From non-league to Premier League... Coventry's 'unreal' pair

Ephron Mason-Clark takes an excellent first touch to get the ball under control before slotting home from close range.

Just 16 minutes later, Brandon Thomas-Asante provides a perfect glancing header to steer past the keeper from six yards out and wheels away in celebration.

But this is not two of Coventry City's star forwards scoring goals in a Championship game in the 2025-26 season on the way to promotion to the Premier League.

This is two young prospects netting in non-league football on exactly the same day in March 2019.

With just 500 spectators watching on, a 20-year-old Thomas-Asante scored for Oxford City in a 5-3 defeat by Hampton & Richmond Borough, external in National League South.

Mason-Clark, aged 19 at the time, was on the scoresheet for Barnet in a 2-1 loss to Gateshead in the National League with a little more than 650 supporters in attendance.

Fast forward seven years and the duo contributed 36 goals between them in the Championship to help fire the Sky Blues back into the top flight for the first time in 25 years, also earning Thomas-Asante a place in Ghana's World Cup squad.

"Wow, what a moment," Thomas-Asante told BBC CWR after Coventry lifted the Championship trophy following a 3-1 win over Wrexham in the penultimate game of the season.

"Moments like this, they're not out of nowhere. They're built up over years and decades. It's a journey."

And what a journey it has been for the 27-year-old who has grafted his way to the top flight after 10 seasons as a senior professional.

From starting his career in the MK Dons academy in 2011 to breaking into the first team in League One in 2016, Thomas-Asante went on to play for Sutton United and Ebbsfleet United in the National League and Salford City in League Two, as well as Oxford City.

When he signed for West Bromwich Albion in the summer of 2022, Thomas-Asante completed the set of playing in all three EFL divisions.

And now, two years after making the switch to the Sky Blues, he will be able to add the biggest league of the lot to his CV.

For Mason-Clark, 26, things got under way in the seventh tier in 2016 with a brief loan spell in the Isthmian League Premier Division at Metropolitan Police, one month after making his Barnet debut in League Two.

He would go on to play for the Bees for six years, predominantly 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-Asante said. "We say we've got our jumpers at home - anyone who's played National League will know as everyone wears the same jacket before a game.

"So I kept that because I never want to forget the tough times. But I also don't want to downplay the National League because as we saw with York and Rochdale, the standard is unreal.

"It gets downplayed and it's not a joke, so to see that, see League Two, League One, the Championship and, god-willing, soon the Premier League is special."

Given the similar path both Thomas-Asante and Mason-Clark have trodden, it was perhaps somewhat poetic that they both found the net in the final home game of the campaign for Coventry.

They also combined for the opener on that day of celebration with Mason-Clark setting up Thomas-Asante, who was waxing lyrical about his team-mate afterwards.

"I'm a fan of football before I'm a player and the player he has become, he is just unreal," Thomas-Asante said.

"Even to watch from the other side of the pitch, I had to remember to get in at the back stick.

"He always adds to his game, he's just becoming inevitable. No one can really stop him."

EFL expert George Elek described Mason-Clark as "one of the unsung heroes of the Championship this season".

"He's someone who provides so much quality off that left hand side," Elek told the Not The Top 20 podcast, external.

"He is another one of these players Coventry signed two years ago. He had a decent first season but they've just retained the faith in him, given him a lot of minutes, given him time to grow.

"I'm excited to see him in the Premier League next season."

Thomas-Asante ended the season with 13 goals and four assists, while Mason-Clark scored 10 goals and registered nine assists.

Only Haji Wright (18) contributed to more goals than Thomas-Asante (17), while Mason-Clark led the way with 19.

Mason-Clark's output has come as no surprise to Thomas-Asante, who recalled recognising his talent when lining up against him as a youth player.

He said: "It's funny because when I first joined, he was one of the players where I saw him and I thought, 'I played against him a lot at academy level, I know he gave some of my mates a tough time'.

"So I just wanted to play with him. And [now] seeing no one in the country being able to deal with it is just an amazing sight."

Mason-Clark was rewarded for his fine form with an international debut for Jamaica in March.

Meanwhile, the dream season is not over just yet for Thomas-Asante, who will have a World Cup campaign with Ghana to go alongside his Championship winners' medal after being named in Carlos Queiroz's squad.

"I'm really eager to keep my head down, to keep ready, because I'm so passionate about my nation," he added.

From playing to crowds of fewer than 300 people on occasions seven years ago, Thomas-Asante will feature in front of 70,000 fans at the biggest tournament in world football, against England in the group stages no less.