Maybe the games coming up that look daunting won’t be as bad as we think. In this league there are no matches where you can say this a game we can’t win or this is one we can’t lose.”Sadly for Blackburn, they are losing plenty.Goals: Huckerby (52) 0-1; Sherwood (72) 1-1; Whelan (73) 1-2.Blackburn Rovers (4-4-2): Flowers; Kenna, Henchoz, Peacock (Marcolin, h-t), Davidson; Johnson, Dailly, Sherwood, Duff; Sutton (Davies, h-t), Blake. The portents are not promising.”You never know what a match is going to bring,” Hodgson said, seeking the positive. “According to people in this part of the world this was not a daunting fixture but it turned out to be one.

Whether he can take it is anyone’s guess but Coventry are hopeful.”Whelan was absolutely outstanding,” Strachan said “There’s no limit to what he can do but it’s up to him. There’s a silly wee boy inside him and hopefully he’s growing up. Noel’s problem is that he hurts himself more than anybody else but at least he makes life interesting.”It is also interesting at Blackburn in a morbid sort of way, and it could become more so as November brings matches at Newcastle, Manchester United and Liverpool. Coventry’s manager describes Huckerby as immature in terms of football education, but there was wisdom as well as speed about the way he pushed the ball past Tim Flowers.Blackburn, briefly, threatened a comeback when Tim Sherwood headed in after 72 minutes, but that glimpse of salvation was closed as Whelan cut in from the left a minute later and thumped a vicious shot past Flowers from the edge of the area.As Whelan also struck the bar twice it was a command performance from a player who will have extra responsibility now that Dion Dublin has left for Villa Park.

Blackburn’s saving grace this season has been that results have not mirrored performance but there was no mitigation this time. Most of their play was brainless, the team’s abilities diminished by a general lack of confidence and an over-eagerness to please. The combination was not a happy one and Coventry thoroughly deserved the points they took from only their third Premiership win this season.The visitors’ superiority was apparent from the start. Noel Whelan, Darren Huckerby, Stephen Froggatt and Gary McAllister might all have scored in the opening quarter before Nathan Blake – a rare Blackburn success – stretched to alter this pattern, heading against the post.Somehow, Rovers reached half-time unscathed but that lasted for only seven minutes, when Philippe Clement utilised Huckerby’s scorching pace with a pass though the gaping hole in the centre of the home back four.