The snow ploughs have finally managed to dig out Bazza’s report, so here you go.
This eagerly awaited fixture meant an early finish from work and in view of the weather a prompt getaway from Surrey to the Midlands to be in time to beat the predicted congestion around the ground. My son Jonny had been sent home early from his employment because of the dangerous conditions at his workplace. We had had a lot of snow in Surrey, Hampshire and West Sussex in the previous 24 hours and although the roads had been largely cleared, we didn’t want to leave anything to chance.
In a strange sort of way things seemed to be coming together and I asked Jonny to catch a train into Guildford and Will would pick him up on the way through collecting me. The best laid plans of mice and men rarely stay on track for long and sure enough Jonny calls to say that his train had been cancelled at the last minute and he was going to have to drive in meaning that our prompt departure at 3 pm was going to be nearer 3.20. This development although vexing at the time was going to prove crucial much later on but more of that later.
We made reasonable time arriving at Baginton to collect Chris. We decided to have a hot meal before going onto St Andrews and Will suggested we should get going at no later that 6 pm. That was 6.25 then which meant we got stuck in traffic coming into Birmingham losing loads of valuable time which in turn meant that our proposed visit to The George prior to kick off was out of the question “It’s yower fault again Jonny!” said Will which was a little harsh given the time wasted leaving The Baginton Oak earlier but Jonny has learned to take all blame apportioned with quiet resignation to avoid even worse p**s taking going forward. He just said, “Maybe but I still hate Villa more than you!” “No yow don’t!” exclaimed Will whereupon a heated debate on this subject kicked off anyway.
It became clear that we were all going to miss kick off if we sat in the traffic queue much longer. Jonny and I got out and started walking up towards the ground. We had to walk past a large contingent of noisy and irritated Vile supporters who were ‘kettled’ by a substantial company of West Midland Constabulary and since this was about five minutes before kick off it was understandable that they were getting a little obstreperous. Discretion took the place of valour and Jonny and I passed by on the other side of the street and made our way onto the Coventry Road and into the Kop. We got to our seats in the nick of time.
The atmosphere was loud, raucous and tense and there was a sense in the bitterly cold air that Blues were up for it and their fast start confirmed this. Villa showed no intention of being intimidated though and matched the tempo with swift movement and passing making for an open game and a decent watch. It was Blues however, who drew first blood when Bowyer was clumsily challenged in the box by Dunne clattering the midfielder to the ground. This gave Chris Foy one of the easiest penalty decisions he will ever have to make and Sebastian Larsson stepped up to calmly plant the ball low into the net sending Brad Friedel the wrong way. The vociferous away support was silenced as ‘Keep Right On’ reverberated around St Andrews. Twelve minutes gone and Blues who had failed to score in the last three derby fixtures had the lead.
Villa forced a series of corners in response but it was Blues who were looking the most dangerous. An excellent pass from Larsson to Zigic was wasted by the tall Serb’s rubbish touch and his attempts to gain another penalty were rightly ignored by Mr Foy.
A Blues’ corner on 27 minutes was headed downwards by Roger Johnson only to be partially cleared to Zigic standing eight yards out. His snap shot was saved by Friedel but the American fumbled the ball and could not prevent it crossing the line to the frantic celebrations of the Blues’ players and the crowd. Confusion seemed to reign as the Assistant Referee, Mr Cann flagged for offside against Scott Dann who was indeed in an offside position but behind Friedel and nowhere near close enough to him to influence play. Under present laws, this was an incorrect decision and the goal should have stood; 2-0 at this stage and I suspect Blues would have gone on to win this game comfortably.
Unfortunately, as so often happens, in football with two minutes of this incident Villa were level through our nemesis, Agbonlahor. There was more than an element of fortune in the equaliser when Jonathan Hogg challenging for a loose ball with Dann in midfield caused the ball to squirt perfectly into the path of the Villa striker who was offside albeit marginally so. The finish was excellent nevertheless and his first time cross shot into the far corner found the net. The Assistant running the line down the Kop side was incredibly poor all night so it was no surprise that the flag did not go up on this occasion. Blues should have restored their advantage two minutes later when a fine ball by Zigic put Jerome clean through. He dinked the ball over the onrushing Friedel only to see the attempt pass a foot wide of the far post; an unforgivable miss in the circumstances and showed all too graphically our fundamental problem. Instead of going in at the break 3-0 up the score read 1-1.
The second half was dominated by Villa. Their young midfield trio of Bannan, Clark and Hogg finally made their numerical superiority count against the experienced Bowyer and Ferguson for Blues. Villa grew more confident as the half wore on as they weaved pretty patterns back and forth across the pitch but there was insufficient penetration with the final ball tending to be poor.
