Matchday Memories: On This Day 2010 – Sky Blue Westwood & Wood Will No Wednesday Win!

City gaffer Chris Coleman

On this day (27th March) in 2010 the Sky Blues entertained Sheffield Wednesday in the Championship at the Ricoh for Legends Day 2010. The Sky Blues were managed by Chris Coleman. City’s season had faltered somewhat in recent weeks. After a purple patch of five wins out of six between February 9th and March 6th the Sky Blues had not won since (and would not again until the end of the season). The Owls had beaten City at Hillsborough by two clear goals in mid October.

Woody celebrates his goal

There was no score at half-time of a game played in front of a Coventry crowd of 17,608 (including 1,834 from Sheffield). City made three substitutions for the second half in an attempt to liven things up. However, relegation haunted Wednesday had looked to be heading for the all the points through Luke Varney‘s precise angled shot seven minutes after the hour mark.

Richard in Sky Blue action

Wednesday had a decent amount of the ball and City ‘keeper (and CCFPA member now) Keiren Westwood had made a number of decent saves. Wouldn’t you know it but it fell to former Owls player and captain, now at the heart of the Sky Blues defence, Richard Wood to break the hearts of the fans of his former club with a 79th-minute leveller as City snatched a point and denied Sheffield Wednesday a precious victory. Now a CCFPA member, Richard took advantage of a mix-up between keeper the Owls’ Lee Grant and Darren Purse to head home and keep CCFC’s very faint play-off hopes just about alive.

The score remained 1-1 – thankfully ‘Woody’ had had the final say and a grabbed a draw for the home team which most observers felt was pretty fair on the balance of play. City finished the game in twelfth place nine points shy of the playoffs and Owls were now nineteenth five points clear of the relegation zone.

Keiren with CCFC

For the record, Coleman’s CCFC lined up (CCFPA members underlined):-

Keiren Westwood, Marcus Hall (sub. Chris Hussey -46), James McPake, Martin Cranie, Richard Wood, Sammy Clingan, Gary Deegan, Carl Baker, Jon Stead (sub. David Bell -46), Freddy Eastwood (sub. Clinton Morrison -46) and Freddie Sears    

Unused subs: Aron Gunnarsson, Jermaine Grandison, Leon Barnett and Dimi Konstantopoulos (gk)

Alan Irvine‘s Owls put out the following side:-

Marcus in the Sky Blue

Lee Grant, Tommy Spurr, Darren Purse (c), Mark Beevers, Eddie Nolan, Darren Potter, James O’Connor, Luke Varney, Tom Soares (sub. Michael Gray -74), Marcus Tudgay and Leon Clarke (sub. Francis Jeffers -82)   Unused subs: Richard Hinds, Frank Simek, Etienne Esajas, Luke Boden and Richard O’Donnell (gk)                  Referee: Neil Swarbrick

Sheffield Wednesday, of course, fielded a brace of future Sky Blues in their forward line this day, Leon Clarke (2013-14) and (now CCFPA member) Marcus Tudgay (2014-17) and neither scored!

CCFC 2009-10

Both teams subsequently dropped further down the table in the remaining six games. The Sky Blues finished nineteenth in the Championship seven points clear of the drop. The Owls were one of the three clubs relegated to League One in 22nd place with, beneath them, Plymouth Argyle and Peterborough United (bottom).

Newcastle United, who only lost four league games all season became Champions with 102 points, eleven points clear of also promoted runner ups West Bromwich Albion. Blackpool in sixth place also made it up via the play-offs!

Thanks to CCFPA’s Mike Young (& Dean Nelson) for sourcing the images.

Matchday Memories: On This Day 2004 – CCFPA Scores All Goals But Sky Blues Lose!

Eric at Highfield Rd

On this day (March 27th) in 2004 the Sky Blues were on their second of three ‘gaffers’ this season, Eric Black having taken over from Gary McAllister earlier in the season (when Gary resigned to look after his sick wife). Eric had done reasonably well with the Sky Blues in Division One with some strong performances especially at home in recent weeks – four goals had been scored in each of their last two home games, 4-0 against Burnley and 4-1 against Preston North End four days later which completed a run of five wins out of six!

However this success rate was not to be continued as last time out City came unstuck by the odd goal in three at Wigan Athletic and, sadly, the losing streak continued today at home to Reading in our club’s last but one season at Highfield Road!

Reading’s John Salako celebrateds his goal

The Sky Blues had won 2-1 at Reading back in late September thanks to a goal in each half from ‘Dele Adebola and Andy Morrell (both now Association members) and arguably should have won this one too. Sadly the home fans amongst the 15,811 fans saw the score exactly reversed today and whilst future CCFPA members snapped up all the goals again, two were unfortunately then playing for the away side!

