Source: Team_Talk
Sky Blues show stomach for fight
Coleman's battlers were minutes away from securing a place in the quarter-finals, only for Christopher Samba to equalise in stoppage time.[LNB]He took advantage when stand-in goalkeeper Andy Marshall fumbled a shot from substitute Keith Treacy.[LNB]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.[LNB]Aron Gunnarsson pulled the Championship side level with a stunning strike on the hour.[LNB]They maintained the momentum and Michael Doyle then gave them the lead 15 minutes later, his effort coming off Samba and looping over goalkeeper Paul Robinson.[LNB]Blackburn then threw men forward and Marshall was left distraught. He had replaced Keiren Westwood, who could not complete the warm-up as he was ill.[LNB]Centre half Ben Turner withdrew on Friday night but Freddy Eastwood and Elliott Ward managed to play despite feeling unwell.[LNB]Coleman refused to blame Marshall for Blackburn's goal and said: "He has not played for a while but he came in and did a fine job.[LNB]"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.[LNB]"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 yesterday."[LNB]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.[LNB]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.[LNB]"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.[LNB]"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."[LNB]Blackburn manager Sam Allardyce was left cursing the fact his team could not build on their early goal against lower-league opposition.[LNB]He said: "I have got no problems with the result. I just have a bit of a problem that we cannot see teams off when we have an opportunity.[LNB]"We have started to ship too many goals at Ewood and that is becoming one of our Achilles heels.[LNB]"We lost our fluency but we then had a very good goal (by Gael Givet) chalked off and a free-kick given instead which I cannot understand."[LNB][LNB]
