Key events
25 min: That goal was thoroughly deserved. It was a fine move too: a long pass creamed down the left, Adebayo twisting his opponent’s blood, Clark taking a cute first touch that allowed him to slip into the box and shoot.
GOAL! Coventry City 0-1 Luton Town (Clark 23)
… and here it is! Doughty hits long down the left. Adebayo twists McFadzean instide and out, then cuts back for Clark, who steps into the box down the inside-left channel, and roofs into the top left! Wilson surprised at his near post!
22 min: Nothing comes of the corner, but Luton come again. Mpanzu has a whack from 20 yards, but the shot has the steam taken out of it by McFadzean and Wilson claims. A Luton goal feels on the cards.
20 min: Bidwell ships possession needlessly and gifts the ball to Mpanzu on the Luton right. Mpanzu swings it in for Morris, who fires goalwards from 12 yards. McNally does exceptionally well to deflect the shot over the bar for a corner.
18 min: With the obvious and grim exception of losing their captain Lockyer, Luton will be happy with the way the play has gone in these early stages. They’re by far the better and more proactive side.
16 min: Wilson, having already been involved in a couple of near-fiascos, claims a Luton corner with safe hands. That may settle him down.
14 min: The resulting free kick is headed out of play needlessly by Bell for Coventry’s first corner. Luton deal with it, and again go long. McFadzean attempts to head clear while Wilson tries to claim on the edge of the box. A poor header. Morris gets to the dropping ball and hooks past them both. Fortunately for Coventry the ball bumbles past the right-hand post of the unguarded goal.
12 min: What awful luck for Lockyer. A freak injury. He was running backwards and mid turn when he stumbled. It looked as though his studs caught in the turf, bending his leg awkwardly. Some serious damage done, he’s carefully loaded onto a stretcher and replaced by Burke. Wembley gives Lockyer a sympathetic ovation as he leaves.
10 min: The players are ushered away from Lockyer as the medics do their thing.
8 min: While Nakamba was busy fouling Hamer in the midfield – a garden-variety incident – Lockyer went down elsewhere, off the ball. Nobody around him. The stretcher is immediately called for.
7 min: That would have been a scruffy one from Coventry’s perspective. Lockyer beat Bidwell with ease, Norton-Cuffy was snoozing while Osho was alert, and Wilson was flapping. Promising early signs for Luton.
5 min: … Luton have a goal disallowed! The corner’s hit long by Clark. Lockyer wins a header, ten yards out, down towards the bottom right. Osho pokes home past a flailing Wilson, but the flag goes up correctly for offside. Osho by a leg. Coventry breathe again.
4 min: Lockyer launches a free kick long. Clark busies himself down the left and wins the first corner of the game. From which …
2 min: As Mark Robins expected, Luton are on the front foot quickly, pressing hard, all over the pitch. A hectic, shapeless start to the game as a result.
Luton get the ball rolling … and immediately launch it long through Horvath. Bell drives down the left but can’t barge his way into space. Coventry get their first touch.
The teams emerge from the Wembley tunnel. One hell of an atmosphere. Both sets of fans giving it everything they have. Sky blue and orange flags fluttering all over the shop. Beautiful bedlam! Coventry wear their sky blue shirts with vertical piping, Luton orange with white flashes, kits certain to give the older demographic a proper late-70s-infused Proustian rush. Won’t be long now!
Luton boss Rob Edwards talks to Sky. “It’s a really big game obviously … we felt that in the build-up, there’s no point hiding away from it … we have to remain calm … we have to play the way we want to play … the best version of us … it’s a different type of game, we know the stakes, but we’re only going to be successful if we do what we do and do it well.”
Coventry manager Mark Robins speaks to Sky Sports. “Hopefully it’ll be a tight game … we lost heavily to them at Kenilworth Road last year … we’ve drawn both games this season so that was a major step forward … they pose a huge threat … physicality but some really good quality as well … coached very well … this [warm and sunny] weather will dictate to a certain degree … they’re a pressing side … we have to try to impose ourselves on the game.”
On the subject of the CBS Arena, are the Coventry Building Society getting good bang for their buck? Your humble MBM hack can’t be the only one whose mind instantly drifts off to this …
… or maybe something like this? Their advertising recall metrics must be through the floor. Perhaps they should have stuck with the old Stourbridge, Lye & District Permanent Building Society branding. A bit of a mouthful perhaps, but at least you don’t go away thinking about 60 Minutes or The Byrds.
The form book makes good reading for Luton. They’re unbeaten in nine matches against Coventry, a run that stretches back to October 2017, when the Sky Blues won 3-0 at Kenilworth Road. Both teams won promotion from League Two that season, which illustrates how far these two clubs have come in a short space of time. Since then, Luton have beaten Coventry on four occasions – including a 5-0 rout in September 2021 – while five matches have ended in a draw. Both of this season’s games finished all square: a 2-2 draw at Kenilworth last September, when Luton were 18th and Coventry were rooted to the bottom of the Championship table, and a 1-1 draw at the CBS Arena in February.
Both teams are in If It Ain’t Broke mode. Having won the second leg of their play-off semi-final at Middlesbrough 1-0, Coventry select the same XI players who started that match today. Luton are also unchanged, in the wake of their 2-0 home victory over Sunderland.
The teams
Coventry City: Wilson, Norton-Cuffy, Bidwell, McNally, McFadzean, Doyle, Sheaf, Hamer, Allen, Kelly, Gyökeres.
Subs: Moore, Panzo, Wilson-Esbrand, Dabo, Godden, Eccles, Palmer.
Luton Town: Horvath, Lockyer, Bell, Osho, Drameh, Nakamba, Mpanzu, Clark, Doughty, Morris, Adebayo.
Subs: Shea, Potts, Berry, Burke, Campbell, Onyedinma, Taylor.
Preamble
Coventry City and Luton Town are responsible for two of the greatest cup finals in Wembley history. In 1987, Cov did this …
… then a year later the Hatters managed to pull off this …
… so if both clubs bring their A-games to the national stadium again, we’ll be in for a treat.
There’s no cup on the line this time, of course; promotion to the Premier League is today’s big prize. Coventry are looking to return to the division after a 22-year absence; Luton meanwhile have never played in it, getting themselves relegated from the top flight at exactly the wrong moment, the summer of 1992, and thus missing out on the new competition they’d had a hand as an old First Division club in creating. Since their respective relegations, both teams have been to hell and back, via Northampton, Birmingham and Burton upon Trent in Coventry’s case, the Football Conference in Luton’s. So in one sense, while the partial will demur, it really doesn’t matter who prevails today: a feelgood bounce-back fairytale is one way or another guaranteed. The final chapter of that story begins at 4.45pm BST. Best of luck to both the Sky Blues and the Hatters. It’s on!
