Picture it. It's October 2017, and Keanu Marsh-Brown has just put Forest Green Rovers on their way to winning at the Ricoh Arena in a League Two fixture against fallen giants Coventry City in the first ever meeting between the two sides.

One man out of the 6,000 inside the 32,000 seater stadium decides to take things into his own hands and enters the pitch to berate the players in sky blue mid-game, and subsequently gets banned for life.

Getting a lifetime ban almost seems the best way forward while your club, a proud top division club for over thirty years, languishes in League Two, losing to clubs that represent a Gloucestershire village of less people than were at the Ricoh Arena that Tuesday night - no disrespect to Rovers, who did the double over City that year which was their first ever campaign in the EFL.

Not in a million years did the supporters in the arena that night think they would be FA Cup semi finalists less than seven years on but on Sunday 21 April 2024, We'll Live and Die in These Towns by Coventry based band The Enemy drowned out Glory Glory Man United as the Sky Blue Army made a familiar journey for their fourth trip to Wembley in seven years.

And if it wasn't for VAR and Haji Wright's boots being slightly bigger than Aaron Wan-Bissaka's - and that is if the lines were even drawn correctly - the FA Cup script for the so-called ideal Manchester derby final was almost ripped up in the last minute of extra time by a man who was playing for a mid-table Norwegian league side in the first half of the season.

  • Ownership woes, stadium blows

It seemed almost ironic that United fans unveiled a "Glazers Out" banner ahead of the penalty shoot out. If anyone knows a thing or two about bad ownership it will be Coventry supporters.

Relegated from the Premier League in 2001, moved out of Highfield Road and into a new bowl in 2005 and sold to Sisu in 2007, fifteen minutes from collapse, the fairytale promised by the London hedge fund was not to play out. Ten years on from their acquisition, relegation to the basement of the Football League was confirmed. 

In a nutshell, home games were played in Coventry, Northampton, Birmingham and Burton during the previous owners' tenure in charge with countless protests, some even being led by local media, attempting to free the club from Seppala and co. A London rugby club took over the stadium and with no support from the council, the Sky Blue Army were stuck homeless.

January 2023 was when Sisu finally sold. 85% to businessman Doug King, who later bought out the final 15% three months on. Crowds returned as the sixteen year boycott ended and with the club on the up they were one kick away from the Premier League last time out.

  • "Robins is our King"

At all home games, a banner adorns the separation between home and away fans with a picture of the manager who has been at the helm since 2017 with the words "Robins is our King".

It's rare for a manager to be at a club for so long, especially in the higher echelons of the pyramid but sometimes things just fall into place - Mark Robins and Coventry City are the perfect match.

The former Manchester United striker had unfinished business in the West Midlands. He previously sat in the dugout for five months before leaving to join Huddersfield Town and lasted a year there before a spell at Scunthorpe United paved the way to rejoin a struggling sky blue outfit languishing at the bottom of League One.

A Wembley victory in the Checkatrade Trophy was a rare moment of joy in a season that ended in relegation but started the Robins reign. Twelve months later they were under the arch again, this time dismantling Exeter City in the League Two Play Off Final to secure promotion. 

Eighth was the finish for their first season back in the third tier before a second promotion under Robins was sealed a year on through the unconventional method of winning League One as points-per-game champions with twelve games to go due to the outbreak of Covid-19. 

Two Championship consolidation seasons had the Sky Blues in mid table before a remarkable turnaround in 2022/23 led to an eventual play-off final lost to Luton Town at the home of football despite sitting at the foot of the league in September.

The play-offs are slowly falling away from their grasp this season, however to reach a Semi Final of the FA Cup for only the second time in their 141 year history is something not to be overlooked in what was really a rebuild season.

  • Bringing a city together

Wasps Rugby really found out something when the rugby franchise relocated to Coventry - it's a football city. Only football has been able to unite a place that has history of rising from the ashes, a Phoenix on the famous badge symbolising the city rebuilt after being damaged by the Blitz in the early forties.

Those Rugby supporting people in the area still had a club to support too, Coventry Rugby Club fly the flag in the leagues - currently second in the Championship. There was no need for Wasps to be relocated to a place that already had a rugby club, and they ultimately paid the price.

From hats, flags and scarves being sold in the city centre, schools allowing children to wear their colours with pride on Friday and every corner of the city being a sea of sky blue, FA Cup fever had hit.

If you turn on the news now, there won't be much to smile about however when those teams walked out onto the hallowed Wembley turf, a city smiled and watched on with pride as eleven men took to the pitch representing all 350,000 residents, all the exiles and all of the EFL to end a week where the FA sucked the magic out of the cup by scrapping replays from next season on.

A 3-0 loss would have been fine, there were 23 Championship clubs who didn't reach this round, but Coventry City just don't know when to say die. The bounce-back ability, synonymous with the area, came through.

Ellis Simms got the goal they had all dreamt of. Flares were thrown onto the green grass of Wembley in celebration, but the Midlands outfit weren't done yet.

A massive deflection helped Callum O'Hare's effort in - another one of Mark Robins' super signings, joining on a free from Aston Villa while in League One and tipped to make the step up this summer - to bring the deficit down to one.

And with six minutes of extra time slowly counting down, the coolest man in North London - Haji Wright - stepped up when given the opportunity and tucked home a penalty to astonishingly force the cup tie into extra time.

The crossbar denied Simms before technology denied Torp but for 150 seconds, Coventry City had pulled off the impossible. There were tears of joy in the West End at Wembley as 36,000 went crazy however that joy was taken away when VAR disallowed the goal for the most marginal of offside decisions and the flashbacks to a year ago were too strong, penalties ending the City dream.

Questions will continue as to whether the offside was given correctly or not, why the line was drawn after Wright's foot but over Wan Bissaka's foot and why the frame chosen was before O'Hare had released the ball but to have even been in that situation is a testament to the heart and desire of everyone wearing sky blue in London on Sunday.

For the second round in a row they were written off by the pundits and the so-called football experts before a ball had been kicked, but not only did their fans bring the party but their players brought the class.

It was a cup run to be proud of and after years of pain, with Doug King and Mark Robins at the helm the only way is up for Coventry City Football Club.