Coventry City went agonisingly close to a return to the Premier League last season, denied by a heart-breaking penalty shootout in the Championship play-off final at Wembley Stadium – so near and yet so far from dining back at the top table of Engish football.
It’s been 22 long years since the Sky Blues brought an end to their proud 34 years in the top flight – a period many will remember more for great escapes than pushing for European competition. But back in the day the mighty City regularly held their own against the big guns of the division and, on more than a few occasions, upset the form book.
With the club under new ownership and seemingly on the up, albeit a work-in-progress after a big summer of transition, Sky Blues fans will be hoping Mark Robins can continue to work his magic and finally get City back to the Promised Land in the coming seasons. With that in mind, we decided relive a memorable game at Highfield Road with pictures and video when the Sky Blues humbled Liverpool with a crushing 5-1 win in 1992.
Bobby Gould already had history with the Reds, and not just that historic 1988 FA Cup triumph when he was Wimbledon boss. He’d also led the equally unfancied Coventry to a pre-Christmas 4-0 home victory during his first spell in charge.
New signing Micky Quinn was still firing on all cylinders but City’s defence was just as bad and as a result the Sky Blues had gone 11 games without a win – more than three months of action. Liverpool were not the side of old under Graeme Souness, instead experiencing a transition period with the likes of Jamie Redknapp, Steve McManaman and Rob Jones trying to maintain the Reds’ formidable standards.
To make matters worse for City, goalkeeper Steve Ogrizovic pulled out in the warm-up to be replaced by manager’s son Jonathan Gould to make his debut for the side.
Coventry were without the sparkling Peter Ndlovu, their main creator of chances, but Mick Quinn, Coventry’s Liverpudlian, still got his usual pair, making it eight in five matches, and so did Brian Borrows.
No wonder Bobby Gould, the manager of these 11 Sky Blues whose names will doubtless be etched into the consciousness of every home fan who was there on the club’s greatest day since they won the FA Cup from Tottenham in 1987, came on to celebrate, but it was to hug one of them in particular.
He did let one in but that was an unstoppable 30-yarder from Jamie Redknapp, who would have traded in that consolation goal for the two bookings, for charging down a free-kick and then body- checking Kevin Gallacher, that got him sent off. Redknapp’s shove on Lee Hurst as both players chased Robert Rosario’s through-ball, and some subsequent handling as they tumbled over, gave Coventry what was effectively their first chance of the match as the interval approached.
That was what was most surreal: Liverpool had had enough possession, and with it wrought enough havoc through Mark Walters and John Barnes on the fringe of a five- man midfield to have put the game beyond doubt in the first half-hour. But it was less that their finishing was found sorely wanting, more that the early shower of crosses found a Coventry defence, even shorn of the aerial presence of Andy Pearce, operating at its stingiest.
