West Bromwich Albion tamely surrendered their unbeaten home record as Coventry City gained sweet revenge for the 4-0 drubbing at the Ricoh Arena three weeks ago.
It was a miserable night for the home fans as the Baggies demonstrated yet more novel ways of shooting themselves in the foot.
Woeful defending gifted Coventry City two goals in the first 11 minutes and from then on it was an uphill struggle in a Jekyll and Hyde performance that served to remind us that the Albion are still a long way from being the finished article.
All the old defensive failings were there, highlighting the need for further squad strengthening in the January transfer window if cherished Premiership status is to be achieved.
Leon Best set the Sky Blues on their way, getting on the end of a long ball out of defence and calmly lifting a shot over Dean Kiely in the Albion goal with just six minutes on the clock.
All the pre-game talk had been about the threat posed by Michael Mifsud but Albion failed to heed their own warnings as the little Maltese striker advanced unmarked into the six-yard area five minutes later, taking advantage of some schoolboy defending to head home a cross from Leon McKenzie.
Coventry saw out the rest of the half, but were stung by early in the second half when Roman Bednar headed in Paul Robinson`s 51st minute cross from the left.
Boss Tony Mowbray had sent on Jared Hodgkiss and Sherjill MacDonald in place of Bostjan Cesar and Zoltan Gera at the restart and a resurgent Albion restored parity 13 minutes later when Chris Brunt cut inside and launched a cross-cum-shot into the area, which Bednar later claimed he got a touch to before it squirmed under keeper Dimi Konstantopoulos.
Albion fans breathed a collective sigh of relief thinking the game was theirs for the taking.
But barely six minutes passed before the home side found themselves reduced to ten men when Robinson earned a second booking for a badly-time tackle on Mifsud after earning a first yellow card just minutes earlier for kicking the ball away.
Mowbray sent on Pedro Pele for Filipe Teixeira in an attempt to hold on to the point but by then the Baggies were looking thoroughly demoralised and it came as no real surprise when Coventry made the numerical advantage count in the closing stages.
Best`s cross shot on 82 minutes was judged to have crossed the line despite Pele`s desperate goal-line clearance and three minutes later Albion`s misery was complete when Mifsud added his second from close range.
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