Hotels for Manchester United v Coventry City

A Saturday afternoon league fixture between two clubs with a long shared history in English football, this is the kind of domestic clash that draws travelling support from both cities in real numbers. Coventry fans will make a proper day of the trip, arriving early and filling the pubs near the ground before kick-off.

Expect the usual matchday build-up: scarves and replica shirts, programme sellers, the crowds thickening in the streets as three o'clock approaches. A midweek-free Saturday slot means a fuller house and a longer build-up than a weeknight game would allow.

Manchester United began in 1878 as Newton Heath LYR, a team formed by railway workers at the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway's Newton Heath depot, and only became Manchester United, in red, in 1902 — the change behind today's Red Devils nickname. The club's history holds both tragedy and triumph: eight players died in the 1958 Munich air disaster, and manager Matt Busby, badly injured himself, rebuilt the team into European champions a decade later, in 1968.

United have since added two more European Cups, under Alex Ferguson in 1999 and 2008, and hold the English record of 20 league titles, a mark shared with Liverpool.

Manchester United's 'Theatre of Dreams' is one of the most famous football grounds on earth and England's largest club stadium, staging Premier League and European nights in the Trafford district southwest of the city centre. The immediate area is more industrial than picturesque, but Salford Quays and MediaCity, with their bars and waterfront restaurants, sit close by.

Metrolink trams and nearby rail link straight into central Manchester. An overnight stay lets you savour the occasion and dodge the matchday transport crush.