The Sky Blues suffered their fourth Championship defeat as they were well beaten by Tony Mowbray's Blackburn RoversCoventry City pressed the self destruct button when they conceded a penalty and were reduced to ten men at St Andrew’s where they slipped to their fourth Championship defeat of the season.
The early setback from the boot of Adam Armstrong was doubled by the former Sky Blues star striker minutes into the second half before Liverpool loan man Harvey Elliott put the game beyond reach just fater the hour as Mark Robins’s men were well beaten in Birmingham.
The game started at a high tempo with both teams trying to press each other high up the pitch to force mistakes and create openings in a tight first ten minutes.
Matty Godden went closest to breaking the deadlock when he received a smart pass from Ryan Giles, turned and thumped the post but City fell behind in the 15th minute when Michael Rose shoved the impressive Ben Brereton in the back as he got the better of the defender to run through in the box, handing the opposition a penalty and being sent off in the process.
Former City loan man Armstrong made no mistake from 12 yards to give Tony Mowbray’s side the lead as ten man Coventry were forced to reshuffle to a flat back four.
Rovers upped the pressure with relentless waves of attack as they enjoyed 68 per cent of possession – Marko Marosi making a smart save to deny Lewis Haltby doubling the visitors’ lead.
Twelve attempts at goal, four on target, compared to just one hitting the woodwork for Coventry told the story of a largely dominant Blackburn first half when the Lancashire side had poor finishing to blame for not being further ahead.
That flaw was rectified three minutes into the restart when Brereton played Armstrong clean through where the striker hit a powerful shot that Marosi got a hand to but could only push onto the underside of the crossbar before the ball hit the back of the net, giving Rovers a 2-0 lead with 49 minutes on the clock.
Mowbray’s men then put the result beyond reach just after the hour mark when a well worked move opened them up, Brereton again the architect, this time setting up Liverpool loan man Harvey Elliott for a simple finish.
Substitute Sam Gallagher then added a fourth two minutes from time to wrap up a miserable afternoon for the Sky Blues.