Gary McSheffrey in action

In truth City put on an excellent showing particularly in the first 45 minutes and should have gome in at the break 4-1 up rather than 1-0 down missing loads of chances! The set back began as early as the ninth minute with a Reading goal from future Sky Blue John Salako (a curling free kick left by everyone to sneak in).

Their lead was doubled in the second half (in the ninth minute again) with a close range finish from future Sky Blue Shaun Goater!  CCFC only got one goal in reply (and only a consolation) as City’s dominance in possesion was not matched by goals. That was in the 66th minute  from our now CCFPA member ‘Cov Kid’ striker Gary McSheffrey (netting his 19th of the season).

Both managers were unhappy with the quality of the refereeing particularly when the visitors went down to ten men when Steve Sidwell was somewhat harshly sent off for a second bookable offence just before the hour mark but ten man Reading were more than happy with the points by full time. This defeat ended any Sky Blue talk of playoffs. A contemorary BBC report of the game can be found here.

Shaun Goater in the Sky Blue

Black’s boys that day took the field as follows (CCFPA members underlined):-

Scott Shearer, Eric Deloumeaux, Steve Staunton, Brian Kerr, Mo Konjic, Calum Davenport, Michael Doyle (sub. Sebastien Olszar -60), Bjarni Gudjonsson, Julian Joachim, Gary McSheffrey and Stephen Warnock (sub. Graham Barrett -85).

Unused subs. Richard Shaw, Craig Pead and Gavin Ward (gk)

Steve Coppell‘s Reading team that day was:-

Jamie Ashdown, Graeme Murty, Andy Hughes, James Harper, Ivar Ingimarsson, Ricky Newman, Dean Morgan (sub. Paul Brooker -68), Steve Sidwell (s.o.-57), Shaun Goater (sub. Kevin Watson -58), Dave Kitson (sub. Bas Savage -75) and John Salako  Unused subs. Andre Boucard and Jamie Young (gk).              Referee:- A. Butler (Notts)

Eric, having lost half of his next six games, was dramatically sacked just before the end of the season. Strangely this was just after a 5-2 away win at Gillingham and Eric made way for (now CCFPA member) Peter Reid in spite of guiding the Sky Blues to a mid table (twelfth) position in Division One. The Royals were five points ahead in ninth.

Norwich City were Champions. Eight points behind were runnersup West Bromwich Albion and they were also promoted (after the playoffs) along with sixth placed Crystal Palace.

CCFC 2003-04

For the record, the relegated trio this season (in descending order) were Walsall, Bradford City and (bottom club) Wimbledon.

Thanks to CCFPA’s Mike Young for sourcing the images.

CCFPA News Here’s The Next Team Of Eleven FPs For Legends Day 2025!

In conjunction with CCFC, having already announced the first twenty Coventry City ‘stars of the past’ who will be gracing Legends Day 2025 on Saturday 5th April next at the CBS Arena, we are now able to proudly reveal the third tranche of FPs, a team full, who will be back with us to see the Sky Blues important next home Championship fixture as Frank Lampard‘s men take on high flying Burnley to try to maintain their play-off challenge..

Ian’s Sky Blue Brown

We are expecting to announce a total of more than forty ex CCFC players and managers attending LD25 spanning the club’s playing generations, from the 1950s-2010s.  

As you can see this third  group include a member from the club’s veteran 1960s generation, former CCFC physio (Norman), plus a trio drawn from the illustrious Sky Blue ‘Boys of 87’ (‘Benno’, Micky & ‘Peaky’). Before any more introductions we can confirm we will be welcoming (in alphabetical order) the following former stalwarts of the club (and their guests)

Dave Bennett; Peter Billing; Kevin Gallacher; Micky Gynn,

Marcus Hall; Norman Pilgrim; Trevor Peake; Barry Powell;

Patrick Suffo; Garry Thompson and Ian Wallace

Peakey in the Sky Blue

Micky Gynn

Benno in the Sky Blue

Norman in the Sky Blue white coat!

Sky Blue Kevin Gallacher

Sky Blue Barry

Garry Thompson in the Sky Blue

Sky Blue Marcus in 1999!

