Middlesbrough, who went into the Easter weekend in the top two, still had the opportunity to end it there with victory at Swansea City in the 17:30 BST game.
Alex Bangura set them on their way with a 12th-minute goal but, after two Zan Vipotnik penalties put the Swans in front, Boro needed a Tommy Conway spot-kick to rescue a point.
Boro are floundering with two wins in their past 10 matches and while they scored more than once for the first time in five games, the feeling remains they are a frustrating and inconsistent proposition in front of goal.
Manager Kim Hellberg said after the match there would be more “twists and turns” to come in the fight for promotion – after a day of such similar rollercoaster emotions.
“You’ve got three teams on 72 points – Ipswich have some games in hand, so they’re in a better position than the other two, but we are in a better position than Millwall because of our better goal difference,” he told BBC Radio Tees.
“There will be twists and turns. No team will just go and win games. It’s difficult and you need to just try in this period to get those points and wins.
“We have to keep fighting. It’s tough we didn’t win, because we thought we were good enough in the game to win, but then you have to do it.
“The easy answer at the moment is that we’re not being clinical enough or smart enough in different ways.”
With a four-point deficit to Ipswich, and a vastly inferior goal difference, plus the games in hand the Tractor Boys hold, Hull can be considered the outsiders in this race.
But the Tigers showed against Coventry they can match anyone in the division and once again reaffirmed the fantastic job Sergej Jakirovic has done in his first season in English football under a transfer embargo.
Although when asked about what that point means in terms of the wider context of Hull’s season, Jakirovic was talking more play-offs than automatic promotion.
“Somebody said it is 73, 74, 75 [to reach the play-offs] but God knows how many. Until we are in this position we will just look at ourselves and try to take points in every game,” Jakirovic told BBC Radio Humberside.
“Norwich are coming, Derby is there, Southampton… but, no matter, we must look at ourselves.”
