Coventry City and Sunderland have a bitter rivalry that stretches back to 1977, bragging rights are at stake

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Coventry City have a small mountain to climb in the second leg of their Championship play-off semi-final battle with Sunderland on Tuesday evening after a 2-1 defeat at the CBS Arena on Friday.

Milan van Ewijk’s late mistake allowed Eliezer Mayenda the opportunity to round Ben Wilson in the Sky Blues goal and hand the Black Cats the advantage heading into the return fixture at the Stadium of Light.

Wilson Isidor had given Regis Le Bris’ side the lead in the 68th minute before Jack Rudoni equalised almost immediately. But that error from Coventry’s wing-back will be replaying itself in Frank Lampard’s head if his side can come back and make their way to Wembley for the Championship play-off final.

The Sky Blues’ record against Sunderland is strong, but the two clubs’ history together goes much further than this season’s contests and there is much more than just a shot at promotion riding on the second leg.

Coventry City and Sunderland have a rivalry with one another that dates back to 1977

If the play-offs themselves were not a big enough reason for both sets of supporters to have a little bit of vitriol between them, then an incident that occurred in 1977 involving Jimmy Hill will only further intensify Tuesday’s second leg.

On the final day of the 1976/77 campaign, both Coventry and Sunderland were fighting against relegation from the First Division with the Sky Blues welcoming Bristol City to Highfield Road – who also were looking for a point to survive.

Traffic around the ground saw Hill, who was then the owner of the West Midlands outfit, ask for permission to delay kick-off, and with a decent portion of their game still to go, word started to spread that Sunderland had been beaten 2-0 by Everton.

Coventry allowed the visitors back into the game after going 2-0 up themselves, and they played out a 2-2 draw that allowed both teams to survive, leaving the Wearsiders incredibly angry and sparking a feeling of conflict between the two teams.

Sunderland will see Tuesday as an opportunity to right the wrongs of 1977

Despite Sunderland’s poor Championship play-off record, they hold the advantage heading into the second leg and Le Bris will be keen for supporters to make the Stadium of Light a cauldron of noise on Tuesday evening as they await the visit of Coventry.

Many Black Cats supporters will still hold bitter memories of those events in 1977, and this play-off campaign will be seen as an opportunity to put some of that anger and frustration to bed.

However, Lampard’s side will be poised for a battle and they know that an early goal will see them straight back into contention. The 46-year-old has been in the same position before, and he will not be willing to go down without a fight.

Nonetheless, both teams know what is at stake and they can ill-afford to let the battles in the stands impact the task that they have at hand.