City’s latest recruit, David Stockdale, was thankful for the opportunity to help the Sky Blues capture all three points against Rochdale.
The 33-year-old joined on Friday on a seven-day emergency loan from Birmingham City to help the Sky Blues with their goalkeeping difficulties.
Jordy Hiwula’s second-half strike was the difference between the two sides at Spotland Stadium and Stockdale managed to keep a clean sheet on his first start.
“I only knew four or five names and that was my back-line, but as long as they know what I’m saying that’s fine as it was nice to get some minutes.
“Yesterday was tough because I’ve not been in much competitive training, so it was just getting the rustiness off.
“But when you step over the line for a league game in northern conditions for me it’s what you want to do.”
Stockdale saved expertly to keep out Ian Henderson in the 77th minute and continued to discuss his performance.
“I was a little rusty in bits and in my decision making.
“I needed to slow it down at times, even at 33-years-of-age you can still get a little bit giddy.
“As the game went on I tried to use my experience and calm things down to help the lads out, as they put in a hell of a shift today and if I want to do my bit to help them out as I can do that.
“I’m not a betting man but I would have put a bet on [Henderson] to score, especially after my rustiness in training yesterday.
“Joking aside, it’s what you live for, if he puts it in the net with a great finish you can’t do anything about it, but I’m just very thankful to help Mark and the lads out and keep a clean sheet.”
Birmingham City’s loanee has not had much game time as of late and was grateful for the chance to present his class.
“I’ve been hoping for opportunities like this to show that I’m still there.
“If you’re good enough you need to show it, and I didn’t want to sit behind previous performances that I made three years ago, so I needed to come out and show people.
“But, hopefully Lee [Burge] gets back from his injury quickly, if not, I’ll be available to play.”
Stockdale, who had previously played under Mark Robins at Rotherham concluded that the Sky Blues are in a great position, and said:
“They’re not far off the play-offs now and they should be up there at the end of the season.
“With performances like today’s, and with a young side with a lot of talent it takes a lot to come here and get a result like that.
“I fully believe that they can fulfil their targets.”