THE SKY Blues showed their battling qualities according to midfielder Ben Stevenson who produced another impressive performance in the 2-0 victory over Rochdale.
The 19-year-old Academy graduate made his 13th appearance of the season as Mark Venus’ side recorded a second consecutive home league win on Saturday.
It was another all-round performance from Stevenson who continues to play well beyond his young age as part of a three-man midfield alongside Gael Bigirimana and Chris McCann
“This is a game we’ve struggled with in previous weeks, and I think we matched them physically and battled well throughout,” said Stevenson.
“The performance perhaps didn’t match up to previous weeks, but we got the result and have shown a different side to our game. I think we defended really well and deserved to get the win in the end.
“It was our third game in a week, so that probably had an effect during the second half. You start feeling it a little more and have to dig in, but we did just that.”
It has already been a memorable season for Stevenson who made his professional debut against Portsmouth in the EFL Cup back at the beginning of August and he scored his first senior goal in some style in the home victory over Oxford last Tuesday.
His 30-yard thunderbolt of a strike has alerted fans to encourage the City youngster to shoot at almost every opportunity, but there was to be no repeat of his heroics this time around.
“I did think about shooting, I’m not going to lie,” Stevenson added. “But Marvin Sordell was in a better position than me so that’s always the priority.
“Unfortunately I couldn’t get on the end of his cross, but overall I though we had plenty of chances despite not being able to get forward as much as in previous games.
“We’ve scored two goals, hit the post and kept a clean sheet at home, so overall the whole team is delighted with the result. We need to keep that momentum going and take it onto Saturday against Walsall.”