MEANWHILE IN THE SECOND TIER \u2026<\/p>\n
Very few football fanbases have experienced a more dramatic decade than supporters of Coventry City. Nine years ago, the club slipped into League Two in front of four-digit crowds at the cavernous Ricoh Arena. They managed to rebound under Mark Robins, despite constant uncertainty under owners Sisu, and a spell in exile at Birmingham City\u2019s ground for their Championship<\/a> return in 2020. Three years later, a playoff final between two comeback clubs went the way of Luton, on penalties. And last season, the chief suit, Doug King, decided to replace Robins with Frank Lampard, an unpopular decision justified by a push for promotion that ended in an unlucky playoff semi-final defeat to Sunderland.<\/p>\n There seemed to be little chance of repeat heartache this term, with Coventry kicking off in a stadium they finally owned and launching a ferocious, goal-packed assault on the Championship summit. When they saw off promotion rivals Middlesbrough \u2013 who had just lost manager Rob Edwards to Wolves \u2013 with a 4-2 win at the Riverside in November, they were 10 points clear of a pack led by Robins\u2019 Stoke City, having scored 47 goals in 17 games. December\u2019s 3-0 defeat at resurgent Ipswich looked like a bump in the road, but since Boxing Day, Coventry have taken two wins from eight games and the goals have dried up. Saturday\u2019s goalless draw<\/a> at home to 10-man, relegation-threatened Oxford was a textbook case of a team buckling under promotion pressure. \u201cWe were very good up to the last bit,\u201d sighed Lampard afterwards. Unfortunately, that\u2019s the bit that counts.<\/p>\n As for Boro, they made the bold decision to replace Edwards with Hammarby\u2019s Kim Hellberg, trusting the then-37-year-old coach to keep their promotion bid on track. Hellberg won his first four games in charge and, despite a dip in form over Christmas, they have now won six more in a row after Monday\u2019s 2-1 victory at Sheffield United. In an open, entertaining first half<\/a>, the visitors struck twice in clinical fashion through Tommy Conway and Riley McGree, who invited the Blades faithful<\/a> to put a sock in it after instinctively heading home on the rebound. The hosts\u2019 second-half fightback was sunk by Joe Rothwell\u2019s hilariously bad challenge<\/a> 10 minutes from time, the substitute shown a red card that not even Chris Wilder was going to argue with.<\/p>\n Victory puts Middlesbrough on top of the table with their next fixture \u2013 gasp \u2013 away to Coventry next Monday! With the FA Cup fourth round coming up, it\u2019s indisputably England\u2019s biggest league fixture of the long footballing weekend. It also offers a chance for the chasing pack to gain further ground \u2013 Ipswich, Hull and Millwall are all within six points of Lampard\u2019s stumbling Sky Blues. The race for the playoffs, meanwhile, makes the automatic promotion chase look predictable. Wrexham are currently sixth but there are nine teams within five points of them, with 15 games left to go. When it comes to late-season drama, twists and unbearable tension, the Championship remains in a league of its own.<\/p>\n LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE<\/p>\n Join Will Unwin at 7.30pm (all times GMT) for Premier League clockwatch updates, while Scott Murray will be on hand at 8.15pm for minute-by-minute coverage of West Ham 1-1 Manchester United.<\/p>\n QUOTE OF THE DAY<\/p>\n \u201c[They will be used] to support police with initial intervention to protect the physical safety of officers in case of any altercation\u201d \u2013 the mayor of Guadalupe introduces Waldog, one of four robodogs that will be deployed to help police tackle hooligans in Geopolitics World Cup matches in Mexico. And you thought the tournament couldn\u2019t get any more dystopian.<\/p>\n Sit! Photograph: Municipality of Guadalupe\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Re: \u2018Late but well worth it\u2019 (yesterday\u2019s last line, full email edition). Hold-ups on the line. An agonisingly slow tube journey. Dad and I arriving at Brisbane Road well after kick-off on 8 September 1962. Proudly kitted out in my blue scarf knitted by mum, with my blue rattle carpentered by dad (yes, we played in blue then). Barely time to grab a rosette, a hot dog and a bag of roast chestnuts. \u2018Hurry up son,\u2019 says the friendly turnstile man. \u2018You don\u2019t want to miss this one.\u2019 Nearly 25,000 standing fans crammed into the tiny ground, but generously parting to allow us to move nearer the pitch. Still 0-0 at half-time, Denis Law kept at bay. Floodlights now casting lengthening shadows in the smoky, onion-scented air, cigarettes twinkling across the pitch. Eighty-nine minutes, still no score, then Orient winger Terry McDonald grabs the goal that consigns him to the local pantheon and Matt Busby\u2019s boys to a 1-0 defeat. We may have ended up one-season wonders, but what a day that was\u201d \u2013 Max Maxwell.