Holden impressed with Coventry

Oldham manager Dean Holden has backed Coventry to be a force in League One next season if they can stave off relegation.

Holden's side led for the majority of the match at the Ricoh Arena thanks to Danny Philliskirk's deft 13th-minute opener. But the Sky Blues threw everything at the visitors and were more than worthy of their late equaliser which was headed in by Reda Johnson. It leaves City four points off relegation and despite predicting better times ahead for the club, Holden was still left unhappy with the decision not to award a free-kick against Frank Nouble in the build-up to the leveller. He said: "Coventry move the ball so well and it can be difficult to contain them. We changed it round a couple of times but I don't think they affected our goalkeeper too many times in the second half for all the play they had. "We defended absolutely everything apart from the one at the end - that's the first header we lost in the box all night. "In the second half they went longer and got a lot of balls in our box. We maybe could have got up to the ball a bit quicker and stopped the ball coming into the box but they were doing it very quickly. "But they are a good team. They are in a false position, there are no two ways about it. If they are in this league this season and they can build, they will be a force because they have some good players. "That said, it was clearly a foul just before the goal. He has to go through our player to get the ball and the referee has got it wrong. He hasn't done it on purpose but that is two in the space of four days that have gone against us." Coventry manager Tony Mowbray also believes good times are ahead for the Sky Blues if they can beat the drop this season. He said: "I think we can be disappointed with a point but we'll take it because we left it so late. "It was by far our best performance since I've been here based on the number of chances we created, the pressure we put on them and the number of chances we limited them to. "I must mention the supporters too. There were only seven and half thousand in but it felt like 27,000. "That was encouraging and it is exciting to think what it could be like if we had 27,500 in when they can create an atmosphere like that. "It would make it daunting for teams coming to the Ricoh. If we could play like that and apply that type of pressure then it could be exciting times ahead but there is still lots to work on. "I was really pleased and proud of the way they applied themselves. We really forced them into a position when they couldn't get out."