Birmingham-Coventry: Blues 'fighting for their lives', says Sky Blues boss Mark Robins
Last updated on .From the section Coventry
It is only three years ago that Coventry City were playing their home games in Birmingham - at St Andrew's.
When they first moved in for their two-season stint in the second city, the homeless Sky Blues were in League One - a tier lower than their landlords.
When they return there this Saturday, promotion-chasing Coventry have a chance to hasten troubled Birmingham's apparent descent towards tier three.
"We're all in the game for points," Sky Blues boss Mark Robins told BBC CWR.
"They helped us out when we needed to be helped out. We will always be grateful to them for that.
"In our first season there we got promoted back to the Championship, followed by the Covid season.
"But there are no easy games. We'll be going all out to get the three points, as will they."
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The Birmingham-Coventry derby comes at a key time of the season for both clubs, who are chasing points for quite different reasons.
FA Cup semi-finalists Coventry, a week away from their big Wembley date with Robins' old paymasters Manchester United, are in seventh, five points adrift of Norwich City, with a game in hand.
But Blues are in freefall, having lost eight of their 10 games since Tony Mowbray went on sick leave to drop to 23rd - and both his assistant Mark Venus, and now interim boss Gary Rowett, have failed to lift the dressing room.
Robins studied Blues' home defeat by Cardiff City on Wednesday night and sympathised. It was only nine days earlier that he had also seen the Welsh side leave the CBS Arena with all three points too.
"They had a difficult evening against Cardiff," he said. "But Birmingham are only losing games by the odd goal.
"They have some really good players but they have had so many changes of manager.
"It looked like they were turning the corner when Tony went in - and they seem not far away from getting decent results.
"It should be a really good atmosphere. It'll be noisy but we're not unused to that.
"They're fighting for their lives but I actually think they'll be all right. I just hope it's after tomorrow."
While Blues' hopes may well depend more on successive away Saturday visits to Yorkshire to face already-relegated Rotherham and then their main rivals for the drop Huddersfield, Robins is also looking forward, not back, after a luckless midweek defeat at Southampton.
"A point would have been good after picking up three points against Leeds, just to keep on the coat tails of Norwich," he said.
"But you've just got to park it and move on."
Coventry City boss Mark Robins was talking to BBC CWR's Rob Gurney
