How big a derby is Coventry for us Villa fans?

[Handsworth Wood Villa]

Just wondering how us Villa fans would rank Coventry in terms of our derby rivals.

From what I gather, Coventry hate us with a passion (i.e. they still sing SOTV) and they see us as their no.1 rivals (although since we haven't played them for so long they have developed a rivalry with Leicester.)

I think most Villa fans would agree that Blues is our main derby followed by the Albion.

But then Wolves isn't really a massive West Midlands derby is it (doesn't seem to mean to much to either club) so would you say that Cov is a bigger derby than Wolves?

Would you ever find Wolves fans singing like the Coventry fans in these two videos:

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I'd love to face them in the FA Cup or Carling Cup next season.

Everyone loves a derby don't they?

[Greg N'Ash]

coventry aren't really rivals. its just that all our local rivals were so bad in the 80's and 90's they were the nearest playable team by default

[Dave Cooper please]

It's about as big a rivalry as Berwick Rangers Vs Wick Academy.

[luke25]

They don't even register as far as I'm concerned, could'nt tell you were they are in the championship or name 5 players that currently play for them, a totally insignificant club.

[willywombat]

They don't even register as far as I'm concerned, could'nt tell you were they are in the championship or name 5 players that currently play for them, a totally insignificant club.

Exactly how I feel about them, they're a complete irrelevance

[Mellin]

I actually quite like them, which says it all.

[cdbearsfan]

In the region I most dislike...

1 Birmingham City
2 Stoke City
3 Wolverhampton Wanderers
4 Leicester City
5 West Bromwich Albion

... the other Midlands clubs I tend to hope do well.

Could not give a flying fuck about Coventry.

[eamonn]

There's been more Cov threads in the last week since that joker offered Gregory a pen to sign-on the next morning after Robbie Keane (predictably) sunk us in Nov '01(?).

[AV82EC]

Who?

[Vancouver]

We think nothing of them but everytime we go there, they turn out for us. It can get quite hairy down there if you nonchalantly wonder about because you're villa. I've seen it kick off many times with random attacks so now I hate them as much as they hate us

[Californian Villain]

Q. How big a derby is Coventry for us Villa fans?

Is this a trick question? The answer is that it isn't a derby at all.

[DeKuip]

It's not a derby, they just don't like us - and to be fair I can see why they don't.

Their hatred of us was borne 35 years ago this very week on April 13th 1976.

For the benefit of our younger fans...
In the mid-to-late 1960s the top clubs in the Midlands were Coventry, Wolves and Albion - they were the First Division clubs at the time football on TV became really popular with Match of the Day on Saturdays and regional highlights on Sunday afternoons. Coventry (with Ernie Hunt and Willie Carr), Wolves (Dougan, Wagstaffe) and Albion (Jeff Astle) were on Star Soccer all the time, while the likes of Villa and Blues were both struggling at the wrong end of Division Two and only got the occasional showing.
Villa Park was known as the Hall of Memories, and we were written off as a club on its way down and out, while Jimmy Hill's Coventry were seen as the future.

But there was a stirring in Aston - the Villa would rise again. Back we came from the Third Division with record crowds and massive away followings. In 1975-76 we returned to the top division and faced Coventry for the first time ever at that level. We won 1-0 at home early season, no big deal, and then on Tuesday 13th April came the Highfield Road return - we took over the place. It was pay on the gate back then and there were Villa fans everywhere. The dead and buried old club from up the road was back and Cov were just gobsmacked by the kind of support we had. Attendance 27,500 with at least 15,000 Villa in there.

That was the start of it. We carried on taking over their ground and carried on beating them. We went 24 First Division games unbeaten against them and along the way won the League Cup, league title and European Cup. It wasn't until the 25th meeting in 1988 that they finally beat us - and you'd think they'd won the European Cup themselves that day!

I think that's pretty much why they got the hump with us. Not forgetting also that it was us who relegated them and ended their 34 year run in the top division.

Another thing about Villa at Highfield Road - in 1979 we played a League Cup 3rd round 2nd replay there against Crystal Palace. No more than several hundred Palace fans made it up for the midweek game but the crowd was 25,445 (3,000 more than Cov's average). That's around 24,000 Villa fans at an away midweek game in the early rounds of the League Cup - not a bad effort.

[Hillbilly]

I've been told that they have a split personality. Fans from the city and up along the A45 hate us. Fans from the hinterlands of Warks hate Leicester.

[olaftab]

Was discussed with total revulsion  in  "Cov on the brink" a few weeks ago.

[robbo1874]

wan't it '98 before they beat us? - FA cup on Valentines day IIRC