On this day (6th January) in 2018, just six years ago, Sky Blue manager Mark Robins was in the process of seeking to lift his team out of the fourth tier of the Football League where the Sky Blues had found themselves for only the second time in their history after relegation in 2016-17. The Sky Blues form so far had been patchy with runs of wins and losses but few draws.
On this day, however Mark’s men could take a break from their league exertions and focus on making progress in the FA Cup and they faced Premier League opposition.
In earlier rounds they had put out two non league sides at the Ricoh, Maidenhead United in the first round, by two clear goals and Boreham Wood in the second round by 3-0. Today they faced a much more difficult task. However, the Sky Blues created one of the shocks of the Third Round when they beat Stoke City by the odd goal in three, once more at the Ricoh Arena.
The Potters were managed by Mark Hughes and the defeat to the Sky Blues was the final straw as Mark was sacked immediately after the game!
There was a reasonable attendance of 14,199 in the Arena including 3,612 fans from the Potteries. They saw the Sky Blues take the lead with a brave and determined header in the box from Sky Blues defender (and now CCFPA member) Jordan Willis after 24 minutes and it 1-0 to the home team at half-time.
Jordan turned from hero to villain, however half an hour later when a challenge on Stoke’s Charlie Adam in the box was interpreted as a penalty and Adam picked himself up to equalise. The Sky Blues fans went wild after 68 minutes when City’s defender (also now an Association member) Jack Grimmer jinked his way into the box and unleashed an unstoppable shot past the Potters’ ‘keeper Jack Butland to take the tie and earn a Fourth Round date with MK Dons.
Thanks to former CCFPA committee member Dean Nelson you can watch excerpts from the match action by clicking on the link or image below:-
Mark Hughes defeated Potteries’ City side was:-
Jack Butland, Geoff Cameron (sub. Peter Crouch -51), Ramadan Zobhi, Joe Allen, Kevin Wimmer, Kurt Zoouma, Stephen Ireland (sub. Maxim Choupo-Moting -73), Charlie Adam (sub. Xherdan Shaqiri -74), Saido Berahino, Thomas Edwards and Mame Biram-Diouf Unused subs: Ibrahim Afellay, Darren Fletcher, Harry Souttar and Lee Grant (gk) Referee: Martin Atkinson
The Sky Blues duly won their Fourth Round tie in Milton Keynes, thanks to a 64th minute cracker from recent CCFPA recruit Max Biamou, delighting the 7,833 fans they took with them. Sadly, thats as far as they got as Premier League Brighton removed CCFC from the Cup on the south coast by a 3-1 scoreline in mid February (now CCFPA member Jonson Clarke-Harris got our consolation).
After finishing in sixth place, as is well known, the Sky Blues vacated League Two this season beating Notts County in two stirring legs of the play-off Semi-Final and then beating Exeter City 3-1 in the final in a brilliant Wembley day out in front of more than 50,000 with nearly 38,000 from Cov!
The other upwardly mobile clubs this season were Champions Accrington Stanley, Luton Town (runners up) and Wycombe Wanderers in third place. The desperate duo relegated to the National League were Barnet in 23rd and bottom club Chesterfield Town.