In seven years in the job, many of those in trying circumstances, Mark Robins has guided Coventry to two promotions, the Football League Trophy and, last season, to within a Wembley penalty shootout of the Premier League. This, however, was arguably his greatest feat yet, leading Coventry into the FA Cup semi-finals for the first time since the club won the competition in 1987. No wonder some supporters consider his work worthy of a statue. Now they are heading back to the national stadium, after defeating Wolves in a tantalising tie, decided in the 100th minute by a magnificent, unerring finish by Haji Wright.
But then Robins, so often serenity personified in the eye of a storm, allowed the occasion to get the better of him, running to celebrate wildly in the face of a 13-year-old Wolves ballboy to the left of the away dugout. Gary O’Neil, the Wolves manager, waited to confront Robins about his “disgusting” behaviour, an unedifying episode that tarnished the most joyous moment. Robins had been irked when the teenager smirked after dropping the ball to delay a restart moments before Wright’s intuitive brilliance clinched a spot in the final four.
