The Championship play-off final this season has a lot of novelty to it this year. In Luton Town FC and Coventry City FC, it has two clubs that were together in League Two as recently as 2018.
It is a testament to the work done at these clubs that they have risen through the ranks of the English Football pyramid so quickly. However, their joint presence in League Two in the 2017/18 season is where the similarities end.
Luton Town have never been in the Premier League. The Hatters got relegated in the 1991/92 season, just months before PL was born. Coventry City, however, are seasoned campaigners in the Premier League who got dragged into the wilderness and are now making a comeback.
The Sky Blues were a part of the founding members of the Premier League in the 1992/93 season. Since then, they played nine consecutive seasons in the Premier League, eventually getting relegated in the 2000/01 season, never to return. Including these nine years, Coventry City FC had spent 34 continuous years in top flight before their relegation.
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Coventry City Premier League record
Coventry City’s Premier League is underwhelming, but a lot of players who would go on to have great careers had their breakthroughs at Sky Blues.
Their record-high Premier League finish is 11th, which they achieved twice- in 1993/94, and 1997/98.
Besides these two seasons, Coventry City always was the club that flirted with relegation. Coventry City’s Premier League record has finishes of 16th (twice), 17th, 15th (twice), 14th, and 19th (in no particular order).
The 19th-placed finish came in the 2000/01 season when they got relegated.
Their golden years were when Dion Dublin led the line with aplomb. Dublin was the top goalscorer in the League for Coventry for four years consecutively (1994/95-1997/98). The 1997/98 season was the peak, when Dublin’s 18 league goals (Premier League record for Coventry City), saw the match their record-high finish of 11th.
Besides Dublin, they have had some iconic players in Premier League history like Craig Bellamy and Robbie Keane, who is now a member of Leeds United’s coaching staff with Sam Allardyce.
Coventry City’s record-high points tally in the Premier League is 56 for a 42-game season (1993/94), and 52 for a 38-game season (1997/98).