Pat Suffo in the Sky Blue

Peter Billing in the Sky Blue

The 31 Former Players names announced so far are (in decade order & debut; todays eleven FPs in blue):-

Fifties: Graham Walker; Mick Kearns (1957);

Sixties:  Colin Holder (1961); Dietmar Bruck (1961); Norman Pilgrim; 

Seventies:  Barry Powell (1975); Brian Roberts (1976); Ian Wallace (1976); Gary Thompson (1977)

Eighties: Ian Butterworth (1981);  Micky Gynn (1983); Dave Bennett (1983); Trevor Peake (1983); Steve Ogrizovic (1984); Kirk Stephens (1984); David Smith (1988); Peter Billing (1989)

Nineties: Kevin Gallacher (1990); Kenny Sansom (1991); Lee Hurst (1991); Dave Busst (1993); Noel Whelan (1995); Marcus Hall (1995 & 2005)

Noughties: ‘Dele Adebola (2003); Pat Suffo (2003); Kevin Thornton (2005); Chris Birchall (2006); Danny Fox (2008); Jordan Clarke (2009)

Tens: Max Biamou (2017); Marko Maroši (2019)

The club has already announced their own opportunities for purchasing special packages to ‘Lunch with the Legends’ pre-match (click here).

We are looking forward to another successful Legends Day reunion which could not happen without the efforts of many backroom staff at the Association and club and the support of sponsors and fans. Look out for further details of arrangements and even more participants which will be released on this and the club’s web-site in coming days so keep checking back.

Thanks to CCFPA’s Mike Young for sourcing the images

Matchday Memories: On This Day 1989 – See Sky Blue Speedie Settle The Saints Score!

John Sillett CCFC gaffer

Brian Borrows on the programme front

On this day (27th March) in 1989 the Sky Blues under former player turned ‘gaffer’ (the late) John Sillett were doing pretty well in Division One. Today’s game at sunny Highfield Road was against Southampton with whom we had drawn 2-2 at the Dell back on Boxing Day when City threw away a two goal first half lead with goals from David Phillips (eight minutes) and Gary Bannister (26 mins.).

The Saints were in pretty dire straits not having won for twenty games and looked headed for the drop. Nevertheless, they gave it a real go and dominated the game against a somewhat lethargic Sky Blues. The Saints also took the lead after only fourteen minutes when Danny Wallace capitalised by a rare error from (now CCFPA member) Trevor Peake who left his back pass to ‘Oggy’ short.

Bugsy in the Sky Blue

Sky Blue Speedie

The Sky Blues managed to grab a first half equaliser on 28 minutes through full back (also now a CCFPA member) Brian Borrows. It was 1-1 at half-time. Arguably against the run of play the Sky Blues conjured a winner from the boot of our combative forward David Speedie who delivered a superb chip to beat future Sky Blue, Kenilworth born Tim Flowers in the Saints’ goal.

A defeat by the odd goal in three seemed rough justice for Southampton in front of the 11,735 Highfield Road crowd. Notably, as well as scoring sensation Alan Shearer in the Saints line up there were no less than a trio of Wallaces, Danny, Rod and Ray!

Thanks to former CCFPA committee member Dean Nelson you can watch the goal highlights by clicking on the image below:-

Sillett’s Sky Blues that day lined up as follows:-

Steve Ogrizovic, Brian Borrows, Tony Dobson, Steve Sedgley, Brian Kilcline, Trevor Peake, Dean Emerson, David Speedie, Keith Houchen, Howard Clark (sub.Keith Thompson) and David Smith.

We are pleased to say that every member of this team (along with manager ‘Sills’) later went on to join this Association. Winger Keith is brother to former Sky Blue striker (and fellow CCFPA member) Garry Thompson. The Sky Blue family four years ago just this month celebrated the life of our deeply missed former manager ‘Snoz’ at a memorial service at Coventry Cathedral.

Tim in CCFC kit

Chris Nicholl‘s Saints’ team took to the field with the following players:-

Micky in the Sky Blue

Tim Flowers, Ray Wallace, Micky Adams, Jimmy Case, Neil Ruddock, Kevin Moore, Rod Wallace, Glenn Cockerill, Alan Shearer, Barry Horne and Danny Wallace.   

Referee:- R.Hart

As well as Tim in goal, of course, at full back the Saints had former Sky Blue defender and future ‘gaffer’ Micky Adams (who is also now a CCFPA member).

CCFC 1988-89

By season’s end Southampton had improved to finish as high as thirteenth, albeit only six points clear of the drop (a fate suffered by Middlesbrough, West Ham United and, at the bottom, Newcastle United). The Sky Blues finished in a highly proficient seventh spot. Arsenal took the title but only on goal difference from Liverpool.

Thanks to CCFPA’s Mike Young for sourcing the images.