Coventry City's run to the area final of the Johnstone's Paint Trophy in the 2012/13 season came at a very strange time in the history of the Sky Blues.
It was their first season since relegation from the Championship and a first back in the third tier of English football since the days of Jimmy Hill.
Andy Thorn had stayed on as manager despite the drop but would only last two games of the new League One season while popular former player Richard Shaw had unfortunately overseen a fairly disastrous period in caretaker charge before Mark Robins was appointed as the new boss.
Off the field things were little better with owners SISU increasingly unpopular.
In the JPT, having beaten Burton Albion in an epic penalty shoot-out and then eased to victory at Bootham Crescent, Coventry took on Sheffield United in the area quarter-final in early December.
Mark Robins' changes were slowly taking effect and the Sky Blues were becoming a more potent force in attack thanks to the goals of loanee David McGoldrick.
Tickets for all areas of the Ricoh Arena were priced at £5 and more than 10,000 took advantage to watch a close tie settled by another shoot-out in Coventry's favour and set up a new year home area semi-final with Preston North End.
Once again it was football for a fiver and this time over 12,000 were in attendance and hopefully the majority of them stayed until the end to watch a dramatic conclusion with two goals for the hosts in injury time turning around a 2-1 deficit.
All of this was in the context of league attendances that averaged just under 11,000 across the season and ever-more ominous rumours that a rent row between SISU and the owners of the Ricoh Arena would see the club leave Coventry at the end of the campaign.
The area final of the JPT paired City with Crewe Alexandra over two legs and the club, to their credit, again offered all tickets at £5.
A first Wembley appearance since 1987's Charity Shield galvanised the city and ticket sales grew on a daily basis to the point that 31,054, just shy of the record attendance for a Coventry game at the stadium, filled the Ricoh Arena in expectation.
What happened next?
A deflating 3-0 defeat for the hosts told less than half of the story.
Robins left for Huddersfield before a second-leg that saw City nearly, but not quite, pull back the deficit, a 10-point deduction for entering administration was imposed by the Football League and it was announced that Coventry would be playing their 'home' matches in Northampton the following season.
From hope to despair in the space of a few weeks.
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