Young England striker Darren Huckerby has been told to take a look at himself if he wants to be a top class player.

Nottingham-born Huckerby, scored against Wimbledon last weekend, but it was his first goal in fifteen matches. Gordon Strachan, Coventry’s manager, who signed him from Newcastle Utd for £1 million two and a half years ago, said:

"He should be looking at himself if he wants to be a top striker.

"He can score the wonder goals. He can do the bit that others cannot do, the bit that world class players do. But he needs to score the tap-ins, the scrappy goals.

"Michael Owen scores great goals, but he also scores the scrappy ones. Darren has got to get into the six yards box more. To be a top striker you have to score the horrible ones, the knock-ins, the sliding ones and the brave headers.

"He is still a youngster in terms of playing Premier League football. He was 23 last month. Dion Dublin was 26 when he came here and he went on to play for England when he was 29. When Dion finishes football he can say he has done everything. He can retire with no regrets, because he did everything possible to make himself a better player."

Huckerby gets his chance to act on his manager’s comments at Derby County where Coventry need one point to make certain they do not go into a last match scenario against Leeds United.

Strachan said:

"It would be nice to get three points at Derby. We asked questions of the players after the bad performance at Leicester and to some extent they answered those questions in beating Wimbledon.

"But our away form has been very poor. If you have away form like ours then you will always struggle in this league. We have found playing everywhere difficult and this is one question that can be answered at Pride Park.

"We would like to finish on a high note to keep everyone happy over the summer and keep us looking forward to the new season."