‘Don’t let it drag you down now’: How Coventry won back their soul on tortured journey to the Premier League
CHAMPIONSHIP: For years the CBS Arena was a monument to Coventry’s miserable plight, writes Lawrence Ostlere. Now it is their true home as they near a remarkable return to the top flight after 25 years away
It’s two hours before kick-off against Sheffield Wednesday, and the eight-minute train from Coventry city centre to the CBS Arena is teeming with sky blue shirts. There are hundreds packed on – men and women, friends and family, octogenarians and young kids – although there are really only two types of Coventry fan: those old enough to have watched the 1987 FA Cup final, and those who’ve been told about it so much they feel like they did. They step off the train into a flush of cold air under the South Stand.
It is telling that the stadium is out here, tucked by the M6 and a big Tesco on the outskirts of town. Highfield Road was Coventry’s home for 106 years and it sat among terraced houses like a stitch in the fabric of the city. By contrast the Ricoh Arena, as it was known, was on the periphery, standing as a monument to Coventry’s plight.
Yet slowly, gradually, this stadium has become home. They’ve made new memories and now the Premier League is in sight, after 25 years away. On that emotional day in 2001 when relegation was confirmed, one fan held up a famous sign which read: “We’ll be back.
” It has taken a quarter of a century, a journey that almost destroyed the club, but Coventry are almost at their destination. Coventry supporters walk to the CBS Arena, the ground that for years encapsulated their uneasy relationship with the club (Getty Images) *** Every time Coventry play, a flag goes up in Oslo. Jorg Nannestad fell in love with English football watching on Norwegian TV in the 1970s.
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