A Coventry City fan who moved more than 100 miles away from his beloved team ended up in Dorset living on Highfield Road before relocating to Coventry Close.
“I can’t get rid of the Coventry connection,” said Sky Blues-mad John Lovegrove.
Highfield Road was the name of City’s original home ground, and his address there on the south coast had been pure coincidence, he said. But he addmitted to being more conscious of what he was doing when choosing his Coventry Close abode.
The supporter has lived in Dorset since 1998, making a round trip of more than 300 miles for every Sky Blues home game.
“There’s actually a lot of Coventry fans down here, mainly in Bournemouth,” the 76-year-old said. “But as far as I’m aware, I’m the only Sky Blues fan on Coventry Close.”
Lovegrove went to his first Coventry game when he was nine, when Jimmy Hill was the manager and said his favourite player then was George Hudson, whom he said “made it look so easy”.
Lovegrove had a season ticket for more than 20 years when he lived in Coventry and has one again – despite living 156 miles away – for the club’s new Premier League campaign.
“I car-share with my son and two others who live down here. We met them by accident at an away match in Plymouth. We sat next to them, got talking, found out we all had season tickets and started car-sharing. That was three years ago.”
Assuming he went to every game at the Coventry Building Society Arena in the last three years, Lovegrove has clocked up at least 20,700 miles doing the round trip.
As for his other fan credentials, he said he had seen every game City had played at Wembley bar one.
“I was there in 1987 for the FA Cup final, the Charity Shield the following year, the Checkatrade Trophy (2017), the Division 2 play-off final (2018) and the FA Cup semi-final against Manchester United.
“The only one I missed was the Championship promotion play-off against Luton, because I couldn’t get a ticket.”
However, despite his passion for the Sky Blues, he might not be able to make Coventry City’s first game in the Premier League for 25 years, when they face Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium on 21 August.
“I’m hoping to get to Arsenal, but I’m in the ballot for that. But my son Scott, he will be there.”
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