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Coventry City captain Matt Grimes believes the club’s return to the top flight is nothing less than what its supporters deserve.

It has been a long journey for Grimes to earn another opportunity to play Premier League football, but for Coventry City, the wait has been even longer.

Grimes made only four appearances in the top division for Swansea City as a young player after arriving from Exeter City more than a decade ago, and he has spent the last 10 years trying to work his way back to the highest level.

Coventry’s absence, though, has lasted for more than twice as long — and in that period the club has, in many ways, been through hell and back.

Coventry were relegated in 2001, and that was followed by 11 years spent mostly in the bottom half of the Championship before the club dropped all the way into League Two in 2017.

During that fall and the slow climb back up the football pyramid, Coventry supporters endured exile from their own stadium, protests, uncertain ownership situations and the heartbreak of defeat in the Championship play-off final.

Having joined the club only in January last year, Grimes admitted he can only imagine how deep the despair must have been for Coventry fans during the bleakest periods.

But he was thrilled to finally give them a major occasion to celebrate when promotion was mathematically secured through a late 1-1 draw away at Blackburn Rovers in April.

Grimes told FourFourTwo: “The club have been down to League Two, had to groundshare, all of that.

“So I feel like a bit of an imposter talking about it, because I haven’t endured it the same as the fans have.

“But to give that back on that night when we got the club promoted in front of 7,000 away fans, who travelled all the way to Blackburn on a Friday night, it was very, very fitting.”

That promotion was the end result of several years of going close to promotion, first under Mark Robins and then Frank Lampard.

Grimes does not believe that makes the achievement any less extraordinary, saying: “When teams come down from the Premier League, it’s normal that all the bookmakers have them to be top two or top six

“So to win the league like we did, 11 points ahead of second... I don’t think people will realise the magnitude of it until maybe a couple years down the line. It was a season where most of what we touched turned to gold.”