Matchday Memories: On This Day 2012 – Another Draw So See Andy Thorn’s CCFC Career ‘Bury’d

Assistant Richard Shaw & ‘gaffer’ Andy Thorn

On this day (25th August) in 2012 the Sky Blues were a League One side facing their fourth match of the season. Though they had won their opening game 1-0 in a Capital One Cup tie at Dagenham and Redbridge, they were yet to win in the league. They had had to settle for 1-1 draws both at Yeovil Town and, in City’s first home game, against Sheffield United. In City’s season of three full Managers (now CCFPA member) Andy Thorn was currently in charge (but today’s game against Bury would be his last match).

There was a modest crowd of 10,285 present in the Ricoh (nearly 2,500 down on the midweek Blades’ game) to see what would transpire, and what happened was another drawn game, this time the two teams shared four goals. In fact the Sky Blues let slip an early two goal lead provided by (both now CCFPA members) Adam Barton (17 minutes), with a sublime 25 yard strike, and Carl Baker (on 27 minutes) direct from a free kick!

The 2-0 lead lasted until half-time and well beyond. The turning point came when (now CCFPA member) Richard Wood clumsily conceded a 55th minute penalty fouling Bury’s David Healy in the box. He picked himself up to convert past City ‘keeper Joe Murphy. The Shakers’ comeback was completed with still 22 minutes left when their Lennelle John-Lewis headed in for the equaliser. The upshot of this third draw on the bounce was that Andy was relieved of his duties after the game and his assistant (and fellow CCFPA member) Richard Shaw took over in a caretaker capacity to ready the team for their second round C1 cup tie against Birmingham City at the Ricoh in three days time.

The goal highlights, courtesy of CCFC and Dean Nelson can be seen by clicking on the link or image below:-

The Sky Blues lined up as follows (CCFPA members underlined):-

Joe Murphy, Kevin Malaga, Chris Hussey, Reece Brown, Richard Wood, Kevin Kilbane (c), Adam Barton, Steven Jennings, Stephen Elliott, Cody McDonald (Callum Ball -68) and Carl Baker (Gary McSheffrey -68)

Unused Subs: Billy Daniels, William Edjenguele, Jordan Willis, Roy O’Donovan and Chris Dunn (gk)

Bury, managed by Peter Shirtliff, put out the following side:-

Trevor Carson (c), Joe Skarz, Shane Byrne (Marcus Marshall -58), Adam Lockwood, Peter Sweeney, Craig Jones (Lateef Elford-Alliyu -46), Mark Carrington, Mark Hughes, Mark Cullen, Andrai Jones and David Healy (Lennell John-Lewis -61) Unused Subs: Paul Picken, Andy Bishop, Max Harrop and Christian Dibble (gk)   Referee: Andrew Madley

Current Sky Blues ‘gaffer’ Mark Robins took over the helm at the Ricoh (for his first time) on the 18th September until he decamped for the similar position at Huddersfield Town.

After Mark left in in February 2013 former CCFC player Steven Pressley (now a CCFPA member) took over and piloted the club to a thirteenth place finish in League One. The following season ‘Elvis’ would have to face taking his team to play in exile at Northampton Town‘s Sixfields stadium – see next post on this site shortly.

Coventry City manager Mark Robins has confirmed that the Sky Blues are looking to land two more players before the transfer window closes, according to his pre-match interview on the club’s website.

The Championship side have had a busy summer, adding ten new players to their ranks as well as selling duo Viktor Gyokeres and Gustavo Hamer, but it appears that the club are not finished just yet.

The Sky Blues offloaded 15 players following their play-off final defeat to Luton, as well as selling Viktor Gyokeres (£20.5 million) and Gustavo Hamer (£15 million). However, in return, they have signed ten new players with eight of them coming in permanent deals.

Amongst their incomings were club-record signing and USA international Haji Wright, Everton striker Ellis Simms, Burnley defender Bobby Thomas and Dutch U21’s international Milan Van Ewijk.