By CCFC Sid
August 9 2004

An unbelievably warm day saw CCFC claim a much deserved opening game victory - and top spot in the table!! Goals from Suffo and Johnson sent CCFC fans home happy, with victory being as welcome as the ice-cold beer that followed it! CCFC missed two decent early chances, then two pieces of quality defending from Davenport denied Sunderland a chance at goal too. Davenport and Shaw were absolutely superb throughout, with the latters' display meaning it could be a good while longer 'til he takes over as reserve team boss! And the formers display meaning he might not be at Highfield Road for much longer....

A raised arm by Oster in the 12th minute should have resulted in a red card, but the referee, who exploded the old adage that officials favour the home team, allowed to him to carry on. Soon after (Thanks to the scoreboard not working, all times are either vague or non-existant!), Oster flattened Barrett, and was again not show a card....

Richard Shaw suffered a head injury, which the referee - against what I thought was supposed to result in an automatic stopping of the game - failed to act upon, though when play did finally stop, the players took what looked like a very necessary drinks break!!

Twice during the first half, having gathered Sunderland corners, Shearer smashed the ball up-field in an attempt to get McSheffrey in one-on-one situations with Poom. Unfortunately, the kicks were too good, and were gathered by Poom before McSheffrey could get near. While it might not have worked in this match, it is a tactic worth trying every so often (As it worked perfectly against Crystal Palace a while back!).

Gudjonsson, who had one of his poorer games in a CCFC shirt, wasted a couple of chances to cross as the half drew to a close, then hit a cross-come-shot across the face of goal, with nobody able to put the ball in Poom's net.

Half-time 0-0, and most people I spoke to at this point said: `this game has 0-0 written all over it'....

Having shown the more physical side of their game in the first half, Sunderland then went more `continental' after the break, falling over when any CCFC challenge came near. Unbelievably, the referee bought it nearly every time....

A Johnson header early in the second half just missed the target, as did a Doyle follow-up. Poom then smothered a CCFC effort as Johnson looked to open his account in the Championship (Silly name), and, soon after, Barrett intercepted a Sunderland pass, and attempted to beat Poom from some 40 yards out. The keeper was slightly off his line, but the young Irishman didn't put enough height on his effort to trouble Poom.

Kevin Kyle replace Stephen Elliott, and, while he did slightly improve Sunderland's attack, Shaw and Davenport simply continued to impress. One Shaw challenge on Kyle, with the big striker looking odds on to at least have a clear shot on goal, was probably as good as will be seen at Highfield Road all season.

Hughes and McSheffrey were replaced by Sherwood and Suffo on 63 minutes, and, as with Adebola, Suffo looked a far better option coming on from the bench rather than starting the match. As for Sherwood, within 10 minutes he had already earned what looks like it will be a regular occurrence - a yellow card.

Morrell replaced Gudjonsson after 79 minutes (Approx!), and minutes later his run and attempted shot had been handled in the area by McCartney. Suffo stepped up to take the penalty, and, despite what looked like Barrett asking him if he could take it instead, despatched the penalty with aplomb. Queue riotous scenes on the terraces!

Just before the end of full time, a Carey shot came out so Suffo, whose fairly tame looking effort was spilled by Poom, and Johnson reacted fastest to make the scoreline 2-0.

To quote Kevin Keegan (After an opening day victory): `We're three points closer to safety....'!!

[Apologies for the delay in sending this report - I was "taken off air" for a few days]