In-form Southampton ended Championship leaders Coventry's six-match winning run with a 2-1 victory at the CBS Arena.
Flynn Downes pounced on a rebound to open the scoring shortly after half-time before Kuryu Matsuki doubled Southampton's lead with five minutes remaining.
Victor Torp's stoppage-time penalty gave Frank Lampard's side hope in the final moments, but the Sky Blues were condemned to just their second home defeat of the season.
It meant that Tonda Eckert's side kept pace with sixth-placed Wrexham in the race for the play-offs as Saints extended their unbeaten run in all competitions to 12.
It was a cagey opening, although Cyle Larin almost opened the scoring for Southampton when he hooked narrowly wide from Matsuki's header back across goal.
Larin, who scored a last-gasp equaliser at West Brom on Wednesday, was one of three changes to Saints' starting XI.
There was a huge blow for the visitors as Leo Scienza, who came off in the draw against the Baggies, failed to recover in time to be in the squad.
Coventry's main threat came down the left through Ephron Mason-Clark, who had the beating of James Bree and crossed for Tatsuhiro Sakamoto, but the Japanese winger could only head over.
Luke Woolfenden then headed wide from close range from another Mason-Clark cross as Coventry continued to cause issues from out wide.
Southampton then had Bayern Munich loanee Daniel Peretz to thank as he made an incredible save to prevent Liam Kitching from opening the scoring on his 100th appearance for the Sky Blues.
Haji Wright had been given a rest in Coventry's 3-0 win over Preston in midweek but was recalled to the starting line-up, and the American striker almost added to his 16 league goals this season when he volleyed Mason-Clark's cross inches wide.
Southampton stunned the CBS Arena just three minutes after the restart.
Matsuki's cross evaded both Larin and goalkeeper Carl Rushworth and rebounded off a post, where it was met by the onrushing Downes who could not miss from inside the six-yard box.
Ryan Manning went close to doubling Southampton's lead six minutes later with a free-kick that whistled past the right-hand post.
Wright had scored six goals in Coventry's six games since the turn of the year and was presented with a golden chance to equalise when he headed Milan van Ewijk's hanging cross straight at Peretz.
Southampton doubled their advantage in fortunate fashion when Bree's corner hit the leg of the unmarked Matsuki and rolled past the helpless Rushworth.
Torp then stepped up to dispatch a penalty he had won himself after he was fouled by Shea Charles.
The inevitable onslaught followed as Coventry desperately searched for an equaliser, but Peretz was able to breathe a sigh of relief when he held onto Romaine Esse's shot following a goalmouth scramble.
The managers
Coventry's Frank Lampard:
"It is frustrating to lose on the basic elements of the game, but I don't think we deserved to lose. We created big chances and we gave them two goals, which is disappointing from us. We don't normally give those types of goals, especially the corner.
"That's quite rare for us this season, but yeah, if we were more clinical in both boxes we win the game. We were not at our best, a bit slow in the first half. They wanted to slow the game down. It was quite apparent early on and we bought into that a bit. We normally have more variation, more speed, more injection.
"Then in the second half we pushed and pushed and it's one of those where the keeper makes a big, big save in the first half and we're pushing at the end and Brandon (Thomas-Asante) hits a shot that if he mis-hits it in any way it goes in but he hits it straight down the keeper.
"So there was some circumstances around the game that I think affected it. But it's just reality, we lost the game and we're not used to losing, so it doesn't feel great.
"That's a good thing about us. Even when we're not quite at our best, not quite 100 per cent; third game in a week, the sun's out and good opposition in this league. And it didn't quite go for us."
Southampton's Tonda Eckert:
"It's a big result. We had so many questions this week why we weren't able to beat teams in the top six, and I think that just fuelled us for the game today to make a statement.
"We've done this against Fulham, to show that we can beat better teams, and I think that's been another statement today. We knew that the game today was going to be completely different and I think it's a well-deserved three points.
"We had an idea of how the game was going to go until minute 60, and then we just needed to have the option to open up after, so it was important for us that we had some impact players that can bring the game in our direction other than having that right from the start.
"It's quite clear Coventry have a heartbeat in their team that you need to control and the idea was to play with one more midfielder today. With the result yesterday (Wrexham's win at Swansea) it was clear we needed to be strong today.
"I told the boys if the game is even at 60 minutes I'll make changes to win the game, so it's clear what we are going for today, and I think it's important to play for three points, we play to win."
