Jonson Clarke-Harris' second-half penalty rescued an unlikely point for 10-man Coventry at in-form promotion rivals Mansfield.
City had been down to 10 men since Jordan Willis was red-carded after 14 minutes and 1-0 down from Kane Hemming's fortunate goal on 16 minutes.
But Mansfield failed to build on their superiority and paid the price from the spot on 71 minutes.
City began the afternoon strongly and forced three corners inside two minutes, Rob McDonald forcing Conrad Logan to save his header from the second.
But when Willis was sent off on 14 minutes for hauling down Danny Rose when last man, Alex MacDonald took the resulting free-kick two minutes later and saw it take a huge deflection off team-mate Kane Hemmings and into the net.
Marc McNulty did force Logan to save from a tight angle on 34 minutes as City remained dangerous.
CJ Hamilton forced Lee Burge to save on a breakaway and just before the break Hemmings headed wide from seven yards from Paul Anderson's cross.
But Mansfield failed to press home their advantage and when MacDonald brought down Clarke-Harris in the box, the striker made no mistake with his penalty finish.
English League Two Standings
POS | Team | GP | GD | PTS |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Accrington Stanley | 43 | +33 | 90 |
2 | Luton Town | 44 | +46 | 84 |
3 | Wycombe Wanderers | 44 | +17 | 78 |
4 | Exeter City | 44 | +11 | 77 |
5 | Notts County | 44 | +24 | 76 |
6 | Lincoln City | 43 | +15 | 71 |
7 | Coventry City | 43 | +14 | 71 |
8 | Mansfield Town | 44 | +14 | 68 |
9 | Swindon Town | 44 | -1 | 64 |
10 | Carlisle United | 44 | +7 | 63 |
11 | Colchester United | 44 | +2 | 61 |
12 | Cambridge United | 43 | -8 | 60 |
13 | Crawley Town | 44 | -7 | 58 |
14 | Newport County | 42 | -3 | 57 |
15 | Stevenage | 44 | -6 | 52 |
16 | Cheltenham Town | 44 | 0 | 51 |
17 | Crewe Alexandra | 44 | -15 | 50 |
18 | Port Vale | 44 | -12 | 47 |
19 | Yeovil Town | 43 | -15 | 46 |
20 | Forest Green Rovers | 43 | -18 | 46 |
21 | Grimsby Town | 44 | -28 | 45 |
22 | Morecambe | 43 | -14 | 44 |
23 | Barnet | 44 | -23 | 40 |
24 | Chesterfield | 43 | -33 | 35 |
League Two News
Wycombe welcome back trio against Accrington
Mansfield likely to be without Hayden White for Port Vale clash
Coventry could be unchanged for Stevenage meeting
Phil Brown waiting on several Swindon players
Mark Cooper could stick with same Forest Green XI against Chesterfield
Danny Rowe ruled out for Lincoln's home game with Colchester