Coventry City 2 - 0 Rochdale

Want to buy this photo?

Coventry put two goals past Josh Lillis to take three points

Rochdale suffered their second defeat in a week despite producing a dominant display at Coventry City. Rochdale showed a lack of composure in front of goal as only four of 17 shots were on target and they lived to rue those missed opportunities.

Daniel Agyei slid the opening goal past Lillis in the first half. Substitute Andrew Wright tapped home from close range late on as Coventry hit Dale on the counter attack.

Dale manager Keith Hill made two changes from midweek, Andy Cannon and Oli Rathbone preferred to Nat Mendez-Laing and Steven Davies.

Ian Henderson had a glorious chance to open the scoring inside six minutes when he went on a mazy run inside the area, but a last ditch tackle by Jordan Willis denied what would have been a certain goal.

Niall Canavan got his head to a Joe Rafferty cross with the central defender placing his header across the face of goal, but nobody in a Dale shirt was on hand to apply the finishing touch.

Coventry had rarely threatened in the opening 20 minutes but went very close with their first attack. Agyei beat the Dale offside trap to find himself one-on-one with Lillis and despite sending the keeper the wrong way, his shot crash back off the upright.

That warning shot wasn’t heeded by Rochdale who went behind nine minutes later. Canavan’s mistake saw Lameires make headway into the area before feeding Agyei, who made no mistake from six yards out.

Rochdale dominated the second half just as they had done the first but couldn’t find that killer touch.

Camps forced Lee Burge into a low save after good work from Henderson and fizzed a shot across the face of goal minutes later.

Gael Bigirimana cleared a Lund header off the line and Andy Cannon’s follow up was bravely blocked as Dale looked to be getting closer to an equaliser.

Substitute Mendez-Laing scuffed his shot after he worked his way into a dangerous position.

Lund flashed a shot off target.

Dale were certainly creating half chances with Lund sending a free header over the bar from Bunney’s corner and Henderson sending a similar chance closer but still not troubling Burge.

Substitute Donal McDermott set Dale off on a counter attacking move that broke down when he sent a poor ball into the area.

Coventry sealed the win with a second goal. Lameires’ quick break caught Dale short at the back and when he played in Andre Wright, the Coventry substitute had the easy task of slotting home from close range.

It was a frustrating afternoon for the 355 travelling Rochdale fans who witnessed their side create chances but not finish off a Coventry side that were there for the taking.

Rochdale: Lillis, Rafferty (Mendez-Laing 58), Canavan, Keane, Bunney, Camps (Davies 66), Lund, Rathbone, Andrew (McDermott 78), Cannon, Henderson (c).
Subs: (not used) Logan, McGahey, Morley, Odelusi

Coventry: Burge, Sterry, Willis (c), Turnbull, Page, Bigirimana, McCann (Reid 16), Stevenson, Agyei (Wright 72), Sordell (Jones 90), Lameires.
Subs: (not used) Charles-Cook, Rose, Ricketts, Tudgay

Referee: Mr R Clark
Assistants: Mr B Durie and Mr A Clayton
Fourth Official: Mr N Radford

Attendance: 8,133 (355 from Rochdale)