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Being a Coventry fan used to mean chaos and pain – now it’s time to celebrate

Q ueueing at the luggage drop at Sydney airport in Australia in 2017, I glanced around and wondered whether any other expats were as desperate as I was. To watch a game of football I was embarking on a 21,000-mile round trip to the UK and sacrificing a few thousand pounds – not to mention my environmental conscience. This wasn’t just any game, of course. This was the Checkatrade Trophy final between Coventry City and Oxford United.

The journey made sense, I reassured myself: Coventry’s last appearances at Wembley came in 1987 when I was four years old and not yet a supporter, and the club had spent recent seasons flirting with extinction. If I wanted to see the Sky Blues at Wembley, alongside my dad, this would be my only chance.

How wrong I was. We are heading back to Wembley together on Saturday for the third time in six years, with Coventry seeking promotion to the Premier League via the Championship playoff final against Luton Town. The club has enjoyed a stupefying rise against a backdrop of chaos.

I cannot yet forgive the club’s previous owner Sisu, and more recently Otium, for their irresponsible behaviour which sank the club and forced us to play our home games in stadiums miles from Coventry. Nor for their rent strikes which caused Coventry City Council and the Higgs charity, co-owners of “our” home stadium, to sell it to Wasps rugby club in 2014. Nor for their inertia when Wasps collapsed last year, allowing Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group to swoop for the stadium. But I am ready to bury the hurt.

Our manager, Mark Robins, has restored pride and positivity. It’s time to celebrate the good within our club.

The shoots of optimism started that day in 2017 when we took more than 40,000 fans to Wembley and won 2-1.

Read more on theguardian.com