TEN-MAN Albion's unbeaten home league record was ended by late strikes from Leon Best and Michael Mifsud on a dramatic night at The Hawthorns.
The Baggies looked dead and buried when goals from City forwards Best and the returning Mifsud fired the Sky Blues 2-0 ahead inside the first 11 minutes.
Roman Bednar crowned his first home start by netting his third and fourth goals in just three games in the 51st and 64th minutes to claw Albion level.
But the weary Baggies suffered a major blow when Paul Robinson was sent off in the 70th-minute for a second bookable offence.
And City took full advantage when Best and Mifsud both grabbed their second goals of the game in the 83rd and 85th minutes respectively to end Albion's eight-game undefeated run.
Coventry's pre-match preparations were overshadowed by the club filing for administration - but they were at least boosted by the return of Mifsud from a three-match ban.
The Sky Blues' 11-goal top scorer had not played since being red-carded just 11 minutes into Albion's 4-0 Ricoh romp only three weeks ago.
A win in that fixture would have moved Coventry level on points with the Baggies, but they kicked off some ten points and 12 positions worse off than second-placed Albion.
Tony Mowbray stuck with the same XI which earned four points at Plymouth and Crystal Palace, with his only change seeing Jared Hodgkiss replace Richard Chaplow on the bench.
It took the hosts less than three minutes to create the game's first chance.
Bednar did brilliantly to rob City defender Elliott Ward and thread Zoltan Gera through.
The Hungarian's first touch was heavy but he still forced Dimi Konstantopoulos to make a fine near-post block with a right-footed stab.
Albion kept City pegged back by winning three successive corners - yet the hosts found themselves behind in the sixth minute.
Bostjan Cesar, struggling with a back injury, misjudged a long Ben Turner punt from the back and Best ghosted in to lift the ball over the advancing Dean Kiely and into the net.
Incredibly, the Baggies were two down five minutes later.
Ponderous defending resulted in Jay Tabb forcing the ball wide to Leon McKenzie whose first-time cross was headed home by the unmarked Mifsud inside the six-yard box.
And it could have gotten even worse less than a minute later.
Sky Blues attackers out-numbered home defenders on a breakaway move and the Baggies were relieved to see the unmarked McKenzie fluff his shot from Mifsud's centre before Michael Doyle fired the loose ball wide from 15 yards.
Albion regrouped and desperately searched for a lifeline.
Jonathan Greening and Filipe Teixeira failed to trouble the Sky Blues goal with two efforts from distance before Robert Koren went much closer with a 20-yard rocket which squirmed off a City defender and landed on the roof of the net.
However, City continued to look dangerous on the break and, from a Mifsud lay-off, skipper Doyle fired straight at Kiely from 18 yards.
Albion were seeing plenty of the ball but getting little change out of the visitors' well-organised rearguard and had to resort to long-range shots.
Gera wasn't too far away with one such effort which clipped Doyle and curled just wide of the left-hand post.
Mowbray rang two changes at the break, replacing the injured Cesar and Gera with Hodgkiss and Sherjill MacDonald.
Albion kicked off with renewed purpose and Konstantopoulos soon had to show a safe pair of hands to hold onto Teixeira's awkward 25-yard drive.
They halved City's lead in the 51st minute.
Robinson controlled Greening's crossfield ball before picking out Bednar with a pinpoint centre and the Czech international headed powerfully into the far corner.
The goal breathed new life into the battling Baggies and they kept Coventry penned inside their own half - before deservedly drawing level in the 64th minute.
Bednar leapt just inside the City half to superbly flick Kiely's huge clearance into Chris Brunt's path.
The £3million man cut inside Gary Borrowdale before firing a cross-cum-shot into the danger-zone and Bednar appeared to get the slightest of touches to divert the ball past Konstantopoulos and into the net.
But Albion suffered a major set-back 20 minutes from time when Robinson received his second yellow card inside seven minutes for a late challenge on Mifsud. The frustrating part was the left-back's earlier caution had been for kicking the ball away.
Albion soldiered on but more powder puff defending resulted in City snatching an 83rd-minute lead.
The Baggies disastrously lost possession as they tried to play their way out of trouble and Jay Tabb's low centre was eventually scrambled home by Best.
Despite Hodgkiss' best effort to hack clear, the ball was adjudged to have crossed the line.
Two minutes later, it was game, set and match to Coventry.
Ward powered forward and slipped in Best who drew Kiely out of his goal before squaring to Mifsud for a simple tap-in.
The two-goal blast knocked the stuffing out of Albion, who still remain second in the table.
ALBION (4-4-1-1): Kiely; Hoefkens, Barnett, Cesar (Hodgkiss HT), Robinson; Teixeira (Pele 71), Koren, Greening, Brunt; Gera (MacDonald HT); Bednar. Subs not used: Steele (gk), Beattie.
COVENTRY (4-3-3): Konstantopoulos; McNamee, Ward, Turner, Borrowdale; M Hughes, Doyle (Osbourne 88), Tabb; McKenzie (Gray 81), Best (Adebola 87), Mifsud. Subs not used: Marshall (gk), Cairo.
GOALS: ALBION - Bednar (51 & 64). COVENTRY - Best (6 & 83), Mifsud (11 & 85).
BOOKINGS: ALBION - Greening (foul 56), Robinson (kicking ball away 63), Kiely (handling outside box 78). COVENTRY - Mifsud (foul 88).
SENDING-OFF: ALBION - Robinson (second bookable offence, foul, 70).
REFEREE: M Clattenburg (Tyne & Wear).
ATTENDANCE: 20,641.
ALBION STARMAN: Roman Bednar.
PIC: BITTER SWEET NIGHT...Bednar celebrates his second goal but he still ended up on the losing side
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