QPR play the fall guys in Strachan's antics roadshow

Coventry City 1 Queen's Park Rangers 0 : as Coventry's hopes also rise though the pressure increases on Ball and Bolton's self-belief dies

Coventry City 1 Queen's Park Rangers 0

The giant trucks which rolled into Highfield Road for Match of the Day were decked out in advertisements for the Antiques Roadshow. With the Premiership's oldest manager, Ron Atkinson, triumphing at the expense of its most senior player, Ray Wilkins, the BBC crew could be forgiven for wondering if they had got their wires crossed.

Any confusion may have been compounded by the fact that the most valuable contribution to Coventry's vital victory, with the exception of Eoin Jess's winner, was made by a player in his 40th year. Gordon Strachan, completing a League fixture for the first time since November, performed like a man possessed to keep alive their hopes of survival and push Rangers closer to the abyss.

It was the Scot's perfectly flighted cross that Dion Dublin nodded on for Jess to head his first goal since a pounds 2m move from Aberdeen. Atkinson later admitted that Strachan was about to be substituted when Coventry struck, a revelation which confirmed Wilkins' feeling that this was simply not Rangers' day.

The Coventry manager's decision to force his assistant into reluctant service from the start had caught everyone unawares except his opposite number. "Ron kept that one up his sleeve, but I wasn't at all surprised," Wilkins said. "Experience is paramount in a tense game like that, and Gordon was very influential."

Although Dublin wore the captain's armband, Strachan coaxed and implored and ranted and roared; the free-transfer inspiration to Coventry's multi- million pound men. There were jinking runs, recalling his pomp at Pittodrie, Old Trafford and Elland Road, plus one back-heeled pass to make Cantona or Kinkladze envious.

After all, Strachan's inheritance was at stake. He is due to become manager a year from now, and clearly does not fancy starting in the First Division. Wilkins, having witnessed his impact, must have regretted the selflessness which deprived Rangers of his own guile until 12 minutes from the end.

No sooner had he come on than Andrew Impey became only the second Premiership player this season to be sent off by Keith Cooper. Impey's kick at Marcus Hall was deemed "violent conduct", yet it was no worse than the "ungentlemanly" version which provoked it. A week earlier, Peter Jones produced a yellow card when a Coventry tackle shattered a Liverpool defender's leg.

Rangers, for whom Kevin Gallen twice hit the woodwork and Jurgen Sommer joined the attack for a stoppage-time corner, needed more from Mark Hateley on the ground where he made his name. Where Strachan was perpetual motion, Hateley, five years his junior, was perpetual slow-motion.

The big striker's inertia strengthened the suspicion that Wilkins, while a thoroughly decent and urbane man, squandered the pounds 6m legacy from Les Ferdinand. Maximum points from the last two games, home to West Ham and at Nottingham Forest, would probably not save Rangers now.

Coventry's prospects are brighter, even if the banner proclaiming "Sky Blue Heaven" was a trifle over the top. After trips to Forest and Wimbledon, they finish at home to Leeds, everyone's ideal visitors right now. By then, the class of '96 should have had ample opportunity to soak up the defiant spirit that has prevented Coventry being demoted from any division since 1952 and preserved their place among the elite for 29 seasons.

Other clubs celebrate championships and cups. Coventry take such a perverse pride in brinkmanship that one almost expects to find the list of last- day escapes beefing up their slender roll of honours. There have been eight to date - and if Strachan's antics roadshow keeps rolling, the signs point to a ninth on 5 May.

Goal: Jess (69) 1-0.

Coventry City (4-4-2): Ogrizovic; Pickering, Rennie (Jess, h-t), Daish, Hall; Strachan, Richardson, Williams, Ndlovu; Dublin, Whelan. Substitutes not used: Salako, Filan (gk).

Queen's Park Rangers (4-3-1-2): Sommer; Bardsley, McDonald, Yates, Brevett; Impey, Holloway, Barker; Sinclair; Hateley (Wilkins, 78), Gallen. Substitutes not used: Ready, Roberts (gk).

Referee: K Cooper (Pontypridd).

Bookings: Coventry: Whelan, Daish, Rennie, Hall. QPR: Bardsley, Brevett.

Sending-off: QPR: Impey.

Man of the match: Strachan.

Attendance: 22,910.