West Bromwich 2 Coventry City 4: Best and Mifsud conspire to help lift Coventry gloom

Nine days away from possible administration they may be, but Coventry City have hopes and no little spirit. They admirably kept their heads at the Hawthorns last night to gain ample revenge for their recent 4-0 slaughter by West Bromwich Albion.

Victory came the hard way, though, as they surrendered a 2-0 lead before striking twice in the last seven minutes against opponents who had Paul Robinson sent off. That Michael Mifsud should score two on his comeback from the three-match suspension arriving from his dismissal against West Bromwich was just one more facet of this remarkable windswept evening.

West Brom were stunned when the Sky Blues went ahead after six minutes through Leon Best. He was first to react to a long punt forward from Ben Turner and kept his nerve before coolly lofting the ball over Baggies keeper Dean Kiely into the corner of the net.

Five minutes later Mifsud doubled Coventry's lead. The Albion defence was caught ball-watching as Leon McKenzie found himself in yards of space on the left and his cross was headed in by Mifsud.

The predictable chorus of West Brom boos at the interval was followed by a double substitution and a marked improvement by the players.

Coventry held out only until the 51st minute when Robinson's dangerous cross was met by a towering header from Roman Bednar. And the equaliser was not long in coming, Chris Brunt unleashing a low angled shot from the right which went in under the diving keeper, possibly via a touch by Bednar.

As they are prone to do, Albion self-destructed when the already booked Robinson lunged wildly at Mifsud and left his side a man light for the final 19 minutes. Coventry capitalised in full, Best forcing in their third and setting up Mifsud for the killer.

West Bromwich Albion (4-4-2): Kiely; Hoefkens, Barnett, Cesar (Hodgkiss, h-t), Robinson; Gera (MacDonald, h-t), Greening, Koren, Brunt; Filipe Teixeira (Pele, 72),Bednar. Substitutes not used: Steele, Beattie.

Coventry (4-4-2): Konstantopoulos; McNamee, Ward, Turner, Borrowdale; Hughes, Tabb, Doyle (Osbourne, 88), Mifsud; Best (Adebola, 87), McKenzie (Gray, 82). Substitutes not used: Marshall, Cairo.

Referee: M Clattenburg (Tyne and Wear)