MARK Venus praised the performance of defender Jordan Willis after he helped the Sky Blues claim another clean sheet and more importantly back-to-back League One wins for the first time this season.
Goals in either half by Daniel Agyei and Andre Wright secured a 2-0 victory for Venus’ side who despite their poor start to the season, remain unbeaten at home in all competitions.
Academy product Willis produced an exceptional performance in the heart of the Sky Blues defence and Venus was quick to praise the young defender.
“I thought Jordan Willis was outstanding,” said caretaker boss Venus. “It is probably his best game I’ve seen him play since I’ve been at the club so that is really encouraging.
“I think the defence probably had a little too much to do, but because of that they proved they can deal with a different style of play. That is down to the good play of Rochdale.
“We couldn’t control the game like we usually do, so that put a little more pressure on the defensive side of our game, but we coped fantastically.”
Rochdale had gone into Saturday’s clash at the Ricoh Arena in a rich vein of form having won seven of their previous eight matches but as early as the fifth minute it was evident that Willis was was determined to keep the visitors at bay.
He produced a superb last ditch tackle to stop Rochdale skipper Ian Henderson’s patch to goal while Lee Burge produced a fine save to keep out Callum Camps’ free kick.
Winger Kyel Reid replaced the injured Chris McCann before Agyei should have done better when he was put through on goal by Ruben Lameiras but his powerful shot came back off the post in the 20th minute.
The City striker did however manage to break the deadlock on the half-hour mark. Lameiras did superbly well to make space inside the area and he the vision to pick out Agyei who fired home his third goal of the season.
He almost bagged a brace moments before half-time after beating three defenders before seeing his curling effort whistle just past the post.
Rochdale came close to an equaliser shortly after the re-start but Gael Bigirimana was perfectly placed to head the ball off the line while Reid fired a 25-yard shot narrowly over the bar.
Matt Lund and Henderson came close with headers as Rochdale searched for an equaliser but it was the hosts who got a second with six minutes of normal time remaining.
Full-back Lewis Page delivered an inch perfect cross into the patch of substitute Wright who tucked away his second goal in sky blue colours.
“I’ll be the first to admit we won’t win every week if we play like that, but we shown a different side to our game today which was very positive,” Venus added.
“We played against a very good team, one with a purpose and who are very positive. But I am really pleased with the way we stood up to them and we had some great individual displays.
“I think the boys are believing in themselves as a team and that is starting to show with the results we are getting.”
