After moving from Leyton Orient to Coventry City in 2017, Liam Kelly has become a legend in the city.
- Liam Kelly has been a key player in Coventry City’s rise from League Two to competing for promotion to the Premier League.
- Despite limited playing time this season, Kelly is still the club captain and an important member of the squad.
- Kelly’s contract is set to expire at the end of the season, and it could potentially be his last campaign with Coventry City.
The former Scotland international joined the Sky Blues while they were in League Two. Seven years later, the team is vying for promotion to the Premier League after losing to Luton Town in the play-off final on penalties the previous season.
The Coventry team, and Kelly in particular, who joined the team at their lowest point following their relegation to League Two in 2017, would have had a real “rags-to-riches” story.
The 33-year-old midfielder is still the team captain and an essential part of the lineup at the Coventry Building Society Arena even though he hasn’t played much this season, especially in the Championship.
Liam Kelly’s move from Leyton Orient to Coventry will go down in folklore
It was disastrous for Coventry when they were demoted to League Two in 2017 for the first time in 59 years. The Sky Blues were well-known in English football and had played in the Premier League for the first nine years following their formation in 1992.
With the O’s having been demoted from League Two to the National League the season before, Mark Robins moved swiftly to sign Kelly from Leyton Orient in his first full season as manager.
As Kelly had only signed a one-year deal with the London club before their relegation, it meant that he was able to join Coventry on a free transfer, and he signed a two-year deal.
In his first season at the club, the Sky Blues won promotion back to League One at the first attempt after beating Exeter City in the play-off final at Wembley.
Kelly made 38 appearances, scoring once and registering four assists as the club progressed to the third-tier of English football.
It was a positive 2018/19 campaign in League One for the Sky Blues, with Kelly’s side finishing 8th and the Scotsman making 30 league appearances.
The team’s fortunes kept getting better, and in 2020 they won the League One championship, making their eighth consecutive trip back to the Championship.
Kelly played for the team in 37 games across all competitions as they won the championship.
The club captain saw less playing time in the 2020–21 season after the team won promotion to the Championship. Despite this, he made 23 league appearances and scored twice as the team finished in 16th place, meeting their primary goal of maintaining their spot in the second division for another season.
The team has improved every season since Kelly joined, as evidenced by their 12th-place result in the 2021–2022 campaign. But because of injuries, the former Leyton Orient player only appeared in 16 Championship games.
Kelly had similar problems the next season, but by the end of the campaign, he had recovered from his injuries and was able to play and lead the Sky Blues into the play-offs. At Wembley, he played the full 120 minutes as the team narrowly missed promotion.
Liam Kelly’s 2023/24 season
Prior to the 2023–2024 season, Kelly inked a new one-year contract with the Sky Blues, but he hasn’t played as much as he would have liked.
He has only appeared in five Championship matches—the most recent one occurring at the beginning of October—and has been forced to settle for the bench.
But in the club’s FA Cup replay victory over Sheffield Wednesday, he made his first appearance since October in a brief five-minute cameo off the bench.
The Scotland international is hoping to return to Robins’ plans and improve Coventry’s final stretch, as the team is currently just outside the league’s play-off spots.
Kelly’s contract expires at the end of this season, combined with his age and lack of playing time, suggests that this may be his last season with Sky Blue.
When he signed for the team almost seven years ago, they were a League Two team, and nobody would have imagined that they would be where they are today. The 33-year-old will rightfully be regarded as a contemporary Sky Blues legend because of his crucial contribution to their comeback.
That move from the Orient will become legend.
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