Sky Blues return 'home': Coventry return to the city after second spell in exile

Coventry's pre-season friendly with Wolves was the first time Sky Blues fans had seen their team perform in their home city since April 2019

It takes many ingredients to make a football ground truly feel like home for any set of faithful fans.

In Coventry City's case, over the last traumatic decade, it has taken 14 months in exile down the motorway in Northampton, a further seven months up the A45 in Birmingham, then 17 Covid-hit months of no football to watch in the flesh at all.

Now the club find themselves back in the city, and with people allowed in the stadium once more - and that has really made the Sky Blues supporters appreciate what they have got.

On Sunday, in the newly rebranded Coventry Building Society Arena, the Sky Blues will host Nottingham Forest in their Championship opener, in front of an expected crowd of more than 20,000. And it is not just the fans who are happy.

"Being back in Coventry was the missing piece really," Coventry boss Mark Robins told BBC CWR.

"It's good to be back - and playing in front of supporters too. They will be excited to see their team and rightly so. There's going to be quite a few there against Forest."

Coventry's ground troubles

If all goes to plan, that expected crowd of over 20,000 might actually be closer to 30,000.

Certainly the demand is there - and the supply. When the Sky Blues last returned to the 16-year-old stadium on the north side of city following their first exile in Northampton in September 2014, there were 27,306 to witness Frank Nouble's early first-half winner against Gillingham.

And it takes only a count-up of the 40,000-plus followings that saw City win twice in successive seasons at Wembley in 2017 and 2018 to be reminded of the level of support they can still tap into - even 20 years after losing their long-held proud place in English football's top flight.

There are still side issues. They return only as a tenants at a ground which was built for them when they left their former 106-year-old Highfield Road home behind in 2005 for housing redevelopment.

The end result of the bitter dispute they fought with Coventry City Council, the previous joint owners of the stadium, has left the legacy of it now being owned by Wasps.

The first reported rumour of the Premiership rugby union side moving to Coventry circulated on the very weekend City returned to play at the Ricoh Arena in September 2014.

By the December, Wasps were playing there too, and had bought the stadium from its first owners Arena Coventry Limited, made up of the local council and the Alan Higgs Trust, financed by the estate of a late Sky Blues supporter.

Fresh start for Sky Blues

Lessons have been learned - and the ill feeling may take a long time to truly forget. But this is another fresh start.

And Robins says that plaudits have to go to Sky Blues chief executive Dave Boddy and his Wasps counterpart Stephen Vaughan for keeping the door to a return open, especially when Coventry publicly announced plans to come back to the city and build another new stadium.

Mark Robins' first spell as Coventry City boss only lasted five months, but since his return in March 2017 he is now into his fifth year

"Now we don't have to be looking over our shoulders anymore," said Robins.

"A lot have worked very hard on the deal. People like Dave Boddy, Stephen Vaughan and the people at Wasps."

The modest Robins also needs acknowledging for the part he has played too, in restoring some pride on the pitch.

City were still unthinkably down in the fourth tier when he returned to the club for his second spell in charge in March 2017 - but the EFL Trophy Wembley win followed a month later, promotion in the League Two play-off final was achieved the following May and City went up for a second time in three seasons when the Covid pandemic ended the campaign early in 2020.

Perhaps, even more importantly, in their second season in Birmingham, they stayed up in the second tier last season, with relative comfort in the end.

"We've built a strong team who are together and give everything," added Robins. "That's all you can really ask but there's a bit of quality sprinkled in there. We've now had a year in the Championship. It should stand us in good stead if we can build on what we did last season."

Coventry's homes of football

• Highfield Road, Coventry: August 1899-May 2005

• Ricoh Arena, Coventry: August 2005-May 2013

• Sixfields, Northampton: July 2013-August 2014

• Ricoh Arena, Coventry: September 2014-May 2019

• St Andrew's, Birmingham: July 2019-May 2021

• Coventry Building Society Arena, Coventry: August 2021-

'We're coming home'

Some older Coventry City fans still hanker for Highfield Road, and were never actually that fond of their new home when they first moved into the Ricoh Arena.

But times change, and the mood is clearly different now.

Memories of the past at Sunday's game will be further enhanced by the public show of affection that the club have planned to mark the passing in July of their former player George Curtis, better known for being joint manager with John Sillett when City famously beat Tottenham to win the FA Cup in 1987.

That will make it even more of a special day to be 'coming home'.

But the last word on what it all means goes to the band of City supporters who spoke to BBC Midlands Today ahead of last Sunday's pre-season friendly with Wolves.

Coventry fans were delighted to be back in the city to watch the pre-season friendly with Wolves

"We had some cracking results at Birmingham," they said. "The only trouble was nobody saw them.

"It broke our hearts going to Northampton but we feel like we're back home now and, with a 10-year contract, we feel we're here to stay now.

"The last couple of seasons we haven't had a rugby club playing on the same pitch. We'll have to see what it looks like by Christmas.

"Two years and four months. It's been too long. We're coming home and we couldn't be happier."