8 episodes
Who were these two Coventry sides and how did they end up at Wembley? The 1987 squad built on passion and belief. The 2017 squad built on survival. Set the scene, introduce the characters, and ask the question the whole season answers: what does a trophy actually mean?
Sillett and Curtis built something against the odds in 1987. Robins stabilised a club in freefall in 2017. Both men took over squads that needed belief more than tactics. A double portrait of management under pressure — and what happens when it works.
The cup runs happened inside full league seasons. How did each side balance the distraction — and what did their league form reveal about their real quality? This episode grounds both Wembley stories in the messy reality of a 46-game season.
Round by round through both cup runs — the upsets, the close calls, the moments where it nearly ended. In 1987, giant-killing. In 2017, grinding past League One opposition with a League Two squad. Two very different roads to the same stadium.
Deep profiles on the players who defined each run. Keith Houchen's overhead kick is one of the great FA Cup final moments. In 2017, different heroes — players most neutral fans had never heard of, playing the best football of their careers in front of 40,000 Sky Blues.
1987: Thatcher's Britain, Coventry's car industry in decline, Highfield Road packed with people who needed something to cheer. 2017: post-SISU, the CBS Arena dispute, a fanbase that had been through a decade of betrayal. Football as civic identity — what it meant to the city each time.
Both finals, minute by minute. The atmosphere, the tension, the goals, the aftermath. This is the emotional centrepiece of the whole season — the episode you have been building to since episode one. Houchen's header. The final whistle in 1987. And thirty years later, 40,000 Sky Blues in the same stadium for a very different kind of final.
The season finale. Return to the question asked in episode one and answer it properly. 1987: the FA Cup won, but no dynasty followed — the club went sideways for a decade. 2017: the Checkatrade won, but the real prize was survival and belief. What did each trophy actually deliver — and what does that tell us about what football is for?