On Wednesday, Coventry City brought an end to West Bromwich Albion’s unbeaten run with a stoppage time winner scored from the penalty spot by Viktor Gyökeres.

It was Gyökeres, himself, who had earned the penalty, after he twisted and turned into the box, before his run was illegally ended by Erik Pieters.

The Swede picked himself up, composed himself and then sent Alex Palmer the wrong way from 12 yards.

It was an unexpected end to a match that seemed to have a goalless draw stamped all over it, and earned Coventry their first win since before the international break.

Mark Robins’ side are now eighth in the table, one point off a play-off spot, with a game in hand.

Given the problems they have with a lack of permanent home ground that is an achievement in itself.

As for West Brom, that ended a five match winning run, including four clean sheets, a sequence that had brought Carlos Coberán’s team from the foot of the Championship to mid-table security.

The former Huddersfield Town was only appointed to the job at the end of October following the sacking of Steve Bruce, but he is already beginning to repay the faith of the club’s directors that they could be set to mount a serious challenge in the Championship this season.

The 39 year old Spaniard guided Huddersfield to play-off finals last season, before resigning after their defeat to Nottingham Forest. Supporters of the West Yorkshire club may argue that it is no coincidence that there has been a sharp decline in their fortunes since he departed. They currently sit bottom of the Championship.

In between leaving Huddersfield and joining West Brom he had a brief spell in Greece with Olympiacos, but that did not work as either club or coach would have liked. He was sacked after just 11 games in charge.

Teams like Coventry and West Brom can all take inspiration from fellow Midlander’s Forest, who were bottom of the league last Christmas, but still went up via the play-offs under Steve Cooper after a strong second half of the season.

For Coventry, once a permanent fixture in the top division of English football, it has been 21 years since they were relegated from the Premier League, during which team they have dropped down to League One, and come close to bankruptcy on several occasions.

Even finding themselves in the top half of the Championship is a novelty for them and their long suffering supporters.

West Brom, of course, were playing top flight football much more recently, and, when they were relegated from the Premier League at the end of the 2020/2021 season, it was widely expected they would bounce straight up again, especially with an experienced coach like Bruce at the helm.

A tenth placed finish in their first season back down was far below expectations and when it seemed that Bruce was unable to bring about the change of fortunes desired, he lost his job.

Now it is down to Coberán to lead them back to the promised land of the Championship.