Matchday Memories: On This Day 2017 – See Sky Blue George’s Goal Get The Gas Gone

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Sky Blue gaffer Mark Robins

On this day (March 25th) in 2017 the ‘second coming’ to CCFC of current Sky Blue ‘gaffer’ Mark Robins at the beginning this same month appeared to be starting to turn things round. Tony Mowbray was in the Ricoh hot seat at the start of the 2016-17 Laegue One season but stood down at the end of September.  Technical Director Mark Venus stood in as caretaker until Russell Slade was appointed just before Xmas. Under his tenure things went from bad to worse and by the time he was sacked City had won only one and lost eight of their last thirteen league games and were rooted at the bottom end of the table!

George Thomas in the Sky Blue

After three defeats in his first three games in charge Mark had got his first Sky Blue win in midweek at the Ricoh with the Sky Blues beating Port Vale 2-1 with goals from Kyel Reid (37 mins) and Kwame Thomas (40), enough to get all three points. Today’s opponents at the Ricoh were Bristol Rovers and, again, a one goal margin would do the trick. City’s 1-0 win over the Gas in front of 11,946 fans (including a large contingent of over 4,000 from Bristol), was thanks to a strike from young Welsh centre-forward  George Thomas just ten minutes from the final whistle. The win set us up nicely for the upcoming Checkatrade Trophy Final at Wembley in a week’s time.

George’s goal is amongst the highlights you can see by clicking the link or image below:-
For the record Mark’s Men on this winning day lined up as follows (CCFPA members underlined):-
Lee Burge, Jordan Willis (sub. Dion Kelly-Evans -63), Ryan Haynes, Farend Rawson, Nathan Clarke (c), Gael Bigirimana, Jodi Jones (sub. Ruben Lameiras -76), Callum Reilly, George Thomas, Stuart Beavon and Kyel Reid (sub. Chris Stokes -86)
Unused Subs: Ben Stevenson, Jordan Turnbull, Charles Vernam and Reice Charles-Cook (gk)
 
The Gas, managed by Darrell Clarke, put out the following team:-
Joe Lumley, James Clarke (sub. Daniel Leadbitter -46), Lee Brown, Tom Lockyer (c), Jonny Burn (sub. Robert Harris -65), Billy Bodin, Chris Lines, Ollie Clarke, Stuart Sinclair, Luke James and Rory Gaffney (sub. Byron Moore -46)  Unused Subs: Lee Mansell, Jermaine Easter, Cristian Montano and Steve Mildenhall (gk)               Referee:–  Graham Horwood
 

The Wembley scorers Bigi & George Thomas celebrate

The win sadly didn’t lift the Sky Blues out of bottom place but gave the team a modicum more of self respect and paved the way for the wonderful 2-1 Wembley win over Oxford United the following week in the EFL (Checkatrade) Trophy in front of nearly 75,000 fans (43,269 from Coventry). George and Gael scored the Sky Blues goals.

Despite the one bright spark from the season ravaged by managerial changes and protest against the club’s owners, City lost three of their last six matches and were relegated to the fourth tier in 23rd place for the first time in 59 years. Also down were bottom club Chesterfield Town and the two clubs above CCFC, Port Vale and Swindon Town.
 
Sheffield United took the divisional title and were promoted along with runners up Bolton Wanderers and (after the play-offs) 6th placed Millwall.
Thanks to CCFPA’s Mike Young for sourcing the photos.
 
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