Matchday Memories: On This Day 2015 – See Sky Blues Sort Spireites Thanks To ‘Arma’
CCFC gaffer Tony Mowbray
On this day (19th September) in 2015 the Sky Blues took on Chesterfield at the Ricoh in front of a crowd of 11,003 (including 841 away fans). Tony Mowbray‘s men had started the season well and had already got four wins under their belt and were sitting fourth in the table. The visitors were looking for their third successive win on the road.
Popular loanee striker Adam Armstrong returned to scoring form as the Sky Blues chalked up a 1-0 win over the Spireites. ‘Arma’, on loan to the Sky Blues until the new year from Newcastle United notched his sixth of the season just four minutes after half-time to give the Sky Blues all the points. City had carved out a succession of chances in the first half but wasted most of them, and must have been worried that the visitors would do better after the break. ‘Arma’ had not scored for a month but looked in sharp form today as both he and Ryan Kent posed endless problems for Dean Saunders‘ men from Derbyshire.
Jacob Murphy in the Sky Blue
However, Adam was able to exploit an inviting pass from the impressive Jacob Murphy, then turned and calmly stroked the ball past Spireites ‘keeper Tommy Lee. Arguably, though the Sky Blues deserved their win, our goalie (now CCFPA member) Lee Burge needed to make two fine saves in the second half to maintain their advantage. It mattered little that the away team went down to ten men with two minutes left when Mani Dieseruvwe was sent off after a second yellow for handball.
Sky Blues (CCFPA members underlined)
Lee Burge in the Sky Blue yellow!
Lee Burge, Chris Stokes, Romain Vincelot, Reda Johnson, John Fleck, Adam Armstrong (sub. Ruben Lameiras -84), Jim O’Brien (sub. Marc Antoine-Fortune -75), Sam Ricketts, Aaron Martin, Jacob Murphy and Ryan Kent
Unused subs: Conor Thomas, Bryn Morris, Aaron Phillips, Marcus Tudgay and Reice Charles-Cook (gk)
Chesterfield
Tommy Lee, Chris Herd (sub. Ollie Banks -79), Daniel Jones, Sam Hird, Sam Morsy, Ian Evatt, Dan Gardner (sub. Gboly Ariyibi -40), Sylvan Ebanks-Blake, Jay O’Shea, Lee Novak (Mani Dieseruvwe -46) and Liam O’Neil Unused subs: Charlie Raglan, Richie Humphreys, Armand Gnanduillet and Alex Cairns (gk) Referee: Darren Bond
Madders in the Sky Blue
In the last game of the year (28th December) the return game at Saltergate took place and resulted in a 1-1 stalemate when manager Tony Mowbray having been sent to the stands on eighty minutes for dissent by the referee saw his team draw level and save a point two minutes from time thanks to (now CCFPA member) James Maddison.
Sadly a promising first half of the season was not maintained in the new year. Thus, the Sky Blues who had once harboured serious promotion aspirations had to be content with an eighth place finish. Chesterfield were safe ten places below the Sky Blues.
CCFC 2015-16
Top of the tree this season were Wigan Athletic who were promoted along with runners up, a couple of points behind, Burton Albion and sixth placed Barnsley (after the playoffs). The relegated quartet (in descending order) were Bolton Wanderers, Blackpool, Colchester United and, at the very bottom, Crewe Alexandra.
Thanks to CCFPA’s Mike Young for sourcing the images
