Coventry City: Non-League to Premier League – Sky Blues ‘unreal’ pairing

Things started for Mason-Clark, 26, with a short loan spell at Metropolitan Police’s Isthmian League Premier Division in the seventh tier in 2016, a month after making his debut at Barnet in League Two.

He would go on to play for the Bees for six years, mainly in the National League, before joining Peterborough United in League One in 2022 and then Coventry in 2024.

“We’ve got a running joke,” Thomas-Assante said. “We say we have jumpers in our house – anyone who has played in the National League will know because everyone wears the same jacket before the game.

“So I kept it because I never want to forget the tough times. But I don’t want to belittle the National League because as we’ve seen with York and Rochdale, the standard is unreal.

“It gets shorter and it’s not a joke, so watch it, watch League Two, League One, the Championship and God-willing, soon the Premier League special.”

Given both Thomas-Assante and Mason-Clarke’s similar paths, it was perhaps somewhat poetic that they both found the net in Coventry’s final home game of the campaign.

They combined Mason-Clark for the opener on a day of celebration with Thomas-Assante, who later waxed lyrical about his team-mate.

“I’m a football fan before I’m a player and the player he’s become is just unreal,” Thomas-Assante said.

“Even to see from the other side of the pitch, I had to remember to get into the back stick.

“He’s always adding to his game, he’s becoming unstoppable. There’s really no stopping him.”