A parade that made 25 years of heartbreak worth it
More than 50,000 Coventry City fans party as the Sky Blues mark Championship title win with bus parade.
Coventry City paraded the Championship trophy through the streets of Coventry on Monday [PA Media] After 25 long, long years, including a stint in England's fourth tier, Coventry City are back in the Premier League - and on Bank Holiday Monday they celebrated their return to the elite. More than 50,000 fans filled War Memorial Park after a bus parade through the city. It was 2001 when the club was relegated at Villa Park, with the infamous "we'll be back" sign held held aloft within a sea of sky blue - not wrong, just longer than many could have expected.
A version of that sign was used on the front of the parade bus , which left Coventry Building Society (CBS) Arena at 13:00 BST, before heading through the city. Many paid tribute to the parade's "incredible" and often raucous atmosphere, complete with vuvuzelas. Relive the Coventry City promotion party The bus parade ended in War Memorial Park, with players taking to the stage before Coventry band The Enemy took over.
Their song We'll Live and Die in These Towns has been sung loud and proud at every home game, timed to reach the crescendo of the chorus seconds before kick-off. Tom Grennan performed on stage, as well as The Enemy and DJ Panjabi MC [BBC] Among those celebrating was singer Tom Grennan, who also performed for fans. "This is one [gig] that I'll look back on and I'll think wow - what a special moment to do this for the city of Coventry," he said.
"This city has taken me in and called me one of their own, and it doesn't ever get better than that. Every time I'm down here I feel like I'm from Cov. "I've been a Cov fan since 2016, so I've seen them in League Two.