By CCFC Sid
May 1 2005

A dream finish to Coventry City's last ever match at Highfield Road saw them sweep Derby aside with ease - with the 6-2 scoreline being beyond our wildest dreams! Maybe we should leave the place more often....

As is written on one Derby website: "It was [CCFC's] day of entertainment and fun, we were just there to make up the numbers" - absolutely spot on! The sell-out crowd (Which included Derby being allocated far less tickets than usual. to accomodate more CCFC fans) sang from start to finish, lapping up every minute of the historic day. The Main Stand joined in with the singing, and even the exec's in suits joined in with the Mexican wave! (Which the Derby fans, realising there was nothing much for them to get excited about on the pitch, joining in too!).

I hadn't been overly bothered about leaving Highfield Road (Despite being one of the few to actually get married there!), but seeing local news footage, and Mr. Coventry City Bobby Gould singing the "Sky Blue Song" (On TV on Friday), with a tear in his eye, and his voice cracking with emotion, I suddenly realised I was! It's not a bad little ground, and has served us very well. Some of it might be run-down, but I guess that's more to do with the club not wanting to throw money at problems when they know we were leaving....

Due to being part of the matchday team, I missed the procession of CCFC old boys being paraded on the Highfield Road pitch - I also missed Sir Jimmy Hill (If he isn't, he should be!!) singing the "Sky Blue Song"!! As for the "Sea Of Sky Blue" idea (Adhered to by about 95% of CCFC fans!), I guess it seemed like a good idea at the time (I'm sure!!), but did make for difficulties while writing a match report!! At times, the footballers were camouflaged against the supporters at the opposite end of the pitch!

As for the little matter of giving fans the send off they wanted, and also of hopefully banishing any more thoughts of relegation (Mentions of which seem to have gone fairly unmentioned!), you sensed that certain players really did realise the importance of the occasion, with Claus Jorgensen bravely going in on more than once where others might have feared to tread, and the rest of the side performing far better than they have as a unit just about all season.

There were stunning goals from McSheffrey (Who once again also showed just how to take a penalty too), Adebola, John, and Whing, as the players fought to get their name in the history books as the last ever goalscorer at Highfield Road!

An early Idiakez (For some reason wearing a sheep on his head) free-kick tested Steele in the CCFC goal, which he tipped over for a corner, and it was a good few minutes before CCFC properly joined in with proceedings.

My worry that Derby might do to CCFC what Gemany did to England, spoil the result of the last fixture at their stadium, were eased just before a quarter of the match had passed.

Twenty minutes in, and CCFC got on the score sheet, with McSheffrey dancing through the Derby defence before shooting past Camp in the Derby goal. Cue delirious scenes! I had predicted GMc to be the first scorer, but didn't actually put money on it (I also predicted 5-1 - never dreaming we might score more!).

Two minutes later a Smith effort was tipped over by Steele.

Less than 10 minutes after his first goal, Coventry kid McSheffrey was on the score sheet again. Former CCFC favourite Mo Konjic pole-axed Claus Jorgensen in the area, and, despite unbelievable appeals from some Derby players, a penalty was awarded - with Konjic only shown a yellow card for an offence probably more worthy of a red! McSheffrey stepped up, and once again calmly slotted home.

Adebola put CCFC in dream-land with another cracking effort (Having put a header from a corner just wide minutes earlier), leaving Derby defenders trailing in his wake, to make the scoreline 3-0. This saw Derby fans pour down the stairs - whether this was to leave, or merely take early refreshments, I'm not sure! (According to reports on other sites, the beam-back to Pride Park was virtually empty by this point in the match!!).

As they did, a CCFC corner saw Stern John increase the lead!! Chants of "It's Just Like Watching Brazil" echoed round the ground, though I think Brazil's defence are nowhere near as solid as a defence that includes the immaculate Robert Page and Richard Duffy!

Derby did manage one more shot before the end of an awesome first 45 minutes, with said effort just managing to stay inside the corner flag!

Half-time: In danger of relegation CCFC 4, play-off chasing Derby 0!! You couldn't have scripted a better half....