<\/p>\n Erling Haaland, Patron Saint of First World Problems, was right to dedicate the win at Anfield to long-suffering City fans cheering \u2018week in, week out\u2019 (yesterday\u2019s News, Bits and Bobs, full email edition). To put their almost-18-month trophy drought into context, a child born the day they won the 2024 Community Shield would today have only marginally more hair and decorum than Ian Holloway\u201d \u2013 Rowan Sweeney.<\/p>\n Mike Kilner was the only person who bothered to write a letter (yesterday\u2019s Football Daily letter<\/a>) and still didn\u2019t win letter o\u2019 the day. Maybe if this letter is published and wins the letter of the day, he can live vicariously through me\u201d \u2013 Nigel Sanders.<\/p>\n If you have any, please send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com<\/a>. Today\u2019s prizeless letter o\u2019 the day winner is \u2026 Max Maxwell. Terms and conditions for our competitions, when we run them, are here<\/a>.<\/p>\n RECOMMENDED LOOKING<\/p>\n It\u2019s David Squires on \u2026the chaos at Anfield<\/a> as Manchester City stayed in the title chase.<\/p>\n He\u2019s no Waldog. Illustration: David Squires\/The GuardianMEME MACHINE<\/p>\n Far be it for Football Daily to criticise those who take cheap shots but over at Chelsea, the Liam Rosenior situation \u2013 as predecessor Glenn Hoddle might term it \u2013 has given pause for thought. A young, English manager given a Big Six chance? Hurrah, right? Not if you should veer into social media disgraces\u2019 gallery of memes and mockery, often with a distinctly unpleasant slant. \u201cI\u2019m not afraid to be myself,\u201d said the perfectly reasonable Rosenior<\/a>, perfectly reasonably, while sounding a warning to the pile-on merchants that those who don\u2019t put themselves in the firing line are also affected. \u201cThe reason I know this is because I\u2019ve got teenage children,\u201d he added before Tuesday\u2019s game against Leeds. \u201cThey\u2019re on social media [disgraces]. It affects them. It affects my parents, it affects my family. But I knew walking into this job it was going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n RECOMMENDED LISTENING<\/p>\n Faye Carruthers is joined by Suzanne Wrack and the Women\u2019s Football Weekly pod squad to discuss Arsenal\u2019s statement win over Manchester City<\/a>, dramatic comebacks at the bottom of the WSL and another weekend of shifting momentum.<\/p>\n NEWS, BITS AND BOBS<\/p>\n Chelsea have announced the shock exit<\/a> of their influential head of women\u2019s football, Paul Green.<\/p>\n Arne Slot says he is enduring by far the most gruelling season of his managerial career and it would be unacceptable if Liverpool miss out on the Bigger Cup places. \u201cBy a mile,\u201d he sighed<\/a>. \u201cBecause all the other seasons I\u2019ve managed there were only positives, I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever lost two games in a row [before this season].\u201d<\/p>\n Jack Grealish says he \u201cdidn\u2019t want the season to end like this\u201d after confirming he has had surgery on a foot stress fracture-knack. \u201cSurgery done and now all [my] focus is on getting back fit,\u201d he roared from his hospital bed.<\/p>\n Pep Guardiola reckons the gap to Arsenal feels a lot more than it actually is because Arsenal\u2019s machine is so well oiled. \u201cThe distance is not huge but considering how Arsenal is doing six points is a lot,\u201d he whistled.<\/p>\n And Bayern Munich are locked in red-hot chats with Harry Kane over a contract extension, though nothing has been inked yet. \u201cWe are in intensive talks with Harry, then the next steps will follow,\u201d blathered sporting director Max Eberl. \u201cI can\u2019t comment on the rumours circulating that someone is preparing anything [a transfer bid for Kane].\u201d<\/p>\n MOVING THE GOALPOSTS<\/p>\n In the latest edition of our sister email, USA! USA!! USA!!! captain Lindsey Heaps explains why <\/a>she loves Women\u2019s Big Cup and why OL Lyonnes need greater competition domestically.<\/p>\n Lindsey Heaps smiles for the cameras. Photograph: Alexandre Bagdassarian\/The GuardianSTILL WANT MORE?<\/p>\n Turns out Casemiro was actually a good signing for Manchester United. Now, how do they replace him<\/a>, asks Dominic Booth.<\/p>\n Gianni Infantino\u2019s association with Donald Trump and advocating of Russia\u2019s return to international football will make for an uncomfortable pow-pow with Uefa suits this week, writes Nick Ames<\/a>.<\/p>\n David Moyes enjoyed his London visit at the weekend, now if only Everton could make their spanking new stadium a fortress. Andy Hunter on the home discomforts<\/a>.<\/p>\n