Matchday Memories: On This Day 2002 – See Sky Blues Win Away As Jay & Pipey’s Goals Gut Gills.
Jay Bothroyd in the Sky Blue
On this day (October 5th) in 2002 sixth placed Sky Blues travelled to the Thames Estuary in Kent with player-manager Gary McAllister to take on Gillingham in a Division One fixture in front of a modest crowd of 7,722. They travelled in hope, off the back of a 3-2 home defeat to Millwall, so were hoping to get back on track. The 2-0 victory – with two second half goals – brought back from the Priestfield stadium was good value.
David Pipe in the Sky Blue yellow
City’s speedy wide men caused the Gills lots of problems and, one of them, youngster David Pipe (who is now an Association member) got a goal on his league debut in the 53rd minute lashing in from a Richie Partridge pass. This was after the Sky Blues’ striker Jay Bothroyd (who had come off the bench after only a quarter of an hour) beat the offside trap to net less than a minute after the break latching onto a sweet pass from Macca.
? ON THIS DAY:
Back in 2002, the Sky Blues recorded a 2-0 win over Gillingham at Priestfield, with goals coming from Jay Bothroyd and David Pipe. #PUSB pic.twitter.com/TwoAvWypzv
— Coventry City (@Coventry_City) October 5, 2020
The contemporary BBC Sport report of the game can be found here.
Gary McAllister- Sky Blue ‘gaffer’
Macca’s Men lined up as follows (CCFPA members underlined):-
Fabien Debec, Gary Caldwell, Barry Quinn, Youssef Safri, Mo Konjic, Calum Davenport, David Pipe (sub. Richard Shaw -81), Gary McAllister (c), Gary McSheffrey (sub. Jay Bothroyd -16 then Youssef Chippo -73), Lee Mills and Richie Partridge.
Unused Subs: Dean Gordon and Morten Hyldgaard (gk)
The Gills fielded the following players:-
Jason Brown, Nyron Nosworthy, Leon Johnson (sub. Kevin James -58), Andy Hessenthaler, Barry Ashby (sub. Richard Rose -80), Chris Hope, Paul Smith, David Perpetuini, Guy Ipoua, Rod Wallace (sub. Tommy Johnson -58) and Paul Shaw Unused Subs: Danny Spiller and Vince Bartram (gk) Referee:- P.Armstrong (Berkshire)
The two sides fought out a goalless draw the following April in the return at Highfield Road in City’s penultimate league game of the season.
CCFC 2002-03
The Sky Blues finished their 2002-03 Division One season safe, but only just so, finishing in twentieth place four points and a couple of places above the relegated clubs (Sheffield Wednesday, Brighton and, bottom of the table, Grimsby Town). Gillingham finished comfortable in eleventh spot. Division One Champions Portsmouth, runners up Leicester City and fifth place Wolverhampton Wanderers (after the playoffs) were the promoted trio.
Thanks to CCFPA’s Mike Young (& former CCFPA committee member Dean Nelson) for sourcing the images.
