Sky Blue Time Machine

The league side of 2016/17. Twenty-third out of twenty-four. Relegation confirmed at the Charlton pig protest on 14 April 2017 — twelve days after Coventry City had lifted the EFL Trophy at Wembley in front of 74,434. Same supporter base. Three weeks apart. A factor of ten between the two crowds. This week Danny and Sarah do the hard work the Wembley story can't be honest without — the league, the...

This week the show stops on a single word: heroes — the ones who step forward. And the thing about heroes at this club, Danny and Sarah find, is that they come in two completely different shapes. In 1986/87 it's Keith Houchen: a journeyman out of Hartlepool by way of Orient, York and Scunthorpe, who'd already had his FA Cup moment (a penalty against Arsenal for York in January 1985) and arrived at...

The Coventry City dugout in 2016/17 chewed through three managers in a single season — Tony Mowbray sacked on 29 September, Russell Slade in and out by 5 March, and Mark Robins walking back in on 6 March, four years after he'd left for what looked like a better job. Three P45s and one relegation to League Two, delivered by committee. Compare that to 1986/87, where John Sillett sat in the same chai...

Two of the most famous things to come out of Coventry in fifty years — The Specials in 1981 and the FA Cup in 1987 — happened within six years of each other, and both were a city talking honestly about itself from inside a long decline. This week Danny and Sarah finally go into the Two Tone story they only pointed at in Episode 1. Jerry Dammers, the black-and-white checkerboard as a political stan...

23 September 1986. Highfield Road. League Cup second round, first leg. Coventry beat Rotherham 3-2. Two weeks later, away leg, 1-0. Aggregate 4-2, through. Nobody knows this is the squad that will lift the FA Cup at Wembley in May. They're a top-flight club doing a routine cup tie against a Third Division side in the autumn. 9 November 2016. Wycombe Wanderers vs Coventry City. Adams Park, away. EF...

May 1987. Coventry City beat Tottenham 3–2 at Wembley in front of 96,000 people, finish 10th in the First Division, and walk into the rest of football history. April 2017. Coventry beat Oxford 2–1 at Wembley in front of 74,434 people in the EFL Trophy, finish 23rd in League One, and get relegated to the fourth tier twelve days later. Same club. Same badge. Same colour. Three divisions apart. Danny...