Matchday Memories: On This Day 2020 – See Sky Blues St Andrews Success Over Royals!
Gus Hamer in the Sky Blue
Playing at their Birmingham City ‘home in exile’ and languishing in 22nd place in the Championship Mark Robins CCFC stopped the rot after five defeats out of the last six league and cup games on this day two years ago (30th October 2020)! They managed to ease past top of the table Reading at a COVID19 emptied St Andrews by the odd goal in five to (temporarily) raise themselves outside the relegation zone.
Matty in the Sky Blue
SKY TV cameras witnessed a game of much skill and endeavour from both sides. The Sky Blues took the lead after 22 minutes with a wonderfully placed sidefooted strike from outside the box from our £1m Brazilian Gus Hamer (from a layoff by Matty Godden from a cross by Jordan Shipley) City went in at half-time deserving to be a goal ahead. Jordan and most recently Gus have since joined this Association.
The lead lasted until the 66th minute when the Royals’ Lucas Joao levelled matters with a forceful strike (again from outside the box). Then (now CCFPA member) Max Biamou was denied by the Reading crossbar from close in.
Sam McCallum in Sky Blue action
CCFC’s captain for the day, striker Matty Godden ensured the Sky Blues’ lead was restored fairly quickly firing home after a save from a Fankaty Dabo effort rebounded to him with fourteen minutes left. The Sky Blues put the game to bed with five minutes left before the final whistle with a stunning long range swerving strike from young substitute full back (now a CCFPA member) Sam McCallum! As the time ticked away there was concerted Reading pressure for a comeback but the close range effort from the Royals’ George Puskas two minutes into additional time proved too little too late!
Thanks to former CCFPA committee member Dean Nelson you can watch match highlights of City’s great win by clicking on the link or image below:-
The respective teams lined up as follows:-
CCFC Manager Mark Robins
Sky Blues (CCFPA members underlined)
Marko Marosi, Michael Rose, Leo Ostigard, Dom Hyam, Fankaty Dabo (sub. Sam McCallum -82), Gustavo Hamer (sub. Callum O’Hare -72), Ben Sheaf, Jordan Shipley (sub. Jamie Allen -88), Ryan Giles, Max Biamou and Matty Godden (c)
Unused Subs: Kyle McFadzean, Liam Kelly, Tyler Walker and Ben Wilson (gk),
Reading (managed by Veliko Paunovic):-
Tennai Watson in the Sky Blue
Rafael Cabral, Tomas Esteves, Liam Moore (c) (sub. Tom McIntyre -80), Michael Morrison, Omar Richards, Andy Rinomhota, Josh Laurent, Alfa Semedo Esteves, Michael Olise (sub. George Puscas -80), Sone Aluko and Lucas Joao Unused Subs: Tennai Watson, Ethan Bristow, Lewis Gibson, Dejan Tetek and Luke Southwood (gk) Referee: David Webb
Tennai Watson had been a Sky Blue loanee from the Royals the previous season playing a total of seven games for CCFC!
Though the Sky Blues lost their next two games at the start of November today’s win was not isolated as then they went on a run of eight unbeaten until 19th December when Sheffield Wednesday lowered their colours by the only goal of the game at Hillsborough. Another difficult patch followed (including revenge for the Royals in mid January with a 2-0 win in Reading) with the Sky Blues hovering over the relegation trap door to the start of April. However, a bit of a revival in the campaign’s run-in saw five victories and a draw in their last eight games (including a 6-1 demolition of Millwall at St Andrews in their last game) achieving the comparative safety (a dozen points ahead of the drop) of sixteenth in the Championship for Mark’s men. Reading drifted out of the play-off spots to finish seventh.
CCFC 2020-21
This season saw Norwich City take the Championship title by six points from Watford who were also promoted to the Premier League along with third placed Brentford (following the play-offs).
At the other end of the table the relegated trio were Wycombe Wanderers (22nd), Rotherham United (23rd) and bottom of the pile Sheffield Wednesday. It was a measure of CCFC’s progress that both the Wombles and the Millers had accompanied the Sky Blues up from League One the previous season!
Thanks to CCFPA’s Mike Young for sourcing the images.
