We Are The Champions

Coventry City are promoted to the Premier League as Champions after an absence of 25 years. What a dramatic rise from the depths of League Two. In eight seasons the club has won three promotions and finally got back to the EPL. In an interesting coincidence the club took eight years to go from Division Four to Division One between 1959 and 1967 under the management of, first, Billy Frith and later Jimmy Hill. The majority of the media have rightly been focusing on the 25-year timescale but for me the eight-year rise is just as important. 

Eight years ago this weekend the Sky Blues lost 2-4 at home to Lincoln and even a play-off place looked in jeopardy. They recovered to reach the play-offs and won promotion in dazzling style with a 3-1 Wembley win over Exeter City. Mark Robins then worked wonders with a limited budget and with shrewd recruitment and transfer business built a new side that took League One by storm in 2019-20 and were deservedly anointed champions of the unfinished season. The team continued to evolve and after two seasons of acclimatisation in the Championship were good enough to reach the play-off final only to lose to Luton Town. The stars, Vik and Gus, were sacrificed to fund a major rebuild which has paid off with three phenomenal seasons culminating in the Championship title in 2026. 

The progress appeared to have stalled in the autumn of 2024 and Robins left to be replaced by Frank Lampard. Doug King’s decision to bring Frank in has been vindicated and Frank’s detractors local and national have been silenced with a season of exciting, outstanding football, goals galore and memorable moments many of which will be talked about for generations.

It’s hard to pick out my favourite moment, there have been so many. The 7-1 demolition of QPR on the day that the deal to buy the CBS Arena was sealed was one of numerous home games where the opposition was overpowered and put to the sword. On the road sell-out away followings were treated to an unheard of 10 away wins (with one game to go) and 42 goals amongst the best wins coming at Middlesbrough, Sheffield United and Millwall. My personal favourites were the home win over ‘Boro in February and the 1-0 at Stoke in November. ‘Boro had chased down our 13 point lead through December and January and the previous week had wowed the pundits by easily beating Sheffield United at Bramall Lane to overtake us. ‘Boro we’re now the team on everybody’s lips and many were writing the Sky Blues off but City defied their critics and rediscovered their mojo with an impressive 3-1 win courtesy of a Haji Wright hat-trick. Back on top the Sky Blues never looked back and went on to win eight games out of nine. It was at Stoke that I realised we were true promotion candidates. At Stoke City were not at their best against the second-placed Potters but dug in and were rewarded with Ephron Mason-Clark’s spectacular last minute winner.

I have to admit I was emotional at Ewood Park last Friday as promotion was confirmed and I thought especially of two friends with whom I had shared the few ups and many downs over the years. I’ve known Rod Dean for almost 60 years and we’ve travelled together all over the country and abroad (Munich 1970) watching City. It was Rod who piqued my interest in the club’s history and we collaborated on the Complete History book with David Brassington and Don Chalk over 35 years ago. We were also two of the founder members of the London Supporters Club in 1976 which has gone from strength to strength in the subsequent 50 years. Sadly, Rod has advanced dementia and is in a care home. Geoff Moore was another I shed a tear for at Ewood. A good friend for the best part of 40 years, Geoff, like me, was a serial school escapee to get to City games in the 1960s and was a member of the 92 club and reckoned to have seen City Play on over 100 different away grounds. Geoff passed away in March 2020 just as City were about to clinch the League One title and I missed being with both him and Rod on Friday night. One consolation was being with Geoff’s sons Andy and Chris for one of the special nights in Coventry City’s history.

Frank's team have broken so many records this season and I'll be covering the stats over the next couple of weeks but one new one emerged this week. It is City's fifth title in exactly 100 seasons in the Football League and the first to be clinched before the end of the season. In 1936, 1964 and 1967 the title was confirmed on the final day, and in 2020 the season was curtailed and the title not confirmed until two months later.