"Tie over 180 minutes" warns Coventry veteran...

[dutchman]

Liam Kelly is the only playing survivor from Coventry City's only previous play-off experience in 2018



Coventry City have come a long way in the five years since leaving League Two behind at Wembley in May 2018.

Skipper Liam Kelly, boss Mark Robins and assistant manager Adi Viveash are the only survivors of their 3-1 play-off final win over Exeter City.

The Sky Blues are now on another level, within sight of a return to English football's top flight for the first time in 22 years, following another crazy season which began without a pitch, and even left them briefly without a ground too before they found a timely new owner in Doug King.

But Kelly points to that last play-off experience as a valuable lesson worth remembering - to stay patient in any two-leg contest.

With three minutes left in 2018, playing the home semi-final leg first, the Sky Blues still trailed Notts County 1-0.

But a controversial 87th-minute Marc McNulty penalty equaliser turned the tide - and City went on to cruise to a 4-1 second-leg win at Meadow Lane before beating Exeter in the Wembley final.

"You can put yourself in a good position," 33-year-old Kelly told BBC CWR. "But things are not going to be decided just on this first leg.

"The tie is over 180 minutes and possibly more too.

"We went into that second leg as underdogs but we took a fantastic fan base with us and ended up winning 5-2 on aggregate.

"The most important thing is to just to get the crowd behind us in this first leg and give it a real good go."