Stockport 0-2 Coventry

New hero: Coventry fans salute goal-scoring Hughes

Lee Hughes made a promising debut for Coventry, as the Sky Blues won their first game out of the top-flight at Stockport.

The new boy - signed this week for £5m - had an uneasy start to the match and found himself closely guarded by County defender, Leo Roget.

But he broke his shackles on 39 minutes, when he latched onto a lofted pass from David Thompson and slotted past Lee Jones from six yards.

Celebrating with thousands of travelling Coventry fans, Hughes might even have had a second goal in injury-time when he fired a low right-foot shot against the post.

O'Neill battles hard for Coventry

The only surprise of the second half was that Strachan's men had to wait so long to double their lead.

On 75 minutes Jones saved well from Thompson's close-range effort, but was powerless to stop Lee Carsley, who rose to head home from the resulting corner.

Strachan will have been satisfied with the performance of his team, which was lacking another new signing, Julian Joachim - who was injured on the pre-season tour of Ireland.

Former Middlesbrough man Keith O'Neill did start, and despite all his good work he was a shade fortunate to finish the match on the field after his 56th minute high tackle on Ali Gibb.

Stockport worked hard but struggled to create clear-cut chances.

Gibb fired a 10th minute free-kick over the bar and second-half substitute, Glynn Hurst, found space on the right of Coventry's box on the hour, but the visitors' defence, well marshalled by Roland Nilsson, closed him down well.

The day belonged to the Sky Blues and to Hughes, who proved that he may have changed his colours but not his striker's boots.

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Stockport: Jones, Gibb, Clare, Roget, Clark, Helin, Fradin, Woodthorpe, Taylor, Wilbraham, Kuqi. Subs: Dibble, Bryngelsson, Smith, Hurst, Hardy.

Coventry: Kirkland, Nilsson, Konjic, Williams, Hall, Thompson, Chippo, Carsley, O'Neill, Bothroyd, Hughes. Subs: Hedman, Shaw, Quinn, Martinez, Strachan.

Referee: P Danson (Leicester)