It’s two hours before kick-off against Sheffield Wednesday, and the eight-minute train from Coventry city centre to the CBS Arena is teeming with sky blue shirts. There are hundreds packed on – men and women, friends and family, octogenarians and young kids – although there are really only two types of Coventry fan: those old enough to have watched the 1987 FA Cup final, and those who’ve been told about it so much they feel like they did.
They step off the train into a flush of cold air under the South Stand. It is telling that the stadium is out here, tucked by the M6 and a big Tesco on the outskirts of town. Highfield Road was Coventry’s home for 106 years, and it sat among terraced houses like a stitch in the fabric of the city. By contrast, the Ricoh Arena, as it was known, was on the periphery, standing as a monument to Coventry’s plight.
