Matchday Memories: On This Day 1988 – Sillett’s Sky Blues Squash Cherries In Cup On South Coast

John Sillett CCFC gaffer

On this day (27th September) in 1988, thirty six years ago former Sky Blue full back John Sillett‘s Sky Blues made the trip down to the south coast for a Littlewoods Cup second round first leg tie at AFC Bournemouth. Sadly the game lost the deeply missed Sills two years ago.

Harry Redknapp‘s side had only lost one in six but were taken to the cleaners by a rampant Sky Blues side making the second leg a mere formality. The Sky Blues scored four without reply in front of 6,453 at Dean Court.

Greg Downs in the Sky Blue

The first came from Greg Downs on ten minutes, the second from Greg’s now fellow CCFPA member Micky Gynn twenty minutes later (both strikes from outside the box). The half-time score of 2-0 was doubled in the second period each following howlers from the Cherries’ defence. First Gary Bannister took advantage on 63 minutes and then Micky completed his double two minutes later.

Micky in the Sky Blue

The Cherries were truly polished off in this first game and, in the second leg CCFC’s 3-1 victory a fortnight later, goals from Steve Sedgley, David Speedie and Micky Gynn (all now Association members) racked up a 7-1 winning aggregate.

Gary in action

The two teams that lined up on this day were:-

Sky Blues (CCFPA members underlined):

Steve Ogrizovic, Brian Borrows, Greg Downs, Steve Sedgley, Brian Kilcline, Trevor Peake, Micky Gynn, David Speedie, (the late) Cyrille Regis, Gary Bannister and David Smith

Harry Redknapp‘s AFC Bournemouth were comprised :

Gerry Peyton, Mark Newson, Paul Morrell, Kevin Bond, John Williams, Mark Whitlock (sub. Carl Richards), Richard Cooke, Shaun Brookes (sub. Sean O’Driscoll), Trevor Aylott, Ian Bishop and Shaun Close                                    Referee: Kelvin Cooper

(NB. The Cherries John Williams is a different player to the popular former nineties Sky Blue forward (and now CCFPA member).

That was as good as it got in the Littlewoods Cup as in the third round the Sky Blues were dumped out 3-2 by Nottingham Forest at the City ground (CCFC scorers were Brian Kilcline and Gary Bannister).

CCFC 1988-89

Meanwhile, in the league the Sky Blues finished in a very respectable seventh position in Division One 1988-89. Arsenal just pipped runners up Liverpool (on the same points) for the title whilst, at the other end of the table, Middlesbrough, West Ham United and, a long way adrift, Newcastle United were the relegated trio.

Thanks to CCFPA’s Mike Young  (& Dean Nelson) for sourcing the images.