Blackburn Rovers 0-0 Coventry City: ten-man Sky Blues deny hosts crucial win

Blackburn failed to achieve the win which would have made certain of their place in the Championship next season despite Coventry being reduced to 10-men for the last half-hour.

Blackburn earlier had manager John Eustace red-carded following a scuffle with Kasey Palmer as the Sky Blues player went to retrieve a ball.

Results elsewhere meant a Blackburn winner would have made them safe ahead of next week's final day, but Tyrhys Dolan hit the post as Coventry held on for a point.

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The draw means Blackburn face a nervous last-day fixture at promoted Leicester, needing a point to be safe.

Failure to get a result at the King Power Stadium would mean they have to rely on Sheffield Wednesday losing and Birmingham and Plymouth not winning their final games.

Blackburn are on a dreadful run at Ewood Park, with just one win in their last 11, and they were hoping to improve that against a Coventry side still reeling from a tiring and emotional week.

The Sky Blues were dramatically denied a place in the FA Cup final by a penalty shoot-out defeat by Manchester United last weekend and then saw their play-off hopes disappear with a home loss to Hull in midweek.

Rovers made most of the running, but Sammie Szmodics failed to add to his remarkable 31-goal tally for the season and Coventry keeper Brad Collins did well to save a Dolan shot, the best chance of the first half.

The game heated up five minutes into the second half as Eustace, trying to get the ball off Palmer, was shown a red card, the Coventry player receiving a yellow for his part in the scuffle.

Liam Kelly hit the post for Coventry but minutes later Kitching was dismissed and that signalled an all-out assault on the Coventry goal.

Szmodics curled a shot just wide, Dolan hit the post and had a loud penalty appeal after going down in the box, and Yasin Ayari and Andrew Moran both went agonisingly close.

Blackburn assistant boss Keith Downing told BBC Radio Lancashire:

"Overall we're disappointed because we had 30 attempts on goal and that final touch was elusive all afternoon, but the attitude of the players to create those chances (was good). Credit to Coventry as well, there were 10 blocks in that.

"It was a bounce-back game for us because last week was disappointing. We wanted a response and we got that, it was just the final-third quality that eluded us.

"People underestimate what Coventry have been through this week with the semi-final and the Wednesday night game but they still put some good players out on the pitch and are always a threat. We nullified them very, very well."

Coventry manager Mark Robins told BBC Radio CWR:

"It was frustrating because we were lacking energy a little bit and the one thing you don't need is to lose a man and go down to 10 men, and that's what happened.

"They were nervy and if we had started really brightly on the front foot, the outcome is different, but such is where we are at in terms of energy levels and availability of players.

"When we went down to 10 men we worked our socks off to keep the clean sheet, and we needed one, we've been conceding too many goals lately, so that's a good starting point for the final two games of the season.