THE ONLY WAY IS CUP
Oggy hails Sky Blues’ rebirth under Robins
ANY mention of the FA Cup will be sure to bring back magical memories for Coventry fans of a certain vintage.
The Sky Blues head to Wolves today looking to reach their first semi-final since the year they went all the way.
That was 1987, when they lifted the Cup in one of Wembley’s greatest finals as they beat Spurs 3-2 on the day of Keith Houchen’s iconic diving header.
What a rocky road it has been since then, as legendary goalkeeper Steve Ogrizovic – part of that FA Cup-winning team during 16 years as a Sky Blues player – can testify.
Ogrizovic hung up his gloves in 2000 at which point Coventry had been in the top division for 33 successive years.
A year later, however, their time in the Premier League had come to an end and a catastrophic downward spiral followed.
“As a player all I knew was playing in the top flight – the old Division One and the Premier League,” said Ogrizovic.
“We had the downturn when we got relegated, but it’s always been a big and proud club and I always knew it would rise again.”
Along with relegation to League One, they suffered the ignominy of having to groundshare with Northampton for more than 12 months after a rent row with the owners of the Ricoh Arena.
The next devastating blow came when the club fell into liquidation. “From the moment Mark Robins (inset) came in there was an upturn in fortunes,” added Ogrizovic. Robins’ second spell in charge in 2017 saw the club sliding towards relegation to League Two. “Relegation was inevitable that year,” said Ogrizovic. “There was nothing Mark could have done about that. But I feel winning the EFL Trophy was the moment things changed – 45,000 people turned up at Wembley.
“For most people it was a meaningless final, but not to Coventry. The fans started to smile again and believe.
“We got promoted the year after from League Two and got another trip to Wembley where we won the play-off final.
“We had a year in League One to stabilise and then won promotion back to the Championship (in 2020).
“To have led the club from where they were to where they are now is the stuff dreams are made of when you’re a manager.”
By this point Coventry were playing at Birmingham’s St Andrew’s following a fresh stadium dispute and stayed until 2021.
“Mark has been very level headed,” added Ogrizovic. “He accepts some things are out of his control.
“He doesn’t outwardly show his frustrations and that transfers to the players on the pitch. It was very depressing when we had to leave the Ricoh and go to Birmingham but Mark didn’t make a lot of it.
“He said this will be our home and we’ll make it a fortress and that’s what happened.”
The purchase of the club by local businessman Doug King last year brought to an end Sisu’s contentious ownership and Robins took them within a whisker of a Premier League return.
They suffered penalty shoot-out heartbreak in the play-off final defeat by Luton, but are in contention once again despite losing star names Viktor Gyokeres and Gus Hamer.
“You can’t replace those players but you can make the whole team a little bit better,” said Ogrizovic.
“We lack Gyokeres’ 20 goals but we have goals from all over the pitch.
“There is a feel-good factor now. There’s a massive difference from 10 years ago.
“We’ve always had great fans. They are proud of this team and you will see that at Molineux, it will be a fantastic atmosphere.”