ROBINS SALUTES WONDER WALSH
LIAM Walsh was hailed by Coventry boss Mark Robins after his brilliant strike completed a come-from-behind victory over Rochdale.
The Sky Blues found themselves a goal down after 28 minutes through Ian Henderson, but Jordan Shipley levelled just prior to the break, before Walsh’s stunner after 73 minutes won it for the hosts.
“It’s goal of the season already,” claimed Robins. “He picked it up on the halfway line and beat nearly every one of their players, some maybe twice!
“Then he had the presence of mind to hit a great shot from the edge of the box.
“That goal will live long in the memory of the Coventry supporters who were here and the ones who see it on television.
“It was a bit of genius to go past people like that.
“They tried to take him out on four or five occasions. It was outstanding, it makes me smile just thinking about it. But this is one of our biggest three points of the season because of the people we had missing. We had two young boys coming in for debuts and they did brilliantly.
“I can’t tell you how delighted I am with the three points and the performance.”
Rochdale took the lead when Callum Camps’ perfect low ball from the right evaded the entire Coventry defence, allowing Henderson an easy finish from close range.
The hosts equalised after 42 minutes when a Zain Westbrooke ball over the top played in Shipley. His effort was blocked by Dale goalkeeper Robert Sanchez, but the rebound fell kindly and Shipley was able to find the net.
Coventry should have taken the lead early in the second half, but Amadou Bakayoko missed a guilt-edged opportunity from a yard out.
Then came Walsh’s magical moment. Picking the ball up in his own half, he silkily beat four Rochdale defenders, before rifling an effort past Sanchez and into the top corner.
Rochdale manager Brian Barry-Murphy said: “I was very pleased with a lot of aspects of that performance and I thought the lads implemented the game plan to a tee for large parts of the game – my judgment won’t be clouded by two pieces of quality from Coventry.
“I thought we controlled a Coventry team that play a possession-based game, but we created chance after chance in the first half and the only problem was we didn’t take them.
“It was a brilliant move which led to our goal, it was just rewards for the way we attacked Coventry and took the game to them.
“We tried to play on the front foot against a very good team. “We can certainly take a good deal away from the performance.”