Late goal hard to stomach for City

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Coleman's battlers were minutes away from securing a place in the quarter-finals, only for Christopher Samba to equalise in stoppage time. He took advantage when stand-in goalkeeper Andy Marshall fumbled a shot from substitute Keith Treacy.

Coleman refused to blame Marshall for Blackburn's goal and said: "It was difficult for him, the last goal. It was a crowd of bodies and he saw it late. There was nothing he could do. Keiren could not complete the warm-up. A dozen of them have been sick all night, so it has got to be something they ate on Friday."

It was cruel luck on Coventry who made a stirring recovery after Roque Santa Cruz had opened the scoring for the home side in the second minute with a crisp finish.

Aron Gunnarsson pulled the Coca-Cola Championship side level with a stunning strike on the hour and Michael Doyle then gave them the lead 15 minutes later, his effort coming off Samba and looping over goalkeeper Paul Robinson.

Blackburn then threw men forward and just as it seemed that they were running out of time, Samba popped up with a late leveller.

While Coleman, who had a spell as a player at Blackburn, was disappointed they could not see the game through, he was pleased with their overall performance.

He said: "The game plan was not to concede an early goal but that went out the window. They were pretty much the dominant team in the first half, so I was happy at 1-0.

"We changed our formation in the second half and we got better and better. I knew the Ewood Park crowd would get nervous if we managed to nick a goal and we put Blackburn on the back foot.

"To be 2-1 up with only a couple of minutes to go, it feels like a defeat. But we have managed to take them back to our place, which is something."