Dowie on trialists

Coventry City manager Iain Dowie is weighing up whether to offer deals to Croatian midfielder Mario Brlecic and Aston Villa full-back Aaron Griffiths after watching them in training and reserve-team action.

He told the Telegraph: ‘Mario is a lovely lad and I thought he did OK.

‘It wasn’t easy for him because he’s only 18, he’s only been in the country for a week and he was a bit nervous – but he’s a forward-looking midfield player with good feet.

‘In an ideal world we’d like to have him for a longer period to see how he develops, but we’ll have to see – everybody’s got agents and bits and pieces these days so we’ll have a conversation about that.

‘Aaron also did very well, showing good quality delivery into the box, but again it’s a question of trying to decide if he’s better than what we’ve already got.’