Coventry are cooking again – they will have big say in Championship promotion race
Coventry City are going to be a problem
The weekend’s statement 3-1 win over league leaders Leicester City proved what the teams around them also hoping to make the Championship play-offs this season should have known all along — Mark Robins’ side will sneak up on you, pick your pocket and take three points unless you pay attention.
This is good news for Coventry fans, of course, but a point of concern for Leeds United, West Bromwich Albion, Sunderland and Hull City, who occupy places fourth to eighth in the league table with 19 games of the regular season remaining.
Robins’ side are heating up at exactly the right time with one defeat in 12 league games rocketing them up the table after a relatively slow start to the season. Just one win from their first eight games left them as low as 20th at the end of November, which feels like a distant memory after their hard-fought victory over local rivals Leicester took them sixth.
Coventry are a happy contradiction, unchanging in their ability to ride out and rise above change with Robins’ calm hand at the tiller. Last season started in chaos, once again unable to play at home at the CBS Arena due to the pitch not being ready after the Commonwealth Games in nearby Birmingham before they hit their stride and entered the play-off places for the final three games of the season
Defeat in the play-off final at Wembley on penalties to Luton Town, followed by the blows of losing star men Viktor Gyokeres and Gustavo Hamer (to Sporting Lisbon and Sheffield United) in the summer transfer window would have been enough to rock most sides but ‘down and out’ is not a phrase in Coventry’s repertoire. The reported fees of €20million (£17.2m; $21.9m) with a potential further €4million in add-ons for Gyokeres and £15million for Hamer will have eased the pain somewhat but hefty fees do not replace a combined 33 goals in all competitions overnight.
Time and patience have been crucial in allowing new signings to hit their stride, along with the good fortune of several key players returning from injury at the right time. Jamie Allen, Milan van Ewijk, Ben Sheaf, Kasey Palmer and Liam Kelly have all been sidelined with injuries while Callum O’Hare’s return to the side after a 10-month lay-off due to an anterior cruciate ligament rupture has been triumphant, with six goals and an assist in 15 games.
That Coventry reached the post-season play-offs without him playing a role from December last season is all the more remarkable after his standout displays in the FA Cup against Oxford United and in the win over Leicester where he pulled the strings.
