You don’t need to do the maths to work out how much Nahki Wells brings to City.

But James Hanson spelled out the numbers anyway after his strike partner’s treble rescued a breathless point against Coventry.

“He’s played 12 games and scored 12 goals – that’s an incredible record for anyone. Hopefully we will keep hold of him.”

Unlike Hanson, whose own contract is up at the end of the current campaign, the deal that Wells penned at the start of last season still has another 20 months to run.

But nobody is naive enough to think that is a powerful barrier against a determined bidder. And a goalscoring striker – especially one who has just scored a hat-trick on live TV – will always catch the eye.

So while ‘Wells watch’ in the last transfer window was surprisingly quiet after City batted away an early offer from Peterborough, they will be bracing themselves for a potentially more searching period in January.

Hanson said: “It probably doesn’t help scoring a hat-trick on telly but the club have to try and keep him, especially if we can stay in a good position.

“If we’re still up there by then, we’ve got to fancy our chances to get in the play-offs at least. We’ve got to hang on to our best players to do that.

“It’s great to see Nahki back to his best form. He was just so alive with the first two goals and then showed great composure to put the penalty away at the end.”

With Hanson and Wells at one end and Coventry’s lethal duo Callum Wilson and Leon Clarke at the other, Sunday’s armchair audience were treated to arguably the best front pairs that League One has to offer.

Three of those are now tied on 12 goals apiece and tetchy Sky Blues boss Steven Pressley highlighted them as the cream of the division. But he neglected to include Hanson in that, a harsh oversight given the big man’s huge contribution – unless you count the dig about City’s style of play.

Hanson had a hand – or rather, head – in the first two goals and then worried Jordan Clarke enough to force the hand ball that set up the last-gasp penalty.

He could have had at least one himself. A first-half header was brilliantly kept out by Joe Murphy and another in the second flew over the bar when Hanson looked certain to score.

But any disappointment at missing out on the scoresheet himself was tempered by the deadly efforts of his strike mate, who ended a two-month wait for a goal in the most emphatic fashion.

Hanson added: “Since Nahki’s come back from his injury everybody’s saying he may not be as sharp as he was before.

“I think that’s because he didn’t really train properly, having a couple of sessions here and there. It takes a while to get back to your best.

“But Nahki and I have had a full week’s training and you could see the difference. “The gaffer brought us in the office the other day and said how important it was for us to train together constantly because that really helps on a match day.

“You could see with the first goal that Nahki read that I was going to win it against the keeper and he knew exactly where to be.

“And I don’t know how he got on the end of the second and stayed onside as well.

“Then we got the penalty and I just knew Nahki was going to put it away.”

While City’s winless run stretched to a seventh game, the manner of their comeback showed there is no lack of fighting spirit within the camp. It could have been a very different story after Coventry had gone two up so early.

Hanson said: “We shot ourselves in the foot in the first ten minutes. But take that away and it was probably our best attacking performance of the season.

“Every time we went forward we looked like scoring and it’s just a shame that a bit of bad defending at the back cost us.

“But it works both ways because obviously there was the clean sheet at Crewe when we didn’t really perform properly up front. We take it as a team whether we win or lose but it was a good point in the end.

“We stuck at our jobs and did really well to get back in the game.

“We knew we’d get chances. Coventry like to go forward and the full backs will bomb on and sometimes leave two v two at the back.

“That’s why they’ve had high- scoring games at the start of the season and we always knew we could get goals against them.

“It’s just a shame that scoring three at home is not enough to win the game but we’ll take the point.”