Mark Robins
Where to start? In reality, I could dedicate 3000 words to the brilliance of Coventry; from responding to a 5-0 thrashing in midweek, to turning the game on its head in the space of five second-half minutes. From turning Viktor Gyokeres into one of the Championship’s deadliest marksmen to making it six wins out of six home league games since returning to the city and the CBS Arena.
But all the credit can be rather aptly – on a day of high precipitation in the Midlands – put under Mark Robins’ umbrella. No manager currently active in the English game has transformed a side this demonstrably and dramatically. In that way, Robins is the best manager in the EFL. His Sky Blues side embody everything he is: hard working with flair and expertise in all the right places.
Robins returned to the club at their lowest ebb in 2017 and has taken Coventry from League Two and spiralling to soaring at the top end of the Championship. It took a recovery of a similar scale to bounce back from losing 5-0 at Luton in midweek and trailing the Cottagers at the break. It would have been easy to cede that perfect home form and accept back-to-back defeats, but that would be to defy what Robins stands for, and in turn, what this team stands for.
Fulham were their own worst enemy – and that caveat will be addressed in the latter half of the column – but Coventry took absolute advantage of the mistakes being played out before them, closing down on a Fulham backline who were not capable of playing with the ball at the back. In every way that Fulham got it wrong, Coventry got it oh so right. In midweek, we wrote that whether it was 1-0 or 5-0, it was still only three points dropped. But in winning 4-1, Coventry almost repaid that goal difference back too. There is just very little this side can do wrong. There is nothing Robins can do wrong. Coventry are not only dreaming; they are on cloud nine.