COVENTRY City face an uphill battle to finish in the play-off places after the Sky Blues suffered a 3-0 defeat away at relegation-threatened Birmingham City.
An own goal from Bobby Thomas put Blues ahead before Ivan Sunjic and Jay Stansfield struck either side of the break to condemn City to defeat at St Andrews.
And the result means Coventry sit eighth in the Championship table, eight points behind Norwich City in sixth with a game in-hand.
The visitors almost took the lead when Kasey Palmer picked out Milan van Ewijk in space down the right-hand side of the penalty area only for the defender’s shot across goal to whistle inches past the post.
Blues went close at the other end after City failed to deal with a cross from the left before Koji Miyoshi drilled a low shot into the side netting.
However, the home side broke the deadlock on 12 minutes when Keshi Anderson’s low cross from the left deflected into the net off the unfortunate Thomas.
The Sky Blues almost drew level soon after when Haji Wright sent a lob over a stranded John Ruddy only for the ball to bounce onto the crossbar and over.
And Blues doubled their lead four minutes before half time after City failed to properly clear their lines at a corner and Sunjic drilled a shot past Bradley Collins from 15-yards out.
The home side made sure of the points on 59 minutes as Stansfield produced a deft finish past Collins from Tyler Roberts’ through ball.
Coventry are next in action against Manchester United on Sunday, April 21 in the semi-finals of the FA Cup with kick-off at 3.30pm at Wembley.
