The Sky Blues trailed at the break after from a stunning volley from Wilson Isidor and thumping top corner finish from full-back Dennis Cirkin, looking destined for defeat. But a vastly improved second half display saw Haji Wright get City back in the game with a hard and low shot to beat Simon Moore just after the hour before Jack Rudoni headed home an equaliser from a Tatsuhiro Sakamoto cross six minutes from normal time.

Here we look at some of the big talking points and things learned from an ultimately satisfying 2-2 draw away from home.

Character and togetherness

The Sky Blues are far from the finished article as they continue to settle into the season but the one quality they did show in abundance for the second time in recent weeks was the character to come back from two goals down. They did it against Luton at the CBS in a game in which City performed to a high standard from start to finish, but at Sunderland they managed to achieve the unlikely turn around against the league leaders.

Few would have seen that coming at the break, but a good half-time chat to put a few things right clearly did the trick. The second half performance also highlighted the togetherness that is in the group right now, something Rhys Carr was keen to point to in his post-match assessment. And the final result was all the more impressive for the fact that it came amid the backdrop of a traumatic week in which the players lost their popular manager, and, having to field a bare bones side following the injuries to Oliver Dovin and Ben Sheaf on a day when Josh Eccles was also missing due to suspension.

Carr shows coaching credentials

It was a big occasion for Carr to take the team for the first time on an interim basis following the sacking of Mark Robins in the week, and he showed his coaching credentials by putting the players right at the interval and giving them the confidence and belief to fight their way back into the game and get something at a difficult place to play, albeit the Stadium of Light having become a bit of a lucky ground for the Sky Blues in recent years, along with the Riverside just down the road.

For the record, City are now unbeaten in their last five visits to Sunderland, having won two and drawn three, while home and away, Coventry are unbeaten against the Black Cats in their last nine encounters (4W, 5D).

Credit Collins

Credit to Brad Collins who stepped up for his first senior appearance of the season, and they don’t come much bigger than at the league leaders. And although it wasn’t a faultless display from the goalkeeper who was called upon due to Oliver Dovin suffering a mystery injury from a “freak” incident in training, he did all right overall.

He made a couple of saves and was beaten by two worldies, the first a stunning first time volley and the second an equally impressive and seemingly unstoppable rocket into the top corner. He did, however, improvise on a couple of occasions outside his box, launching himself into a diving header clearance to save Victor Torp’s blushes from a weak pass back, and then came to the rescue with an 50-50 challenge after Luis Binks had given the ball away from a failed long diagonal.

It must have been tough for the keeper to get straight back into game mode after so long without a match, and he’d have been understandably rusty and certainly lacking sharpness, which might account for his arguably slow reactions to the second goal.

Worrying deficiency

City’s inconsistency continued in a classic game of two halves, the players really poor in the opening 45 minutes when they fell behind amid fears of a serious thumping but much improved after the break.

The most worrying deficiency to their play was their passing, which was woeful at times with most players guilty of giving away the ball far too cheaply. Time after time they won it back, only to swiftly give it away with a sloppy forward pass that invited a counter attack and piled pressure on the defence.

Fans make their point

The Sky Blue Army always look forward to this fixture but it will have been tinged with sadness for many making the long trip to the North East because of the unpopular change at the top in the week. And when City went 2-0 down, looking flat and devoid of confidence in a lacklustre first half, they must have feared the worst and pretty much written off their big day out.

They appeared to console themselves, however, by singing ‘There’s only one Mark Robins,’ several times throughout the afternoon, clearly making their feelings known, while a banner read: ‘Robins is our King, thanks for the memories’. They also had a pop at Doug King on at least one coarse occasion. Deadly Doug’s clearly in the doghouse and it will be interesting if he manages to appease the largely hurt and disgruntled fanbase with an impressive appointment to succeed the man they feel has been betrayed.