Matchday Memories: On This Day 1987 – Sky Blue Nick Pick Off As Ref Martin Mars Man. Utd. Match

David Pleat & John Sillett lead out their teams at Wembley May 1987

On this day (5th September) in 1987 only a few months after the Sky Blues had brought the F.A.Cup back to Coventry after that famous Wembley win over Tottenham Hotspur, John Sillett‘s men faced Manchester United at Highfield Road in their sixth Division One game of the season.

City had won three and lost two of their first five games and had been slightly more successful on the road than at their Coventry home so far. Perhaps a draw was inevitable as fifth placed CCFC took on the second place Red Devils as we had not had one yet and United were unbeaten so far.

Nick in Sky Blue action

However, the goalless nature of the game was largely down to the stifling actions of referee John Martin who gave 63 free kicks, booked five players and sent off the Sky Blues favourite (and now CCFPA member) Nick Pickering, hardly a dirty player, for fouling the visitors’ Viv Anderson (Nick’s first offence).

United kept their unbeaten record in front of a Highfield Road crowd of 26,849 and both ‘keepers kept their clean sheet! The only scorer (as described) was the pedantic referee who, unusually, for those times was not only booed by the crowd but given abuse by both teams as he left the field and apparently required a police escort to get him safely to the dressing room and away from the ground!

David Speedie tussles for the ball

The Race Is On!

Future Sky Blue ‘gaffer’ (and CCFPA member Gordon Strachan was in the Red Devils’ side that day! For the record the two team that fractious day were as depicted in the graphic below (thanks to former CCFPA committee member Dean Nelson for sourcing):-

We are pleased to report that every member of the Sky Blues’ side that day (along with their dear departed manager) later went on to join this Association. Sadly, of course, we have since lost ‘Big Cyrille’ who passed away at a far too young an age and is deeply missed by fans and former colleagues. United got the last laugh in another low scoring game in the return at Old Trafford in early February taking the points as early as the fourth minute with the only goal of the game scored by Liam O’Brien.

At the end of the season, the two teams had recorded seasons to be proud of. The Red Devils finished runners up (albeit by nine points) to Champions Liverpool. Sillett’s men finished in a very creditable tenth place on equal points with ninth place Luton Town and eleventh placed Sheffield Wednesday. 

The four clubs who went down automatically were Portsmouth, Watford and bottom club Oxford United and they were joined by Chelsea after the playoffs.

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