By CCFC Sid
April 4 2005

The last time CCFC won a home match in the league, I was celebrating a birthday (Mine!). The next time (Yesterday!), I was celebrating a birth - welcome to the world little Lucy, and thanks for the three points CCFC.... Ian Bennett's choice of sitting in the stands at St. Andrews rather than becoming a hero at Highfield Road meant a re-call for Luke Steele, while the cavalry, in the shape of new loan signings Lloyd Dyer and Sean Goater, were also given starts.

Two recent hammerings for the away side meant any CCFC victory would take them out of the bottom three and above Brighton, and, thanks to a debatable penalty decision (By a referee who spent the entire afternoon giving decisions nobody else in the crowd saw), and a stunning Steve Staunton goal, CCFC moved up to the lofty height that is nineteenth in the table!

The chant "There's Only One Mickey Adams" hasn't been sung enough since he took over at Highfield Road, but almost straight after kick off it was sung loudly, and received applause from said person. Sadly (Sort of), it was the Brighton fans, rather than the CCFC supporters, that sang his name.

Brighton were given an early chance to test Steele in the CCFC goal, after a mix up gave them a free-kick inside CCFC's penalty area. Thankfully, Virgo's poor effort hit the side netting.

A minute later, good work from McSheffrey wide on the right saw him cut inside, and unleash a shot that went just wide of the Brighton goal.

The (Still) impressive Duffy broke forward on 18 minutes, and was brought down on the edge of the B&HA area, with Knight booked for the offence. Hughes free kick was cleared without properly troubling the B&HA defence.

A cracking McSheffrey run after 31 minutes took him past a number of Brighton defenders, but, having done the hard work, his effort sailed over the bar, with only the advancing Brighton keeper between him and CCFC's first goal of the afternoon.

Some quality last-ditch defending by CCFC denied Brighton a sight of goal after 36 minutes, though amongst the incidents Michael Doyle appeared to stamp on a B&HA player. Mark McCammon (Who seemed to be involved in a couple of off-the-ball incidents) reacted, and both himself and Doyle were lucky to stay on the pitch.

Three minutes later Brighton appeared to have taken the lead, though the goal was disallowed. What the actual offence was, nobody seemed very clear! And CCFC fans didn't really care either....

With the half drawing to a close, it became evident that the B&HA keepers weakness was his kicking, with every player taking up a position five yards either side of the halfway line, and all between the centre circle and the touch-line! One mis-placed kick, and a quick punt out to Dyer, and we might just have seen what he is capable of. Sadly, most kicks went straight into touch(!), so the opportunities never arose....

With the fourth official showing the amount of injury time to be played, B&HA should have taken the lead as McCammon whipped in a cross or a shot(?!), but no Brighton player was on hand to tap the ball into an empty net. A massive let-off for CCFC....

Half-time: 0-0.

CCFC must have had a rollocking at half-time, or had something dropped in their drink, as they came out looking far more fired up.

Jorgensen's cross seconds into the half was cleared for a corner, and from it, CCFC were awarded a penalty. As with Brighton's disallowed goal, again nobody could quite work out what was going on (With a Mexican Wave effect happening around the home ends of the ground, as people realised just a penalty had been awarded!), but the CCFC fans didn't care!

McSheffrey, who still seems unable to please certain CCFC fans, due to the fact he doesn't score with every shot he has, kept his head to give CCFC a valuable lead.

An excellent Marcus Hall cross on the hour was cleared before Jorgensen could increase CFC's lead, and minutes later Adam Virgo scored an equaliser for the visitors (Only the second time they had crossed the half-way line in 15 minutes) - a goal which seemed far to easy for most CCFC supporters. The celebrating amongst their supporters got slightly out of hand, with CCFC stewards trading punches with a few of them.

As well as the poor kicking from the B&HA keeper, another feature of the game was CCFC's terrible attempts at taking a quick free-kick - with at least three being totally wasted, due to the taker and the supposed recepient not being on the same wave length. Very wasteful, and potentially costly against better sides....

Adebola was brought on for Dyer, and he almost regained CCFC's lead immediately, being denied by Blayney in the Brighton goal.

A blatant handball in the Brighton area should have resulted in another CCFC penalty (And was far more clear-cut that the one actually awarded!!), but despite clearly seeing the incident, the referee ignored appeals.

Soon after, a superb ball from Staunton saw McSheffrey get behind the Brighton defence, but his shot went over the bar. Minutes later, a cracking McSheffrey cross was somehow missed by all.

Morrell and Benjamin replaced Goater and Jorgensen, and again the substitutes (Well, one of them!) almost had an immediate impact. An acrobatic effort from Benjamin was cleared by the B&HA defence, then an Adebola chance was saved by Blayney, as was a McSheffrey effort.

With a draw looking on the cards, the unlikeliest of heroes stepped forward, and helped CCFC to three invaluable points! Steve Staunton ventured forward from defence, played a one-two with Trevor Benjamin before unleashing a cracking shot, which hit the inside of the Brighton post, before seemingly taking an age to actually cross the line!

Having replaced McCammon with McPhee earlier, with both players strolling off the pitch at a leisurely pace, Brighton's second and third substitutes (Made a minute after they conceded the second goal) and players replaced showed slightly more urgency getting on and off the pitch having gone behind!!

Neither side looked like scoring again, with CCFC taking the three points, and dropping Brighton deeper in the mire.

And, with the sun shining brightly, a fair few of the Usual Suspects made their way to The Oak for a spot of "wetting the babies head"!! Most enjoyable....

With good news supposely coming in threes, and with my Lotto numbers being rubbish Saturday, the final piece of good news has to be a victory over Notts Forest on Wednesday!!