Sky Blues boss Mark Robins heaped praise on his “phenomenal” side, who got exactly what they needed on the final day.
Reaching the play-offs is an outstanding achievement in itself for a side who were relegated from the Premier League in 2001 and have since faced a financial crisis, a season in the fourth tier, and that’s not to mention a stadium share with Birmingham!
This season started in strife too, with pitch issues seeing Coventry begin the season with seven straight winless games, six of which away from home!
The Sky Blues’ first win came at home to none other than Middlesbrough (1-0), a result which proved to be a seminal moment in Boro’s season too, as it ended the tumultuous Chris Wilder reign with the club languishing in 22nd.
Enter Michael Carrick, a then-untested manager who has earned national plaudits for taking Middlesbrough from a relegation scrap to securing a top-six finish with three games to spare.
Carrick admitted that the last few games “haven’t really mattered”, but has praised his men for dealing with the mental challenge regardless (D1, L2).
They’ll have to turn the style back on as they look to better their playoff ‘semi-final’ exit in 2017, although these are not happy hunting grounds for Boro, as they’ve won just one away game against Coventry since 2006 (W1, D2, L4)… and that was at St. Andrew’s.
Players to watch: Coventry’s Dutch dynamo Gustavo Hamer notched his seventh goal contribution across his last five games with an impressive match opener on the final day (G3, A4).
It didn’t take too long for Boro’s Cameron Archer to respond with a goal in that game and he’s really testing the footballing adage of ‘never fall in love with a loan player’, after hitting 17 goal contributions in just 20 league appearances for the club (G11, A6).
Hot stat: Two or fewer goals were scored in eight of the last ten Championship play-off semi-final first-leg games whilst seven games in that sequence saw just one side score.
