"We shouldn't have made it hard for ourselves because we started great," McLeish said to the Press Association.
"Coventry are obviously very dangerous up front. The big lad (Clive) Platt was a handful and of course we all know about Marlon King. But I knew there was goals in it for us.
"Bentley's was a cracker. We needed that. It was a turning point. If we'd gone in 2-0 down it would have been much tougher.
"The second half was again a measure of this squad's resilience and their desire not to give up until the final whistle."