Luton Town Football Club is located in Bedfordshire and competes in the Football Championship, the second tier of the EFL system. Founded in 1885, the club is nicknamed "The Hatters", associated with the local "hat" industry located in the town, which specialised in making "Boaters", or what are known as "straw-plaiters".
The team plays its home matches at Kenilworth Road, where it has been based since 1905, affiliated to the Bedfordshire County FA. The club was perhaps most prominent between 1982 and 1992, when it was a member of English football's top division, at that time, the First Division; the team won its first major honour, the Football League Cup in 1988. Luton Town have a rivalry with nearby club Watford.
The club was the first in southern England to turn professional, making payments to players as early as 1890 and turning fully professional a year later. It joined the Football League before the 1897-8 season but left in 1900 because of financial problems, and rejoined in 1920. Luton reached the First Division in 1955-6 and contested a major final for the first time when playing Nottingham Forest in the 1959 FA Cup Final. The team was then relegated from the top division in 1959-60, and demoted twice more in the following five years, playing in the Fourth Division from the 1965-6 season. However, it was promoted back to the top level by 1974-5.
Luton Town's most recent successful period began in 1981-2, when the club won the Second Division. Luton defeated Arsenal 3–2 in the 1988 Football League Cup Final and remained in the First Division until relegation at the end of the 1991-2. Between 2007 and 2009, financial difficulties caused the club to fall from the second tier of English football to the fifth in successive seasons. The last of these relegations came during the 2008-9 seaosn, when 30 points were docked from Luton's record for various financial irregularities. Luton thereafter spent five seasons in Non-League before winning the Conference League in 2013-14, securing promotion back into the Football League. More success soon followed, with Luton being promoted from League Two in 2017-18 and League One in 2018-19. Luton now play in the Championship.
Coventry City Football Club plays in the Football League Championship, the second tier of the EFL System. The club is nicknamed the Sky Blues because of the colour of their home strip. Interesting!!
Coventry City formed as Singers F.C. in 1883, following a meeting between William Stanley and seven colleagues from the Singer Cycle Company at the Lord Aylesford Inn in Hillfields. It was one of several 19th century clubs linked to Coventry's bicycle factories, and the company founder george Singer was its first president. Singers joined the Birmingham County FA in 1884 and played around forty games in their first four years at Dowell's Field in the Stoke area. In early seasons they lacked a regular playing staff and sometimes lacked equipment such as goal nets. In 1887, the club moved to the larger Stoke Road Ground, which had rudimentary stands, and they charged an entrance fee for the first time. The following five seasons were very successful, culminating in back-to-back Birmingham Junior Cup titles in 1891 and 1892.
Singers turned professional in 1892 and joined the Birmingham and District League in 1894, competing against strong reserve sides from established regional teams such as Aston Villa. Coventry residents not connected to the cycle company began supporting the club, and it was renamed Coventry City in 1898.
They adopted their current name in 1898 and joined the Southern League in 1908, before being elected into the Football League in 1919. Relegated in 1925, they returned to the Second Division as champions of the Third Division South and Third Division South Cup winners in 1935–36, doing "The Double".
Relegated in 1952, they won promotion in the inaugural Fourth Division season in 1958–59. Coventry reached the First Division after winning the Third Division title in 1963–64 and the Second Division title in 1966– 67 under the management of Jimmy Hill. In the 1970–71 season, the team competed in the European Inter City Fairs Cup, reaching the second round. Despite beating
Bayern Munich 2–1 in the home leg, they had lost 6–1 in the first leg in Germany, and thus were eliminated.
Coventry's only period in the top division to date lasted 34 consecutive years between 1967 and 2001, and they were inaugural members of the Premier League in 1992. They won the FA Cup in 1987, the club's only major trophy, when they beat Spurs 3–2. They experienced further relegations in 2012 and 2017, though did manage to win the EFL Trophy in 2017.
Coventry returned to Wembley in 2018, beating EXETER CITY in the League Two play-off final. Manager Mark Robins built on this success guiding the Sky Blues to 8th in League One the next season and then led the club to promotion back to the EFL Championship as League One champions in 2020. In their first season back in the Championship, Robins guided the Sky Blues to a 16th-placed finish, 12 points clear of relegation. After occupying the play-off places for a large amount of the 2021-22 season, Coventry achieved a 12th-placed finish in its second season back in the Championship. In the 2022-3 season Coventry secured a play-off place in the Championship, after 1–1 draw against Middlesbrough on the final day of the season. This was the club's highest league finish in 17 years.
For 106 years, from 1899 to 2005, Coventry City played at Highfield Road. Their new 32,609 capacity Stadium was opened in August 2005 to replace Highfield Road, but the club has struggled with the new stadium lease since moving.
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