The protest at the match against Cardiff on Wednesday has to be deemed a real success in as much as it united the fans of Coventry and Cardiff and gained national attention for the plight of both clubs via the Sky cameras and pundits.
Locally it was well covered by Central and the BBC and the Coventry Telegraph devoted more column inches to the protest than to the game itself – possibly because the protest was more exciting!
In front of only 900 Coventry supporters inside Sixfields, 359 Cardiff supporters and 146 Coventry fans on the Hill the 35th minute protest was well supported by all. Nearly a thousand leaflets were handed out prior to the game and many were taken into the stadium. The attitude of the vast majority of Coventry fans entering Sixfields was one of support for the work of the Trust and a sincere hope that we are making a difference. It just brought home the fact that we are in fact all simply supporters of Coventry City who are showing our support in differing ways in the face of a farcical situation. Hopefully soon we will all be back together at the Ricoh doing what we do best – cheering on the team (and obviously moaning about individual players, tactics, managers etc!)
On 35 minutes Daniel our piper played the Last Post followed by a loud rendition of We Want To Go Home, Let Down By The Football League and They’ll Always Be Blue (For the Cardiff fans) from all.
A massive thank you to all who participated, those on the hill, those inside the stadium and especially those who had made the trip from Cardiff. They are also facing a ridiculous situation with their traditional team colours and badge being changed without any consultation simply because their foreign owner thinks red is lucky and dragons are magic! So to our friends in Wales we say “Diolch yn fawr” and can we have Ben and Aron back please. The bond between clubs that have been let down was exemplified by the amazingly generous gesture from one Cardiff fan who donated £50 to the Trust Fighting Fund.