City have pulled off several Houdini acts before, look back at some of them ahead of the crucial last day shoot-out against the Red Devils at the Broadfield Stadium…
Coventry City take on Crawley Town at the Broadfield Stadium in SkyBet League One on Sunday and there is so much on the line for both teams.The Sky Blues need just a point to secure their League One status, whilst the Red Devils need a result of their own.
City are synonymous for their last day escapes and here are some of the best, starting with a game which Steve Ogrizovic called 'the best performance of my career.'
96/97: The Great Escape at Spurs
It looked bleak for the Sky Blues when they had to go to Tottenham on the last day of the season having to win to send Sunderland down at their expense.
But that's exactly what happened. Goals from Dion Dublin and Paul Williams gave City a two goal lead. Spurs pulled a goal back, but a staunch rearguard action from club legend Steve Ogrizovic kept City's lead alive. He pulled off save after save as the Sky Blues held on for another season of Premier League football.
76/77: Highfield Road Madness
Once again City got a result in a game that they had to and once again they sent Sunderland down as a result! The Sky Blues were at home to Bristol City and just needed a draw, their game kicked off ten minutes late due to crowd congestion.
Bristol City were 2-0 up and things were looking grim, however it was enough for the Robins as they only needed a draw to survive. Then news filtered through that Sunderland lost 2-0 and that sparked City into life. They pulled two goals back to the delight of the home crowd.
The final few minutes involved little action as both teams had a result that would see them safe and City pulled off another miracle act once more.
84/85: Three Perfect Games
In Steve Ogrizovic's first season, City struggled in the first division. However even by the Sky Blues' standards they managed to pull themselves to safety in the most incredulous of circumstances. We'll let Oggy explain the story in his own words…
"That first year I had was incredible. In those days not all matches finished on the same day at the same time. Over Easter we had a massive sickness bug so at the end I think Norwich were third bottom and everyone else had finished at the bottom apart from us. We were eight points away from safety, we had to win all three games to survive and we won all three.
"We played Luton in the first game and beat them 1-0 at Highfield Road, Brian Kilcline scored with five minutes to go, Luton were decent then as well so that was a great day. The second was away to Stoke who had got relegated so we thought we had a chance. Stuart Pearce scored and they missed a penalty. I tell people I saved it and put Ian Painter off! I dived low left he hit it high right and ironically we brought him at the end of that season!
"That meant we had a Sunday morning game at Highfield Road against a fantastic Everton side who were champions and who had all the top players of the mid 80’s. People didn’t give us a chance.
"Highfield Road was rocking and we were on a roll, we were at them from minute one and got a 2-0 lead quite early, hung on for a bit, but won 4-1 and it has got to be the greatest escape anyone has ever done."