Coventry City boss Mark Robins is disappointed with Ryan Howley’s “stuttery” loan spell at Dundee.
The 20-year-old joined the Dark Blues on a season-long deal from the English Championship side in the summer.
Dens technical director Gordon Strachan’s strong ties with his former club played a key role but it was manager Tony Docherty who pushed strongly for the move.
After signing Howley, Docherty revealed the club’s recruitment team had been tracking the Wales U/21 international for some time with the manager saying Howley was a player “that extremely excites me”.
However, the midfielder has struggled to force his way into the Dundee team this season.
The form of the likes of Luke McCowan, Lyall Cameron, Malachi Boateng and latterly Mo Sylla has meant midfield opportunities have been hard to come by.
Howley has made just three starts this season – the first coming in a 3-0 defeat at Celtic Park in September where the youngster was unfortunate to give away a penalty for the opening goal.
At the turn of the year he started back-to-back games at Kilmarnock, playing at right wing-back.
From the bench he has made a further eight appearances but the latest of those lasted just 13 minutes before injury struck.
He’s since been out of action since the end of January.
‘Hasn’t gone the way we hoped’
And Sky Blues boss Robins is disappointed with the amount of game time Howley has had north of the border.
Robins told Coventy Live: “It’s been a bit stuttery for Ryan who has been mostly out, rather than in and out, so that’s been a disappointment.
“That loan really hasn’t gone the way we hoped it would do, especially the way they came in for him in the summer.
“They were adamant that he was the one they wanted and wanted to utilise him in the squad, but then Ryan has got to transfer that into the level of performance that he has to hit.”
He added: “It’s going to be a really interesting conversation with him at the end of the season.
“I spoke to him mid-season and he needs to knuckle down and just get as much out of the experience as he possibly can do.”
Conversation