Coventry City drew with struggling Blackburn Rovers 1-1 on Friday night. It was a result that would have normally disappointed them. However, in this instance, it was enough to guarantee promotion with three games of the season remaining. Coventry have been superb this term, and Frank Lampard has resurrected his managerial reputation.
The Sky Blues have taken 86 points from their 43 games. That has given them a 10-point advantage at the top of the table. Crucially, it means they now hold a 10-point lead over third-placed Millwall, with the Lions also only having three matches left to play. As such, Lampard’s Coventry have done it: a return to the top flight of English football after 25 years away beckons.
Free-scoring Cov Deserve Title
The Midlands side last played in the Premier League back in the 2000/01 season. They finished 19th and were relegated. It has been a long road back to the Premier League, but nobody could argue that Lampard’s side don’t deserve it.
They have been brilliant all season. After seven league games, they were second in the table. Back-to-back wins moved them to the summit of the Championship. Apart from a very brief drop down to second for one week, they have stayed in first place since then. They fell to second after Gameweek 31 but then won eight of their following nine fixtures to take control of the play-off race.
Cruising to Promotion
With the job all but done, Coventry have rather limped over the line. Indeed, they have drawn their last three games in a row now. However, with the chasing pack also proving inconsistent, apart from a surging Southampton, those three points have proved enough.
Their goal-scoring has dropped off a little in the final quarter of the campaign. Despite that, though, they have already banged in 85 goals. That equates to almost two per game and is currently 10 more than the second-best tally.
The Sky Blues drew their opening clash of the campaign 0-0, but then scored 14 times in the three matches that followed. They scored three or more goals in 10 of their first 18 fixtures. That is a staggering record. Lampard’s men eased off a little in the middle of the season, but during their decisive run of eight wins in nine, they scored 21 times.
Automatic promotion is always the main aim for the Championship’s top sides. However, with that assured, Lampard’s side will now be targeting the second-tier title. They won it in 1966/67, and they need just three more points to make certain of it almost 60 years on. It is no less than they deserve.
Big Side but Big Lows
Coventry City are a club rich in history. They were founded in 1883 (then known as Singers FC) and won the FA Cup in 1987. It might seem strange to many younger football fans, but they were top-tier regulars for a long time. As mentioned above, they won the old Second Division in 1966/67 and then remained in the top flight until the new millennium. That included a run of nine seasons in the Premier League. Indeed, they were founding members of the competition in 1992/93 before their eventual relegation in 2000/01.
It’s fair to say that Coventry have rarely troubled the top end of the highest tier of English football. However, mixing it with the elite for 34 years in a row was an incredible achievement. On the other hand, Coventry are a club very familiar with the lower rungs of the English football ladder too. While next term will be their 35th in the top flight, amazingly, they have also spent 35 seasons in the second tier and 35 in the third too! They also did this while enduring a spell of almost 50 years without finishing in the top six in any division!
Ups and Plenty of Downs
Coventry City’s history has been very much a mixed bag, with an even split between the top three tiers. Additionally, however, they have also had three separate spells in the fourth tier. Although each lasted just a single season, those are not campaigns Coventry fans will remember fondly, despite the fact that the club achieved its aim of promotion each time.
The last stint propping up the EFL came as recently as 2017/18. That highlights just how impressive and rapid the Sky Blues’ rise up the pyramid has been. But it also shows just how low they sank, having been in the Premier League from its inception in 1992/93 to the 2000/01 season.
Their fall and rise have been even more rapid when we consider that after demotion from the Premier League, they spent 11 straight seasons in the second tier. They finished 23rd in the Championship in 2011/12, then had five campaigns in League One without ever threatening to win promotion. In 2016/17, they then finished second from bottom to drop down into League Two.
Rapid Rise
They had last competed at that level way back in 1958/59, having also done so in 1914/15. They scraped into the League Two play-offs just eight years ago. Coventry were seventh with two games to play, but four points helped them secure sixth. They then beat Notts County and Exeter City to make it back into League One.
Mark Robins was their manager, and the former Manchester United striker did a truly wonderful job for the Sky Blues. They finished eighth in the third tier in 2018/19 but then promptly won the division 12 months on.
Despite huge turmoil off the pitch and massive financial constraints, Robins steadied the ship. He kept Coventry in the Championship, and in 2022/23, after guiding them to fifth, they were just a penalty shootout (against Luton) away from making it back into the Premier League.
Last season, the club, harshly in the opinion of many, sacked Robins after a slow start to the campaign. He was dismissed in early November, and Lampard was appointed later the same month. The former Chelsea, Everton and Derby manager had seen his stock fall dramatically after a woeful second spell at Chelsea as caretaker.
However, he hit his stride quickly in the Midlands and guided the Sky Blues back into the play-offs, again in fifth place. They lost in the semi-finals, but it set them up well for the 2025/26 campaign. That said, few Coventry fans could have expected this season to go quite as well as it has.
Lampard Named Manager of the Season
Lampard’s 11-game stint as caretaker boss of Chelsea in 2023 brought one win and eight losses. However, his reputation and managerial stock is now higher than ever. On the 19th of April, the former England international was named the EFL Championship Manager of the Season. More awards may follow.
His side have clearly been the best in the Championship. They should secure the title, and they have done it by playing an attacking brand of football. They are not a team that likes possession for possession’s sake. However, when Coventry attack, they do so at speed, and that might just serve them well in the Premier League. Back after a quarter of a century… but how long will they last?
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