Coventry City will be playing Premier League football for the first time in 25 years next season after securing promotion from the Championship.
The Sky Blues, , achieved the feat on Friday night with a 1-1 draw at Blackburn Rovers.
Bobby Thomas was the visitors’ hero after scoring their equaliser in the 84th-minute at Ewood Park to seal their future top-flight status.
Coventry were relegated from the Premier League during the 2000-01 season – a fate that befell them more than 9,100 days ago.
After spending 11 years in the Championship, they were relegated to League One and fell into administration in 2013. The intervening 13 years have been ardouous but now they will feel they’re back where they belong.
Frank Lampard’s side are 10 points ahead of second-placed Ipswich with three games to go, but the Tractor Boys have a game in hand.
And Lampard has challenged his players to go on and clinch the title after their ‘special night’ at Blackburn.
‘Emotional’ Frank Lampard: Coventry deserve to win the league
‘This is a special night for the football club, which is bigger than all of us.
‘That could not be more clear than when you saw the fans at the end of the game. This club has suffered for 25 years since we’ve been out of the Premier League and that journey going down, playing at different stadiums.
‘Credit to everyone involved in those tough years. Mark Robins, of course, he has to have a massive shout-out, and it’s just such a massive achievement from everyone involved.
‘I’m more emotional than I thought I would be and the final whistle just caught me. It just dawned on me then what this achievement means to our fans.
‘Winning the Champions League with Chelsea was the best night of my life, but this comes very, very close.
‘The players have got to enjoy tonight and we’re off tomorrow. They don’t drink as much as we do, but Tuesday and Portsmouth will come very quickly and I don’t want any anti-climax. These boys deserve to win this league.’
