Matchday Memories: On This Day 2010 – Sky Blue Westwood & ‘Woody’ Will No Wednesday Win

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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

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 12th place nine points shy of the playoffs and Owls were now 19th 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 Crainie, Richard Wood, Sammy Clingan, Gary Deegan, Carl Baker, John Stead (sub. David Bell -46), Freddie 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 19th 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 6th place also made it up via the play-offs!

Thanks to CCFPA’s Mike Young & Dean Nelson for sourcing the photos
 
 
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