Doyle: I will not be giving shirt away if we win!
COVENTRY City skipper Michael Doyle admits he’ll be keeping a tight grip on his shirt if the Sky Blues are successful in securing promotion on Monday afternoon.
Mark Robins’ side sealed their place in the League Two Play-Off final where they will face Exeter City, having beaten Notts County 5-2 on aggregate.
After taking a 1-1 draw into the second leg, the Sky Blues recorded a memorable 4-1 win at Meadow Lane which sent the City faithful wild. During the after-match celebrations a number of City players gave their shirts away to fans, and with the club running low on stock it forced a new kit to be designed ahead of the trip to Wembley .
But club captain Doyle revealed that he’ll ‘cherish’ his shirt if they win, hoping to look at it with fond memories for years to come rather than be tempted to give it away as a souvenir.
“It’s a one-off shirt so I’ll be keeping hold of it and cherishing it if we win as it will be a really special occasion,” said the passionate skipper, who praised the impact the supporters have had on the team this season, hoping they get their reward at the final whistle.
“We’ve got to use them,” he went on. “We’ve been used to it all season – our fans have taken over every ground we’ve gone to this year and obviously it’s going to be another huge crowd on Monday and I just hope that we can reward them on the day.”
Doyle also hailed the number of tickets already sold for the trip to Wembley, with the figure currently sitting at just over 35,000 of the 40,000-seat allocation – something which he believes demonstrates the potential of the club.
“The fans couldn’t be prouder,” he said. “You only have to look at the ticket sales to see the expectation. When you join a big club like this you get to see the huge following.
“I think last year in the Checkatrade Trophy final it showed the potential of the football club and it’s the same this year.
“The plan when I came back was to try to bring the supporters back and we’ve seen that with the away following, and it has crept up at home too. Perhaps not as much as we would have liked but either way you can see from Friday’s game how much it meant to the people.
“Football clubs are built on results. When you are winning people want to be a part of that so we have to keep it going and help this club grow.”