They were made to pay on 84 minutes when Stephen Carr put a good ball down the line to man of the match, Larsson whose onward ball into the right channel was chased by Jerome. His first time ball back across the box found Zigic who was about to be substituted. His first time strike was scuffed into the ground and onto a defender who had put his body on the line to block. The ball looped up over the despairing Friedel who despite tipping the ball with the very tips of his fingers could not prevent it dropping into the Tilton Road net. The roar was tangible filling the bitterly cold night with deafening sound. The old ground was rocking at this stage with the vast majority of the crowd jumping up and down with joyful chants of ‘Dance! If you ‘ate Villa; dance! If you ‘ate Villa’
Villa huffed and puffed and launched desperate crosses into the box which Johnson, Dann and company dealt with along with useful pressure preventing catches by the dependable Foster. The only gilt-edged chance Villa created in the second period was a snap shot by Stephen Ireland that Foster saved brilliantly near the end.
Blues still had another excellent opportunity to put the tie to bed once and for all when Derbyshire who had come on for Zigic found himself clean through a minute from the end. He allowed Downing to catch up with him and so opted for the square pass to Jerome when a shot may well have reaped dividends. Jerome tamely hit a weak strike straight at the keeper summing up his evening.
After a total of seven minutes over time the final whistle blew to delirious celebrations. An unwelcome invasion of the pitch to taunt the visitors, flares thrown back and forth and other objects exchanged marred the deserved victory.
The journey back was eventful; a long walk back to the Chris’ car where he and Will had left it near the roundabout at the House of Drums was followed by a last drink at The Oak where one or two Viler customers were given our rendering of ‘Wember-ley, Wember-ley, we’re the only team in Birmingham that’s going to Wember-ley!’ Juvenile, I know but it’s got to be done! 😀 An Arsenal fan, Brian was obviously pleased with the semi-final draw and insisted on buying us a pint for which we were grateful.
The journey home was straightforward for the most part. Birmingham appeared to have had little snow compared with our area of the country and we didn’t see any until the first few flakes when we got to Wycombe. These flakes increased as we went further south and by the time we passed the M3 turn off on the M25 the snow was coming down thick and settling. The A3 was even worse with blizzard conditions. Will dropped us off at my work place in Guildford and it was at this point that Jonny’s journey hours earlier turned out to be lucky for us. My car is rear wheel drive and it had no chance of getting out of the car park through the 6-inch think carpet of snow. The other car was front wheel drive and to my astonishment made the 16 miles journey to home despite the appalling conditions. Jonny could have told me that there was no petrol in it though (most fathers with young adult children will be familiar with this scenario!)
We arrived home safely at 2 a.m. to be greeted by a frantic Mrs Bazza who proceeded to give us the third degree about the inadvisability and stupidity of travelling all that way to watch “a silly football game that was on the telly and could have been watched in the comfort of your own home; yet you two insist on taking unnecessary risks! It’s just not worth it!” Winning a place in the semi-final of a major cup competition, at home and against our fiercest rivals Aston Villa; sorry my love but I’m afraid it is!
The Good: Great match, fantastic atmosphere and a brilliant win. There is nothing like beating the Vile! 😀
The Bad: Cameron Jerome’s finishing; should have had a hatrick. Both Assistant Referees.
The Ugly: The inexcusable scenes at the end of the match.
Birmingham City:
Foster 7 Carr 8 Johnson 7 Dann 8 Ridgewell 7 Larsson 9 (Murphy 88, N/A) Fergusson 7 Bowyer 7 (Gardner 65, 7) Fahey 7 Zigic 6 (Derbyshire N/A) Jerome 6
Subs not used: Taylor, Michel, Beausejour, Jiranek
Booked: Dann, Carr
Aston Villa:
Friedel 7 L Young 7 Dunne 6 Collins 7 Warnock 7 (Delfouneso 90 N/A) Bannan 8 (Ireland 72, 6) Clark 8 Hogg 8 (Pires 90 N/A) A Young 8 Agbonlahor 7
Subs not used: Guzan, Carew, Cuellar, Lichaj
Booked: Hogg, A Young, Collins
Referee: Mr C Foy (Merseyside) 6
The referee lost a little control of the tie in the second half when the game nearly descended into a kicking match. Inconsistent at times when Dann received a booking for a challenge that was almost identical to Villa’s Clark in the first half. This incenses fans. The referee wasn’t helped by his Assistants who were awful and would deserve no more than 4/10 especially the one on the Kop side for whom the said score would be highly generous.
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