Matchday Memories: On This Day 2008 – Zavon Strikes As CC’s CCFC Suffer Late Sheffield Shock!

Chris Coleman- Sky Blue Gaffer

On this day (April 1st) in 2008 Sky Blues ‘gaffer’ Chris Coleman had been in the Ricoh hot-seat since February (after Ian Dowie‘s shock sacking). City were still struggling, though had stopped the rot of eight successive away defeats between late December and their last away outing, a 0-0 draw at Southampton on 22nd March. Home form had not been too bad and they had beaten Plymouth Argyle 3-1 at the Ricoh the previous Saturday.

Zavon Hines in action v Oxford

Today’s midweek tussle with Sheffield Wednesday had been abandoned once and postponed once before finally coming off today. The two sides had fought out a goalless draw at Hillsborough only a fortnight previously as the Sky Blues then failed to break down Brian Laws‘ determined home side.

This time there was a similar pattern with a grim stalemate and no goals until seven minutes before full-time when City loanee Zavon Hines scored first with a smart volley and Sky Blues fans thought he had wrapped things up!

Match action as the Sky Blues (in Red) score

However, two minutes into injury time, future Sky Blue defender (and now CCFPA member) Richard Wood stepped up to spoil the party and grab an Owls’ equaliser! ‘Woody’ landed a header from a long throw-in to salvage a point and send the 2,000 visiting fans among the 21,110 crowd home happier than the Sky Blue Army.

The contemporary BBC Sport match report can be found here.

Richard Wood in the Sky Blue

Chris Coleman fielded the following CCFC team (CCFPA members underlined):-

Kasper Schmeichel, Richard Duffy, Danny Fox, Michael Doyle, Scott Dann, Elliott Ward, Jay Tabb, Stephen Hughes, Robbie Simpson, Michael Mifsud (sub. Zavon Hines -74) and Julian Gray (sub. Isaac Osbourne -90)

Unused subs: Marcus Hall, Kevin Thornton and Andy Marshall (gk)

The Owls‘ put out the following side:-

Lee Grant, Burton O’Brien (sub. Bartosz Slusarski -83), Tommy Spurr, Graham Kavanagh (sub. Steve Watson -76), Marc Beevers, Richard Wood, Franck Songo’o, Sean McAllister (sub. Adam Bolder -44), Deon Burton, Ben Sahar and Jermaine Johnson  Unused subs: Peter Gilbert and Robert Burch (gk)                                            Referee:- Graham Laws (Tyne & Wear)

CCFC 2007-08 when Ian Dowie was gaffer

Miraculously the Sky Blues stayed up in 21st place despite a dismal end to the season, a 4-1 capitulation at Charlton Athletic. A goal for Leicester City at promotion candidates Stoke City (and they hit the woodwork) would have sent us down instead of them in 22nd place! Scunthorpe United and bottom club Colchester United also went down. Sheffield Wednesday finished in sixteenth only two points better than City.

West Bromwich Albion were Championship title holders this season by two points from Stoke City who both were promoted along with third placed Hull City (who made it via the playoffs)

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