Mark Robins

Mark Gordon Robins (born 22 December 1969) is an English football manager and former player, who is the current manager of Coventry City in the EFL Championship.

As a player, he was a striker and is best known for his time in the Premier League with Norwich City and Leicester City.

Robins began his career with Manchester United.

The Canaries were 2–0 down with a quarter of the game remaining before Robins scored the club's first Premier League goal in the 69th minute, followed swiftly by goals from wingers David Phillips and Ruel Fox, before Robins completed a 4–2 triumph with an 84th-minute goal.

During this period, he scored a goal against Nottingham Forest in a 1990 FA Cup tie that has subsequently been credited with "saving" manager Alex Ferguson's job at Old Trafford.

After spending time with Norwich and Leicester, Robins went on to play for Reading, Manchester City, Walsall, Rotherham United, Bristol City and Sheffield Wednesday in the Football League.

Robins also played across Europe during spells with Copenhagen, Ourense and Panionios before finishing his career with Burton Albion in the Conference National.

Robins played an important part in winning the FA Cup for Manchester United in 1990, which was the first trophy of manager Alex Ferguson's reign at the club, scoring the winning goal in the semi-final replay against Oldham Athletic.

United were playing away from home against Nottingham Forest (one of the most successful cup teams of the late 1980s and early 1990s) on 7 January 1990, in a third round FA Cup tie.

His goal in the FA Cup third round also had the distinction of making him the player to score the first goal of the 1990s for Manchester United.

He also scored one of United's two goals in the semi-final replay where they beat Oldham Athletic.

He was second only to Mark Hughes in the goalscoring charts at Old Trafford, while Hughes's regular strike-partner Brian McClair had managed a mere five goals and it was starting to look as though Robins would displace McClair as the club's regular second striker.

However, McClair recovered his goalscoring form in 1990–91, and Robins managed only 19 First Division appearances and four goals.

He was, however, in the squad that won the European Cup Winners' Cup that season.

September was a good month for him, as he scored twice in a 3–1 home win over Queens Park Rangers in the league and the winning goal in a visit to Luton Town.

However, the 1991–92 season was a frustrating one for Robins as he played just twice in the league, failing to score, and in total made just eight appearances in all competitions.

His only goals that season came in the League Cup second round at home to Portsmouth, when he scored twice in a 3–1 win at Old Trafford.

When the opportunity for a place back in the first team arose in April as United were being overhauled by Leeds United in the title race, Robins was injured and unavailable for selection.

Two wry forms of consolation for Robins in a frustrating season came during the first half of the campaign.

On 30 October 1991, he scored twice in their 3–1 win over Portsmouth in the League Cup third round, putting them on course for a strong run in the competition which culminated in them winning it for the very first time.

On 19 November 1991, he collected a European Super Cup winner's medal (as an unused substitute) as United beat Red Star Belgrade in the game at Old Trafford.

At the end of the season, he asked to be transfer listed.

He left Manchester United for Norwich City for a fee of £800,000 where he played an important role in some of the club's greatest successes, including the remarkable win in the Olympiastadion against Bayern Munich in the UEFA Cup.

In his first game, his two goals helped Norwich defeat Arsenal 4–2 at Highbury on the opening day of the first ever Premier League season.

He helped them qualify for the UEFA Cup at the end of the 1992–93 season, in which Norwich finished third in the Premier League, having led the league at several stages and featured in the title race until well into April, before his old club Manchester United finally won the title.

His 1993–94 season was interrupted by a serious injury, and coincided with a slump in form for Norwich, who finished 12th, after spending most of the first half of the season in the top five.

In 2007, he became manager of Rotherham United, and joined Barnsley in the same capacity in 2009, before leaving in 2011, following differences between him and the board.

In 2012, he became manager of Coventry City until 2013 when he joined Huddersfield Town.

Robins left Huddersfield in 2014 by mutual agreement.

It was widely speculated in the media (but perennially denied by then-Chairman Martin Edwards) that under-pressure United manager Alex Ferguson would have been sacked had United lost and gone out of the Cup, as they were 15th in the league by this stage and had already been eliminated from the League Cup.

Instead, Robins scored the winning goal from a Mark Hughes cross.

That goal was a turning point in the history of the football club – Ferguson would keep his job and go on to achieve an unmatched run of success at the club over the next 23 years.

In that season, Robins scored seven First Division goals and a further two in the FA Cup, bringing his tally that season to nine in all competitions.

A few months later he became manager of Scunthorpe United before leaving in 2016.

In March 2017, Robins rejoined Coventry City and a few months later won the EFL Trophy.

In the 2017–18 season, Robins won the EFL League Two play-offs with the Sky Blues and were promoted to League One.

After a solid eighth placed finish in League One in the 2018–19 season, Robins led Coventry to promotion to the EFL Championship as League One Champions in the 2019–20 season.

He followed that up by guiding Coventry to a respectable 16th placed finish in the Championship in the 2020–21 season, and further improved upon this with a 12th placed finish in the 2021–22 season.

In the 2022-23 season, Robins led Coventry to a 5th place finish in the Championship, qualifying for promotion play-offs.

Coventry City met Luton Town at Wembley Stadium in the final, where they ultimately lost on penalties.