COVENTRY CITY

Last season was our final one playing in someone else’s stadium, we hope. Fortunately, our expedition to the Championship wasn’t a day trip; five wins from our last eight means I can watch my own team, in our city, for the first time since 2019. This season will be different to last because with an extra year of Championship experience, Mark Robins will have his head around recruitment and we’ll be able to add some experience to the litany of rough diamonds we’ve amassed. Instead of going to the football last season I pedalled away my sorrows – one of the only hobbies that gives following a lower- league football team a run for its money in the time- consuming stakes. Our most underrated player is Julien Dacosta [ below]. After a comically bad debut, he became a useful full- back deputy. The opposition player I secretly

admire is David Mcgoldrick. His short spell with us a few years ago is one of the finest demonstrations of forward play we’ve seen since relegation from the Premier League.

The pantomime villain will be Tony Mowbray. His consistent failure to deliver is a fact he’ll be reminded of when Blackburn come to the Ricoh.

Save the date for West Brom away – it’s interesting to see how many our rivals will stick in the onion bag.

The ground I’m most looking forward to visiting is Kenilworth Road – through someone’s back garden and over a rickety staircase. Now that’s a real football ground.

Our key player will be Gustavo Hamer [ above]. We had to curb our Dutch midfielder’s enthusiasm for needlessly aggressive hacking, which might have crushed his spirit but did mean he actually spent more time on the pitch. The fans’ opinion of the gaffer is largely positive. A few murmurs started as we plummeted down the table last year, but keeping us up without much budget while playing in someone else’s ground was a good job by anyone’s standards.

We’ll finish in the middle third.