After years of unrest and a League Two match as recently as 2018, the Sky Bet Championship play-off final offers both a fantastic chance to return to the top division of English football for the first time in many years.
Luton was demoted and then demoted again.
Our voyage begins in 1992.
The last English football season prior to the Premier League’s founding. Luton and Coventry both participated in Division One and placed 17th and 18th, respectively. On the last day following their loss to Notts County, the Hatters were demoted by a mere two points.
After losing that match, Luton’s ten years in the top flight came to an end, and they were demoted to the second division, going from Division One to Division One again, or the Premier League to the Championship, as they are now called.
They then fell into the third tier in 1996, which was their lowest standing in 26 years.
Neither had a successful start to the new millennium’s first full season. Luton was relegated to the fourth division of English football for the first time since 1968, while Coventry was demoted from the Premier League for the first time since 1967.
The Noughties: Coventry plods along, with a brief return to Luton
While Luton prospered in the 2000s, winning promotions in 2002 and 2005 to return to the Championship, Coventry barely made in the second division, finishing in the top half just three times between 2001 and 2011.
Luton would only play in the Championship for two seasons. In 2007, they were demoted to League One again, and the following year, they were demoted to League Two. At that time, they also lost ten points for entering administration.
The team started the 2008–09 League Two season with thirty points after the EFL and FA fined it for financial irregularities that the previous owners had committed.
They persevered bravely and scored enough points to finish in what should have been a mid-table position. However, they ultimately took last place and experienced their first-ever relegation from the league.
They did, however, win the Football League Trophy that season at Wembley in front of 40,000 fans.
Things weren’t going much better at Coventry. In 2005 they moved from their home of 106 years in Highfield Road to the newly-built Ricoh Arena. Then in 2007, with debts mounting, they were purchased by controversial owners Sisu Capital.
