Matchday Memories: On This Pre Season Day 2004 -Sky Blues Bring Back Perl Cup From Germany!
Peter Reid’s Sky Blues team was halfway through a seven-match preparation for the upcoming Championship season
on this day (July 25, 2004) (now a member of the CCFPA). For the third time in as many seasons, a small group of
the Sky Blue Army had travelled to Germany for a preseason tour. When their first game against TuS Gemünden
Select was called off at halftime because of thunder, lightning, and pouring rain, they were ahead 3-0. They easily
defeated FSV Oggersheim 7–2 in the second game, while FC Saarbrucken defeated them 2-0 in the third. Assistant
Adrian Heath was in charge of today’s games because Reid was briefly back in the UK to attend his daughter’s 21st
birthday.
In a modest event for a trophy known as the “Perl/Besch International Trophy,” the German tour’s final games took
place today at the Stadion am Hammelsberg in the 2,000-person village of Perl, which is located on the
French/Luxembourg border! After winning both of the tournament’s 25-minute each-way mini-games, the Sky Blues
were declared the Cup victors!
At 4 pm local time on this day they faced German fourth division side FK Pirmasens and triumphed 3-0 with second
half goals from Patrick Suffo (32 minutes) and a brace from (Pat’s now fellow CCFPA member) ‘Dele
Adebola (42 and 46 mins.). ‘Dele added these strikes to the five he got against Oggersheim!
At 7 p.m. in the competition’s final, the visitors, who had a nearly entirely new Sky Blue team, demonstrated their depth by defeating Luxembourg-based CS Grevenmacher by four goals!
This time, Eddie Johnson, a Manchester United loan player, scored the first goal after 27 minutes, followed by a hat-
trick from Gary McSheffrey, a teenage “Cov Kid” striker who is now a member of the CCFPA, on minutes 32, 35, and
48.
The remaining two pre-season fixtures back in the UK did not go so well. The Sky Blues got a 2-2 draw at Notts
County and fought a goalless draw at home against Norwich City.
Naturally, the Sky Blues heartily left their 103-year home at Highfield Road at the end of the 2004–05
Championship season in preparation for their transfer to the Ricoh the following year. In January 2005, Peter Reid
was fired from the club after a less than joyful tenure. Micky Adams, the new “gaffer,” was a former player and, like
Peter, an Association member. He gave the Sky Blues new life and made sure they remained in the Championship
with a nineteenth-place finish, just two points ahead of Gillingham, the highest of the three relegated clubs
(Rotherham United and Nottingham Forest were the other two to go).
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