The Sky Blues made it two wins on the bounce with a comfortable success over Norwich City on Saturday, with Chris Birchall and Kevin Kyle getting their first goals for the club.
City were on top right from the opening whistle and looked much more like the side that finished so strongly last season.
All of the main partnerships in the team worked well, Ward and Page at the back, Hughes and Doyle in the centre of midfield and Kyle and John, who worked superbly together up front, no more so than when the Trinidad & Tobago man crossed for the Scot to head home City’s second.
Birchall had put the home side in front with a superb long-range shot and visibly grew in confidence after that to have his best game for the club to date.
John added a third with a deflected shot after a mazy dribble that again showed his superb control when under pressure from defenders.
At the back Andy Marshall was rarely troubled until late on when the game was already won but after receiving 45 minutes of stick from the away fans would have enjoyed a late point-blank save that preserved City’s clean sheet.
Kevin Kyle
Micky Adams
‘We’ve now had three clean sheets on the spin in the league and I thought that again today we defended terrifically well.
‘But we’re not the finished article, we’ve had a decent start to the season, but we won’t be getting carried away, there are some tough tests ahead of us.’
Norwich boss Nigel Worthington
“We didn’t pass the ball as well, and if you don’t pass the ball as well as we have been doing they are going to limit the creating of chances.
“So it was not up to the standards we have set in the first few weeks of this season and we need to get back to that.’
Kevin Kyle
‘It was a good goal.
‘I laid the ball out to Stern and continued to run and he made a pin-point cross and I just had to put it in the back of the net.
‘And with my head being one of my strengths it was a lovely weighted ball and I just had to make sure I hit the target.’