Michael O’Neill choked back the disappointment of Bobby Thomas’s late equaliser to hail Coventry City ’s return to the top tier of English football, insisting they’ll be a “good addition” to the Premier League. The Northern Ireland manager, drafted in to salvage Blackburn Rovers’ season after the departure of Valerien Ismael in February, thought his side were set to claim a crucial scalp in their battle against relegation. But he retains a soft spot for the Sky Blues after his two-year stint as a player at Highfield Road and, asked if he was pleased to see them finally end their quarter-century exile, he said: “Oh yes – delighted. It was a highlight of my career signing for Coventry in the Premier League .” Recruited for £500,000 by Ron Atkinson in the summer of 1996, midfielder O’Neill logged only six first-team outings (including a substitute appearance in a 0-0 draw at Ewood Park) and was farmed out on loan to Aberdeen and Reading before switching to Wigan Athletic. FOLLOW ON FACEBOOK! Get more Coventry City news and analysis via our FB page Relegated three years after his departure, City have suffered some grim seasons since and O’Neill agreed: “The longer you’re out, the more difficult it is to get back. This club knows that as well, and Stoke where I spent three years, so it’s a big, big night for them. “I think that they’ll be a good addition to the Premier League after the hardships they’ve had over that period of time. I think it’s great they have that story – brilliant for the fan base and brilliant for the club. It’s incredible really and I hope they do well. I hadn’t seen a lot of them this season – we don’t have any international players there – but they’re obviously a really, really good side and Frank’s done a brilliant job.” Relegated in 2012, Rovers remain in danger of dropping down to League One despite a seven-match sequence which has seen them pick up two wins (including a memorable 2-1 success at Millwall) and four draws. The latest stalemate leaves them in 19th place, five points above the relegation cut-off, but they have played two more games than all the teams below them. “It’s a hell of a point when when you look at our week,” said O’Neill; “away to Stoke, away to Southampton, home to Coventry and they’ve not played midweek. But at 84 or 85 minutes it’s three points and the disappointment is that you don’t get over the line. Having led, it’s obviously gutting to lose a goal so late. That’s one loss in seven and we’ve had a couple couple of draws that, if they had been wins, we would probably be sitting quite comfortably now. “We talked about what we could bring to the game, which is our physical output, our quality of play, our ability to make it difficult for the opposition, which we did but unfortunately we just couldn’t hang on for three points. “They have a lot of physical presence and they do test you, and that’s a big part of the game. I thought we handled it well for every other situation, defended set pieces extremely well. But it was a great delivery, there’s a block on Yuki Ohashi and then there’s a little gap for the lad. He’s a big lad as well, so the quality of the delivery meant, he just had to make contact and it’s unsavable then.” Every day, the CoventryLive football desk strive to deliver all manner of news, features and transfer-related stories as a part of our overall package of Coventry City content. Our dedicated reporter Andy Turner – who you can follow on X – follows the Sky Blues home and away and offers you comprehensive coverage from matchdays, press conferences and everything that happens in between. So much happens day to day and sometimes you can struggle to keep on top of the very latest updates as and when they occur – that’s why we have produced a daily newsletter which you can sign up to, for free, and which means you’ll have a round-up of the key stories land in your email inbox. You can also get all your favourite content from CoventryLive’s Sky Blues team on WhatsApp. Sign up for breaking updates about the biggest stories in and around the club.