Mark Robins scored one of the most famous goals in the history of Manchester United but is now in danger of becoming better known for something even more remarkable.
Robins — who scored for United at Nottingham Forest to help keep Sir Alex Ferguson in a job in 1990 — has been the manager of Coventry City for four and a half years.
During that time, the 51-year-old has taken them from the depths of League Two to third place in the Championship, a journey travelled against a background of financial difficulty that is remarkable even by the modern game’s standards.
Mark Robins (above) scored one of the most famous goals in the history of Manchester United but is now in danger of becoming better known for something even more remarkable
When Robins’s team won promotion from League One two seasons ago, they were not even playing in their own stadium. They were tenants at St Andrew’s, Birmingham. They were still there last season, too.
Now they are back home. The Coventry Building Society Arena (formerly the Ricoh Arena) is now owned by Wasps RFC but Robins and his team have thrived back in familiar territory. Last time out they beat the much-fancied and considerably wealthier Fulham 4-1 in front of 18,000 supporters.
‘I enjoyed playing football and I was good enough to play for United for a short spell,’ Robins told Sportsmail this week.
‘But I am old enough now that people have forgotten my playing career! And that’s fine.
Robins' first steps into management came with former side Rotherham United in 2007
The transition into management came after an impressive playing career - which saw him score over 100 goals in nearly 400 appearances in the Football League
‘It’s nice to remember (the goal) but it has gone. It’s important what you do next, not what you did before. I love this club. People want to talk to me about Coventry now and that’s great.’
To understand the scale of Robins’s achievement in the west Midlands, it’s necessary to understand the circumstances. The club’s decline since they were relegated from the top division after a 34-year residency in 2001 was such that they not only lost their stadium but also more than three-quarters of their paying fan base.
When they played at St Andrew’s for the first time, in League One in August 2019, just 6,500 turned up.
‘The biggest thing at that point was that the club was continuing to exist,’ he said. ‘You can always do something from that point. We actually had a really good record at Birmingham for two years.
‘But to come back to Coventry was paramount, as we feel now as though we can keep building it.’
Robins briefly managed Coventry in 2012-13 but left to join Huddersfield. When he returned four years later he could not prevent the club slipping into the bottom tier for the first time in their history. On the day they were relegated, supporters threw plastic pigs on to the field.
Robins briefly managed Coventry in 2012-13 but left to join Huddersfield (above). However, he returned to the club in March 2017 after a two-year spell at Scunthorpe United
However, less than a month earlier Coventry had been at Wembley to beat Oxford in the EFL Trophy final. It was then that Robins had a glimpse of what he may be able to achieve.
‘We had 45,000 fans there,’ he said.
