COLCHESTER United defender, Matt Heath, has a special reason to beat visiting Coventry City tomorrow.

Carl Marston

Colchester soccer (with Heath pic)

By Carl Marston

COLCHESTER United defender, Matt Heath, has a special reason to beat visiting Coventry City tomorrow.

And it has nothing to do with the fact that he played 34 games for the Sky Blues, before his move to Leeds United towards the end of 2006.

Heath wants to leave the Sky Blues deep in relegation trouble, in order to give his home town club of Leicester City a better chance of avoiding the drop into League One.

Heath is on loan at Layer Road from Leeds until the end of the season, and he's been relishing a chance to impress alongside Chris Coyne at the heart of the U's defence. The 26-year-old has hardly had a look-in at Elland Road since the turn of the year.

Although the U's are already relegated, they can help to condemn Coventry to a similar fate if they triumph in their penultimate game at Layer Road - the U's old ground hosts its last ever senior game the following weekend, against Stoke City.

The Sky Blues are currently just one point ahead of third-from-bottom Leicester, who were held to a 1-1 draw by Colchester at the Walkers Stadium last weekend.

“We will do our best to beat Coventry for you (Leicester) this weekend,” insisted Heath, who was appealing to the club where his career started. He made 61 appearances for the Foxes.

“There were mixed emotions with our 1-1 draw at Leicester. I am a professional footballer and you try your hardest for the team you are playing for.

“Leicester are a big club and they shouldn't be going down,” added Heath.

However, Heath is very mindful that he suffered relegation while in the Championship with Leeds United last campaign, ironically following his switch from Coventry. It was generally assumed at the time that Leeds were “too big” to go down.

Heath continued: “Leicester are not too big to go down. We said that with Leeds last season, in the same position, but it happens. It happened to Manchester City as well a few years before.

“Any team can go down and that has been proved in the past. But I think Leicester can stay up, because there is a lot of fight in the team.”

Coventry have slid into the danger zone following a meagre haul of just one point from their last three games.

Meanwhile, U's teenage winger Medy Elito played for England Under-18s in their 2-0 win over Austria at Hartlepool's Victoria Park on Wednesday evening.