"Going to stick my neck out" - BBC pundit makes play-off final prediction ahead of Coventry and Luton clash

Darrell Clarke believes the Sky Blues may end up securing their place back in the Premier League.

Former Port Vale boss Darrell Clarke has predicted that Coventry City will come out on top against Luton Town in the Championship play-off final next weekend, speaking on the BBC 72+ Podcast.

Both sides have impressed many during the 2022/23 campaign even though both were expected to be at the top end of the division.

Luton reached the play-off semi-final last year and strengthened their squad during the summer with some excellent attacking additions – and Coventry always looked as though they were going to be in the promotion mix sooner rather than later following a solid finish at the end of 2021/22.

Coventry and Luton’s adversity

Both, however, endured disappointing starts to this term and the Sky Blues endured a particularly turbulent start, with their pitch at the Coventry Building Society Arena being deemed unplayable.

Thankfully for Mark Robins’ men, they managed to recover well and creep into the play-off zone during the latter stages of the campaign, something that can be seen as an excellent achievement considering they don’t have Callum O’Hare at their disposal.

Both even faced adversity in the playoffs, with these teams on the backfoot after their first legs of the play-off semis. Luton lost 2-1 at Sunderland and Coventry were only able to secure a 0-0 home draw against Middlesbrough.

However, the Hatters used their aerial threat to secure a 2-0 win in the second leg and Gus Hamer’s strike allowed Coventry to claim a 1-0 victory at the Riverside.

Darrell Clarke’s prediction

This game is a very tough one to call with both sides capable of coming out on top next weekend – but Clarke has a clear feeling about which way it will go.

He said (38:20): “I’ve actually got a vested interest here because Tom Lockyer and Elijah Adebayo are two of my former players in the Luton team.

“However, I’m going to break their hearts, I’m going stick my neck out and I think Coventry will just edge it.

“Rob and Mark are both top guys and I wish them the best of luck.”

Who will come out on top?

This is an extremely tough game to predict because both sides have players who can make a difference.

Hamer and Viktor Gyokeres are the two main stars for Coventry – but Callum Doyle could also be crucial as a very talented defender and they will be hoping their wing-backs can step up to the plate too.

Luton, meanwhile, have Carlton Morris and Adebayo at their disposal, with those two likely to cause the Sky Blues’ defense some real problems if they are on top form.

For the Hatters, making sure Hamer isn’t effective has to be a key part of their game plan and it will be interesting to see how they deal with Gyokeres too.

Paddy McNair did well to cope with the Sweden international at times – but the latter played a big part in the winning goal at the Riverside and will be hard to contain.