COVENTRY City came within seconds of causing an upset and catapulting themselves into the hat for the last eight slots in the FA Cup.
The Sky Blues looked destined to see off the Premier League side for the second year running at Ewood Park but a 93rd minute goal from Chris Samba earned Sam Allardyce’s men a second bite of the cherry. The fifth round encounter now goes for a replay at the Ricoh.
Chris Coleman’s side bounced back from a nightmare start – which began on Friday 13th – as several of his players were hit by a sickness bug. It was too much for defender Ben Turner and keeper Keiren Westwood – who pulled out of the match just minutes before kick-off – while Elliott Ward and Freddy Eastwood played on with the illness.
Things didn’t improve much as Roque Santa Cruz coolly scored just 85 seconds into the game but goals from Aron Gunnarsson and Michael Doyle in a scintillating second half nearly won it for the Sky Blues until Samba struck at the death.
Coleman said: “Because we were so close, it almost feels like we lost but we will get another go at it.
“I said before the game that I didn’t care if we had to do it in a replay. I don’t care whether it’s 1-0 in the last minute of injury time or if it’s on penalties, as long as we get through to the quarter-finals. That’s all that matters.
“Our supporters might have been disappointed with our approach in the first half but we didn’t think we could sustain that level of energy for 90 minutes.
“I was happy with 1-0 at half-time and said to the players that we could turn the game and I told them that we would be changing the formation slightly about 10 minutes into the half.
“We scored two great goals – I told the midfielders I wanted them to get in the box more a month ago and they have been doing that.”
Andy Marshall had been drafted into the team with just minutes to go before kick-off and his first act was to pick the ball out of the net after just a minute-and-a-half of play.
A fairly routine ball into the Sky Blues box was flicked on to Santa Cruz on the left-hand-side of the area and he smacked a perfect low drive across Marshall and into the bottom corner.
The visitors struggled to get going in attack early on, although they were not troubled a great deal at the back either following Santa Cruz’s effort.
City put together a good move in the 11th minute which began with a raking pass out of defence by Ward.
Isaac Osbourne, making his first start for three months, and Clinton Morrison combined to get Gunnarsson into the box but after the Icelandic international showed great touch and control he wasted the chance by blasting wide from a very tight angle.
Michael Doyle picked out Henderson two minutes later with a fine pass over the Blackburn defence but the on-loan winger dragged his effort wide.
Jason Roberts, Carlos Villanueva and David Dunn all had half-chances to double Rovers’ lead but Coventry really should have got back on level terms in the 32nd minute.
Danny Fox delivered a free-kick from the right which found Gunnarsson unmarked eight yards from goal but the ball appeared to catch him on the side of the head and flew wide.
Leon Best was introduced and Coventry changed to 4-4-2. From then, they began to build up a head of steam which started in the 56th minute when a driving run forward from Gunnarsson was brought to an end by a Gael Givet foul.
Fox’s whipped free-kick was cleared for a corner and although that came to nothing, Rovers couldn’t get out of their half as City piled on the pressure.
It eventually told in the 61st minute as Henderson did well to get the ball out wide to Fox and as his cross was cleared, Gunnarsson was perfectly placed on the edge of the area and he cracked a stunning shot past former England number one Paul Robinson.
It had turned into a cracking cup tie which Coventry were dominating when Rovers thought they had retaken the lead in the 68th minute but Givet’s headed effort was ruled out for a tug on Gunnarsson’s shirt. Life got even better for the 4,500 travelling Coventry fans in the 76th minute as Doyle put their team ahead.
Eastwood’s deft header set the Irishman free and his shot deflected off Samba and looped up and over Robinson.
Unbelievably, Blackburn had the ball in the back of the net again with 10 minutes to go but it was ruled out for offside.
But Rovers began to throw everything forward and as Marshall could only parry Keith Treacy’s deflected drive deep in injury time and it allowed defender Samba to shoot home on the turn to earn a replay for the Premier League team.
Blackburn (4-4-2): Robinson; Simpson, Samba, Khizanishvilli, Givet; Villaneuva, Tugay (Andrews 66), Warnock, Dunn (Treacy 70); Roberts (McCarthy 78), Santa Cruz. Subs not used: Bunn, Nelsen, Grella, Doran.
