Beech praise for Rochdale

Chris Beech believes Rochdale passed their toughest Spotland test of the season as they saw off Coventry 1-0.

Ian Henderson's first-half penalty, awarded after Ryan Allsop tripped Bastien Hery as he rounded the Sky Blues stopper in the 29th minute, proved to be the only goal. Coventry had had the better of the chances with Andrew Webster's header saved by Conrad Logan and Simeon Jackson firing narrowly over the top. The Sky Blues also fashioned their best chance of the first half when Frank Nouble got in behind the Dale backline but his angled shot was saved by Logan. But Rochdale controlled the second half and were only troubled late on when substitute Marcus Tudgay was foiled by Logan. It was Dale's second win of the week after their 4-0 thrashing of Walsall and lifted Keith Hill's men up to seventh spot in League One. "It was a really good performance from both sets of players," said assistant manager Beech. "I thought Coventry were probably the best team that has been to Spotland this season. They continued to probe, pass and move the ball, they had the better of the midfield in the early part of the game and the players really had to earn the right to win that game. "You could see why Coventry will do well this season, the way they kept going and kept playing for the manager. "We had to change things after 20 minutes in the midfield and that helped us get the goal with Bastien Hery playing slightly further forward." Beech felt Coventry were fortunate to keep goalkeeper Allsop on the field after the penalty incident. "The ref's get-out clause is the fact the ball is running parallel to the goalline rather than towards goal," he explained. "But I think that is irrelevant if everyone is on the floor and Bastien is about to put it into an empty net. But fair play to the boys, they coped with that decision and Ian Henderson put the penalty away." Coventry boss Steven Pressley was disappointing not to get something out of the game. "We're very frustrated," he said. "I thought the opening 45 minutes we actually started very well and we spoke about the areas we had to utilise to get at them and in the opening 10-15 minutes I thought we did that really effectively. "After that we didn't quite play with the fluency in the first half and I didn't think we were intense enough. We looked a bit leggy, maybe as a result of the players endeavours on Tuesday night with 10 men. "In the second half I thought we really applied ourselves with long periods of pressure but I thought our final pass really let us down. "I can't fault the players in the way they applied themselves in the second half, I thought we really took the game to Rochdale but the final moment and the final decision, that's what let us down." Breaking news, transfer gossip, line ups and goal alerts from your football club - delivered direct to your mobile. Sign up for Sky Sports Alerts