With an error in the turnstile office resulting in a supervisor helping to avoid an argument amongst two operators by volunteering (Or being volunteered!) to do the late gate (For those of you that don't know, this involves missing just about the entire first half), said person looked slightly miffed, if not a little gob-smacked when I saw him at half-time, with him having missed an unbelievable first 45 minutes.

Two minutes into the second half Stern john missed a simple chance to make it 5-0, with an Adebola cross somehow not being headed in almost on the goal line. To use that well worn cliche: "It was far easier to score!!".

Derby made John and CCFC pay, pulling a goal back with a free-kick (With one or two CCFC fans daring to suggest we could go on to draw!!) - before Stern John made amends .... and how!

A superb pull-down saw John in what looked a fairly impossible position to score, but he once again proved he is the best striker at the club, somehow managing to get the ball past Camp in the Derby goal! A dozen goals in a fairly disappointing season for the T&T star - just how good a player he really is, we hope to find out next season!

A top class save from Steele denied Derby a goal, which would have been another in a line of cruelly deflected efforts ending up in his net recently. Derby did reduce the arrears minutes later....

Ian Taylor had limped off injured for Derby in the first half, to be replaced by usually-thorn-in-CCFC's-side Paul "Pesky" Peschisolido - and once again he scored! 5-2.

With Peschisolido threatening to bother our last day celebrations, Jorgensen was replaced by Whing, I thought, with the intention of doubling up, and trying to nullify the threat - wrong! Whing's first touch of the match was to smash a screamer of a shot past Camp in the Derby goal, to make the scoreline 6-2! If this was to be the last goal ever at Highfield Road, it was a worthy effort! Whing celebrated by running along the front of the West End, slapping the hands of the majority of the front row! Even the referee appeared to have a smile on is face at this point....

Derby keeper Lee Camp - apparently suffering from back-ache after yesterday's match!!

Benjamin replaced Adebola with just under twenty minutes left, as the Derby fans poured out of the ground in their numbers! And McSheffrey was denied the chance to score what would have been an emotional hat-trick, being replaced by Morrell with just over 10 minutes left. He, like Adebola, received a standing ovation for his efforts - and hopefully in the near future, he'll receive a new contract too.

Steve Staunton was booked late on for kicking the ball away, which is always a stupid thing to do, but the referee could have let this go just once! (Silly me - I forgot they have to be consistent....), and seconds later, despite a stack of substitutions, only one minutes injury time was show on the board - with less than that amount actually played. Are you listening/watching Lee Probert?!

Thoughts that Highfield Road would be flooded with tears come the final whistle were wrong, as a few people getting on the pitch stalled the "End Of An Era" celebrations for just long enough to annoy those that adhered to the message to stay off the playing area. Their had been repeated requests for supporters to stay off the pitch throughout the week, as well as a tannoy announcement minutes before the end - but these words were ignored. Eventually the majority were shepherded into a corner of the pitch, and the players came back out to complete a lap of honour.

There was nothing to celebrate as far as the season was concerned (As was rightly pointed out by Mickey Adams), as surviving the drop should not have been in the script (And was a far cry from statements made by the chairman at the start of the season), but celebrating the move to the new ground, and the end of an era for CCFC was! Walking away from te ground, and typing this now, it still hasn't really sunk in that I have watched my last ever competitive match at Highfield Road....

With the club looking to sell off anything not nailed down, and taking the nails out of anything that is so that can be sold too, expect the DVD of this momentous day to hit the shops soon - and to be snapped up in it's thousands!!

To those people that turned up yesterday, but haven't been for a while, it would be nice if you would grace us with your prescence next season too - a full ground and a great atmosphere really does lift the team (It would also be nice if you bought at least one copy of my fanzine - still available! Email me at: ccfcsid@btinternet.com for details!!).

If you think the entrance fee is to expensive, let the club know! They more than likely won't change anything, but if enough people moan .... yesterdays sell-out should be the norm, not the exception!!

Finally, once again "The Championship" highlights programme chose to just about ignore CCFC, showing the goals, but nothing more - do these people not realise that 106 years of history has just come to an end?!?! Those that edit the programme are a disgrace.