Coventry City became the first club to be relegated from the Premier League to League Two and return after 25 years away from the Premier League.
Frank Lampard celebrates a goal as Coventry batsman Portsmouth (Image: 2026 Catherine Ivill – AMA)
Coventry City are once again a Premier League football team. And they come back as champions.
It feels so surreal writing those words, words I never thought I would write. Not when you are suffering relegation to League One and League Two. Not so when we play home games at Sixfields, St Andrews and Burton Albion. That was definitely not the case 13 years ago, when club stores were loaded onto the backs of trucks.
To say it’s been a terrifyingly long journey back to the Premier League would be an understatement. It is a journey built on years of suffering, anguish, and heartbreaking experiences. The club that has been rebuilt and risen from the flames is just like the phoenix on our family crest.
The club crest makes me very proud to be from Coventry and to support this football club.
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We all know how close we have come to the top spot in the last three years. Last year, they failed in a penalty shootout against Wembley, and experienced a heartbreaking close battle in the final minutes of the play-off semi-final against Sunderland.
But last Friday night in Blackburn, all that pain was worth it. Would promotion have felt as good as it did if it hadn’t been for the suffering? I don’t wish that on any club, but somehow it makes promotion taste even sweeter.
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Coventry City team celebrating promotion (Image: Lewis Storey/Getty Images)
I am grateful to my father for taking me to my first game, just as he took me to the game all those years ago. I first discovered Coventry City in the old Coventry Telegraph stand behind the goals during the era of Michael Doyle, Gary McSheffrey, Isaac Osborne, Elliott Ward, Ben Turner, Klaus Jorgensen and Marcus Hall.
The next few years were filled with heartbreak and anxiety. From worrying that we will continue to move down the league, to wondering if football clubs even exist anymore! I was worried that the club that had brought so much joy to my life would be gone.
Traveling up the M1 to Northampton with my dad for home games was strange to say the least, it was a confusing and difficult time with fans boycotting matches and others watching from the hills of Sixfields. In the stands, everyone else had moved away, so I overcame the guilt of being there, even as I wanted to follow behind the boys. It was a time when the fan base was divided and it was hard for people to go or stay away from rooting for their local team, purely because of how broken and destroyed the team was.
Coventry City fans protest against continued ground sharing at Sixfields in 2014 (Image: Pete Norton)
It seemed like a never-ending spiral sending Coventry further down the Football League pyramid and into the deepest depths. That winter day in 2013, when we went into administration and the club store was being loaded onto the back of a truck, it was one of the points where I thought it was really over. There will no longer be a soccer club to support. a little bit. It was a devastating and incredibly sad moment.
Sometimes it only takes a moment. Big, important moments that define the defining points of the season. Bobby Thomas did just that on Friday night at Ewood Park.
I thought I had felt euphoria before. Wolves were away in the FA Cup quarter-finals and then again at Wembley to face Manchester United in the semi-finals, after which a heartbreaking VAR decision went against us, but it meant more than that.
Frank Lampard receives praise after Coventry City secure promotion (Image: Lewis Storey/Getty Images)
Will Frank Lampard keep Coventry City next season? Let us know your predictions in the comments section.
I celebrated promotion to League One as champions in my backyard in a coronavirus bubble, and in hindsight it’s laughable to think that the team were celebrating on top of a ramada with a DJ set on YouTube.
Not this time. Now we can celebrate this properly and a big win against Portsmouth ensured we would celebrate together.
Coventry city. Champions. Premier League club again.
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Coventry City return to Premier League
Coventry City are back in the Premier League! And to celebrate, the Coventry Telegraph has produced this fantastic special edition commemorating the achievements of Frank Lampard and his men. Click here to purchase
