Championship leaders Coventry bounced back from their first league defeat of the season as they came from behind to beat Sheffield United 3-1 at the CBS Arena.
Former Sky Blues defender Sam McCallum put the Blades ahead in the first half before Tatsuhiro Sakamoto and Bobby Thomas scored after the break.
Joint-Championship top scorer Brandon Thomas-Asante added a third at the end to secure a ninth win of the season.
The defeat made it three in a row for Chris Wilder’s men following losses to Preston and Derby, meaning United stayed in the relegation zone.
Frank Lampard made five changes from the team that lost 3-1 to Wrexham on Friday night.
Thomas, Milan van Ewijk and Jay Dasilva returned to form a familiar back four while there was also a recall for Victor Torp following a calf injury.
The Danish midfielder wasted no time getting back into the action, stinging the palms of goalkeeper Michael Cooper with a trademark free-kick.
Another Torp free-kick caused problems in the United box as Josh Eccles latched onto a loose ball and forced Cooper into another safe with a well-struck volley.
The Blades’ opener came midway through an end-to-end first half when Ben Mee got ahead of Torp and glanced Sydie Peck’s corner into the path of McCallum to side-foot home from close range.
Wilder’s men almost had a second when Tom Cannon picked out Peck inside the box but his effort was blocked and then claimed by Sky Blues keeper Carl Rushworth.
Haji Wright, who has failed to score since the international break, almost got on the end of Liam Kitching’s flick-on following van Ewijk’s long throw.
Wright was then picked out by Thomas-Asante’s inviting cross but the American’s header was well saved by Cooper.
The United keeper was forced off injured at half-time and was replaced by Adam Davies, whose first action was to pick the ball out of the net.
Van Ewijk’s long throw broke for Sakamoto, who drilled his effort into the bottom corner to score for the third game on the bounce.
Coventry had also made a substitution of their own at the interval and the newly-introduced Ephron Mason-Clark blazed his effort over.
Lampard’s side were ahead on the hour mark when Torp’s hanging corner was nodded in by Thomas, who rose above the Blades defence to claim his second of the season.
Callum O’Hare had scored in his previous two outings for Wilder’s men and was met by a chorus of boos throughout the evening against his former team.
The Blades went in search of an equaliser in the final stages as Peck and Tyrese Campbell saw their shots blocked.
As time ran out for the visitors, Wright broke the offside trap and squared for Thomas-Asante to tap in.
The managers
Coventry’s Frank Lampard:
“They’re no mugs obviously. Their league position is what it is but they’re a good team and I’ve got a lot of respect for Chris [Wilder] so I knew it was a tough match.
“The second half was what we want to be, what we’ve been for big parts of the season, real energy in the team with the way we play.
“We made little tactical tweaks but the main tweak was our approach to the game, how fast we were and how much pressure we put on them and that changed the course of the match.
“If we want to have success this season it has to be off that. If you look at our big performances this year, they have been that.
“When we’ve blown teams away, which fortunately we have at times, it’s been more power, pace, play forward, run forward, support each other and move forward and we do that a lot.
“I know you can’t always do it for 90 minutes but we have to believe that’s what we can be as a team and that was there in the second half.
“I was delighted with the way they saw the game out, a lot of corners later on in the game, but we dug in and you have to sometimes.”
Sheffield United’s Chris Wilder:
“A lot of good things, toe-to-toe with the best team in the league who are scoring goals left, right and centre, winning games left, right and centre.
“The goals are avoidable, a long throw we switch off on the edge of the box after half-time and the second goal you’ve seen that one as well, not dealt with that, it’s unfortunate these things happen.
“I thought we were in the game for long periods, especially late on, and we just have to deal with that direct play and we’ve not really dealt with it.
“We scored our goal from a set play, they scored two from set plays. Up to half-time I was delighted with the game plan, delighted with the contribution of the players.
“They will always cause you a few issues with the quality that they’ve got but I thought we caused them just as many in terms of how we went about it and were well in the game.
“I didn’t feel there was two goals in the game but there it is, a team that’s got confidence and belief with a team that’s struggling a little bit.
“But up to half-time there was enough in it for me to encourage me and everybody and the support that we can get a result.”
