Dion Dublin kept up his amazing one-man goal rush for Coventry but needed a 73rd minute penalty to finally beat England B keeper Kevin Pressman and send former Sky Blues boss Ron Atkinson away empty handed.

Wednesday's disciplined defending and Pressman's alert positional sense threatened to produce the fourth consecutive goalless draw between these two sides.

And Dublin was locked up in tight marking with little scope to break the deadlock until 17 minutes from time.

Defender Jon Newsome wrestled Dublin to the ground as they chased a long clearance just inside the penalty box.

And the big striker picked himself up to drive home confidently from the spot for his eighth goal in seven games since turning down a reported £16,000 a week new contract at Highfield Road.

His penalty strike gave resurgent Coventry their third win in a row and maintained a home unbeaten run which now stretches to six matches.

But despite dominating long stretches of the game they were only kept in it by an astonishing reflex save from under-employed Swedish goalkeeper Magnus Hedman, who somehow kept out Italian striker Paolo Di Canio's close-range header.

That came seven minutes before Dublin's spot success and you had to feel sorry for Wednesday's Pressman, who soon afterwards pushed away Darren Huckerby's drive when the Coventry man seemed certain to add a second goal.

Pressman also excelled before the break, coming off his line to turn away Dutchman George Boateng's clever lob into the box when the muscular Dublin looked a firm favourite to reach it first.

Pressman deserved his luck when he saw Huckerby head the loose ball wide of the mark.

Paul Telfer and the determined Huckerby both went close to giving Coventry the lead before the break while the home side's own anxiety came from corner kicks by Wednesday Andy Hinchcliffe, who curled in a couple of specials and saw Hedman juggle them over the crossbar.

Norwegian Trond Soltvedt messed up a marvellous opportunity to reward Coventry's superiority when he mis-kicked, unmarked, eight yards out a minute after the interval But Dublin's persistence finally won him the decisive penalty and it needed an incredible clearance by Newsome, heading the ball over his own crossbar when standing right underneath it, to prevent Dublin's flick adding a second goal in stoppage time.

Teams

Coventry: Hedman, Shaw, Burrows, Breen, Huckerby, Dublin, Telfer, Soltvedt (Strachan 65), Boateng, Hall, Nilsson.

Subs Not Used: Ogrizovic, Boland, Haworth, Moldovan.

Goals: Dublin 74 pen.

Sheff Wed: Pressman, Atherton, Nolan, Pembridge (Mayrleb 79), Newsome, Walker, Carbone, Di Canio, Hyde (Magilton 85), Rudi (Whittingham 71), Hinchcliffe.

Subs Not Used: Clarke, Nicol.

Att: 18,375

Ref: G R Ashby (Worcester).