Coventry City 0 - 1 Rochdale

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Ian Henderson

Ian Henderson scored a last minute penalty to earn Rochdale maximum points in a tight game at the Ricoh Arena. The Dale skipper was upended by John Fleck but dusted himself down to convert from 12 yards for his 12th goal of the season.

After Tuesday evening’s disappointing show at lowly Shrewsbury, Rochdale manager Keith Hill made two changes to his side for this game against play-off hopefuls Coventry City - Donal McDermott returned after injury whilst Nathaniel Mendez-Laing also got the nod. Grant Holt and Peter Vincenti dropping to the bench.

The first half was a lively affair with both goalkeepers forced into saves.

McDermott’s trickery caused problems for Coventry all afternoon and his shot after 10 minutes was too hot to handle for Charles-Cook although the loose ball fell to Henderson who was in an offside position.

The Dale defence has looked much tighter in recent games but they were carved open by the livewire Ruben Lameiras on a couple of occasions. The winger sent an incisive pass through to Joe Cole; the former England man denied by a low save from Lillis.

Coventry did have the ball in the back of the net but the assistant's flag cut short the celebrations.

As the game approached the interval, the Coventry fans started to get behind their team as they built some pressure on the Dale defence.

Romain Vincelot shot straight at Lillis with a powerful drive from 30 yards.

Lillis reacted brilliantly to push away a volley from Adam Armstrong.

Rochdale had the better of the chances in the early part of the second half.

Ashley Eastham’s goal-bound header from a McDermott corner was cleared off the line.

Niall Canavan thought he’d got his first goal in Dale colours when he met a Michael Rose corner only to see his header inadvertently cleared off the line by his own captain, Ian Henderson.

Matt Lund leapt highest to meet a Rose cross only to see his header drift wide of the far post as Dale looked to edge ahead.

Coventry, who started the day in the play-off places, started to build a head of steam going into the last 10 minutes.

Substitute Jacob Murphy bundled his way into the box before seeing his low shot saved.

Moments later another offside flag kept the scoreline goalless, with Armstrong again the player left frustrated.

The winner came in the last minute of the game from the penalty spot. Rafferty’s ball into Henderson saw Dale’s leading scorer draw the foul from John Fleck just inside the area, referee Oliver Langford showing no hesitation in pointing to the spot. Henderson stepped up to send Charles-Cook the wrong way and send the travelling Dale fans into mass celebration.

The three points sees Rochdale move onto 48 points for the season and with eleven games left to play, just seven points off the top six.

Attendance: 9,942

Rochdale: Lillis, Rafferty, Eastham, Canavan, McNulty, Rose, Lund, Allen, Mendez-Laing (Holt 71), Henderson (c), McDermott (Camps 61)
Subs: (not used) Collis, Bennett, Vincenti, Hooper, Bunney

Coventry: Charles-Cook, Ricketts (c), Stephens, Cargill (Lorentzson 46) Stokes, Vincelot, Fleck, Cole (Antoine-Fortune 73), Maddison, Lameires (Murphy 68), Armstrong
Subs: (not used) Addai, Rose, Hunt, Henderson

Referee: Mr O Langford
Assistants: Mr J Busby and Mr D Benton
Fourth Official: Mr K Morris