 10 games of the season. "I think that's only my third 90 minutes or even second 90 minutes since I've been back fit," he said. "I want to get as many games under my belt as I can, obviously it's near the end of the season so match fitness, all the training - you can't get enough games under your belt. "I need to get myself fully fit. It's been a while since I've been playing, I want to do what I can to get back into the team, there's not a lot of time left this season so I've just got to keep going and hopefully I'll get a chance." Having graduated through Coventry's Academy system, Thomas made his first-team debut in January 2011 before quickly joining Liverpool in a surprise loan deal with a view to a permanent move, something which failed to materialise. He rejoined the Sky Blues and enjoyed 29 appearances last term before his pre-season injury at the start of this campaign, leading to what Thomas admits has been a difficult period in his fledgling career. "It's been very frustrating," he said. "I can't believe I'm looking at the back end of the season already. Obviously I've had my injury, come back and started coming off the bench. I just haven't been playing at the minute so, as I say, I've just got to keep going. "Everyone wants to be playing in the first team, everyone's frustrated who isn't playing but we don't let that affect us and we still want the lads to win every Saturday because we know there's a bigger picture than individually. But obviously we all want to get games."