Coventry and the FA cup

If you are visiting this blog from a partner city you might have come so wanting to know more about the social, political culture  life of Coventry. But spare a thought for sport as the big news story in the city last weekend was a sporting one – the FA cup semi- final, played at Wembley. 

Coventry has history in the cup for back in 1987 Coventry, very much the less favoured team,  beat Spurs in the final [1] . This was a really  big thing for Coventry as we are a one club city. There are no divided loyalties as there would be in say Manchester, or Sheffield or North London.

The match at the week-end put Coventry against the Manchester United, from the league above, and Cov were even more underdogs. On 59 minutes Man United scored a third and if it had stayed 3-0  I think people would have accepted it, a defeat but not a humiliation. But unbelievably Cov came back to with three goals in twenty or so minutes to make it 3-3. And with just one minute to go,  Coventry’s winger Wright crosses to Torp who pokes it into the net. 4 – 3 and into the final. But wait. The build-up  is checked by video technology and it seems that Wright was an inch or two off-side. The score goes back to 3-3. There is extra time. None more goals. It goes to penalties. Sadly Coventry are out.

Coventry is not my home team but this match had me and my family jumping of the sofa.  The club were once a first league side – they went down a division in 2001 and since then have suffered poor ownership and many indifferent seasons. For a while they had no home stadium to play in. But things are looking up in terms of ownership, manager and players. They are now a second tier side hoping to get promoted at some point. To get to a final would have been the icing on the cake but at least they may find some consolation that they are not going to have to play Manchester City, the other team in what will now be an all-Manchester final.  

For more:

The day out is for some is described in local news here 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn0w49ln0zeo

The semi-final highlights are here

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/68871206

The highlights of the 1987 match can be found within many sites on You Tube e.g. this is from ITV Sports archive) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qY6qr6Phtxc  (Sorry it has ads at the start).