Coventry City Technical Director Mark Venus 2015-16

On this day (November 7th) in 2016 the Sky Blues had travelled to the seaside for their first round F.A.Cup tie at Morecambe FC. Hopes were naturally high as Morecambe were a lower level club and it had been reported that the Shrimps players had been unpaid for the previous week whilst takeover negotiations had been underway!

Jack McBean in the Sky Blue

The Sky Blues had lost manager Tony Mowbray through his resignation at the end of September and City's Technical Director Mark Venus was in temporary charge. Strangely the game was on a Monday afternoon (k.0.2pm) after being moved from the previous Saturday afternoon due to being the subject of a TV broadcast in North America! City fielded a trio of loanees, James Sterry from Newcastle United, Andre Wright from West Bromwich Albion and American striker James McBean from L.A.Galaxy making his debut.

After a goalless poor quality first half the Sky Blues had to fight their way back into the game at the Globe Arena after the home team's Dean Winnard had put the home side ahead smashing the ball past CCFC 'keeper (and CCFPA member) Lee Burge from close in in the 58th minute after Cole Stockton flicked on an inswinging corner at the front post. Lee played a blinder through the match for the Sky Blues.

Jamie Sterry in Sky Blue action

The homesters had had the better of the first half but the Sky Blues had begun the second half looking a different proposition to that of the first 45 with the introduction of Jack McBean seemingly aiding City's attacking intent. Both sides hit the woodwork in a fiercely competitive game before Jamie Sterry found the Sky Blues equaliser, scoring his first goal for the Sky Blues with a neat curling finish into the bottom corner with nineteen minutes left. The defender had played a one-two with Andre Wright before cutting inside and finding the bottom corner to equalise for City.

Both sides had chances to win the game in the final fifteen minutes, but the Sky Blues had to settle for a replay at the Ricoh as the Sky Blue Army, who formed nearly a third of the crowd (546 out of 1,732) wended their way home probably disappointed at only a draw against the League Two side.

Coventry Telegraph's contemporary match report can be found here. Thanks to Dean Nelson you can watch match highlights by clicking on the link or image below:-

https://youtu.be/6RmH8Rd43c0

The two teams lined up as follows:-

Sky Blues (CCFPA members underlined):-

Lee Burge, Dion Kelly-Evans, Jordan Willis (c), Jordan Turnbull, James Sterry, Ben Stevenson, Andy Rose, Ruben Lameiras, Kyel Reid (sub. James McBean -46), Andre Wright (sub. Callum Maycock -77) and Marvin Sordell.

Unused subs: Sam Ricketts, Cian Harries, Jodi Jones, Marcus Tudgay and Reice Charles-Cook (GK),

Morecambe: (managed by Jim Bentley)

Barry Roche; Aaron McGowan, Dean Winnard, Alex Whitmore, James Jennings; Peter Murphy (c), Michael Rose; Tom Barkhuizen, Aaron Wildig (sub. Paul Mullin -67), Lee Molyneux (sub. Jack Dunn -76), Cole Stockton. Unused subs: Liam Wakefield, Luke Conlan, Andrew Fleming, Rhys Turner and Danijel Nizic (gk) Referee: Andy Haines

The sea siders' Michael Rose is not the same player as the current Sky Blues first teamer!

Marvin Sordell, Coventry City

The Sky Blues duly won their replay on 15th November at the Ricoh by the odd goal in three thanks to a Marvin Sordell brace in front of CCFC's lowest ever F.A.Cup attendance of 2,175. However, as part of a dreadful run of results (eighteen defeats in 28 league and cup games) stretching from mid November to mid March, City crashed out of the F.A.Cup in the second round beaten 4-0 at Cambridge United.

Russell Slade took the CCFC helm on 21st December but things did not really start to improve until our current manager (in his first spell with the Sky Blues) Mark Robins became gaffer on 1st March 2017. Sadly, the Sky Blues were too far gone to save. Accordingly, they sank into League Two in penultimate relegation position with only Chesterfield beneath them. Port Vale and Swindon Town also made the same fateful journey south to League Two!

However, in one bright spot for the fans in the dismal season, under Mark, in April the Sky Blues carried off the EFL (Checkatrade) Trophy from Wembley as they beat Oxford United 2-1 in front of nearly 75,000 fans including over 43,000 from Coventry.

At the top end of the table Champions Sheffield United stormed the division with 100 points, fourteen ahead of also promoted runners up Bolton Wanderers and sixth place Millwall, who accompanied the pair via the playoffs.

Thanks to CCFPA's Mike Young for sourcing the images. Share Post