View From the South – Birmingham City v West Ham Utd

Although it is a bit late, I thought you’d like to read Baz’s take of Wednesday night.

It is Thursday morning and my phone my phone goes off. It’s Will who says; “It’s or’roight Baz, it’s not a dream, it really did ‘appen! We’re gooin’ to Wember-ley!” He then rang off abruptly which was just as well as I was in the middle of a consultation with one of my patients but never mind I could fully empathise with his feelings since it hadn’t sunk in for me either. The tale actually begins two days earlier when Will called by my office to pick up his ticket.

We were unable to go to the game together on this occasion as Will, because of work commitments was making the journey from Dartford in Kent and it meant a big detour to come to Guildford first. He sat down in my office on Tuesday evening looking very gloomy and with a face like a bulldog chewing a wasp. When I asked him what was up he said; “Baz I’m not looking forward to this game. We play ‘orrible football and have done all season and Big Eck’s tictacs are sh**e an’ if ‘e plays 4-5 effin 1 AGAIN we gonna lose an’ West Ham have a big advantage, make no mistake an’ oi think it’s gonna be a draw with them equalisin’ in the last minute an’ oi can just picture it now and what’s more we gonna get relegated cos we’re s**t an’ we ain’t even gonna ‘ave a Wembley Final to deaden the pain.” I was almost crying at this point; nay I was nearly cutting my own throat as I suggested to him that he was a bit glass half empty. “Half empty?” Will exclaimed, “Moi bloody glass is bone dry! Oi ‘ave very low expectations an’ that way oi’ve found that I’m never disappointed!”

In fairness I had never seen my mate so down before and despite my murmurings of encouragement that with the St Andrews crowd in full voice, playing two up front and getting after them the day could still be ours. No it was desolation, doom and despair and nothing but nothing was going to change the fact that we never got to major finals and on the only occasion we had in recent times we had been robbed by a blind schoolteacher, of questionable parentage from some highbrow public school. Will then regaled Juley and Linda, my reception staff who are both avid football followers and rest assured, they definitely understand the offside law and all its intricacies, with his views on just how rubbish the Birmingham City team is.

So it was the following night we all met up at the Baginton Oak to pick up a lift from Chris. I was in the company of my son Jonny as usual and we arrived at about the same time as Will at just after six. Having necked a quick pint we set off for St Andrews and parked up in Sarah Road with the intention of nipping into the George. Sadly there was no time for that and so Jonny and I cut through St Andrews school on to the Coventry Road to get to our seats in the Kop. There was a heavy police presence with vans blocking our way and at one point I nearly got shield bashed as I merely attempted to walk towards the Cattell Road gate. “Whoa Officer! I come in peace; Just walking the Queen’s Highway for heaven’s sake!” The strong arm of the law’s representative thought twice about knocking my teeth out and motioned me to go round the long way. Eventually we were allowed to go to where we wanted and got in just before kick-off.

Now most of you will have watched the game either at the ground or on the telly so I’ll not go into as much detail as usual but it was a relief to see that we started the match with two up front in the form of Jerome and Derbyshire with Larsson, Fergusson, Gardner and Bowyer in midfield. The change that most pleased me was the insertion of Jirinek into the back four a change long overdue in my opinion and Ridgewell reverted to left back. Stephen Carr and Roger Johnson completed the quartet there. Ben Foster naturally was in goal. West Ham did play with a lone striker in the form of Carlton Cole whom I thought was supposed to be injured which just shows that these stories in the press are based on pretty flimsy evidence at times.

I spoke with Kev last night and he remarked that if ever this was a game of two halves this was it and of course he was right. Looking at this from a slightly different perspective West Ham are a team of two types. When they come forward as we allowed them to in the first half at The Boleyn Ground and at St Andrews they look a really decent outfit as they have a lot of pace and energy about them and are very dangerous with the ability to score against almost anybody if they are allowed onto the front foot. Apart from the first ten minutes of the game that is exactly what Blues did. We sat off them, gave Scott Parker far too much room to pick his passes, allowed Zavon Hines playing just behind Cole to maraud around in the space between our back four and our team looked totally unbalanced as was shown whenever Ridgewell received the ball out left he looked up and there was a big acreage of space in front of him with nobody filling it so he had no one to pass to.

Neither Gardner or Bowyer was fulfilling this role and so Ridgewell had no choice other than to clip it in from deep or pass it square. Consequently we were getting nowhere and West Ham were all over us. They were creating chances and could have scored before they did. It was no surprise to me when they took the lead on the half hour. A throw in thirty yards out was left by Fergusson and Gardner for each other. Cole accepted the gift of possession by turning adeptly and firing a beautiful volley into the far corner with Ben Foster grasping at thin air. A lovely strike and a cracking finish and fully deserved. Blues performance had started badly and it went downhill from there. The Hammers fans started singing ‘Que Sera, Sera’ and who could blame them.

The Arch of Wembley looked a long long way off at this stage and at half time following such a dismal performance. I have to confess that I had given up and saw no way back for us and thought that Will was right after all. I sent him a text message telling him exactly what I thought. Jonny kept me going by suggesting that Eck would use the hairdryer, make a change and we could still turn things around. I said to him that I had been to enough semi-finals to know that it wasn’t going to happen. “Not tonight Dad! Not tonight!” was Jonny’s defiant reply. Oh to be young I thought to myself as we waited in a long queue for a hot drink which we never got because of the perennially inadequate catering at the dump that is our home ground.

Little did I expect that we would see the other face of West Ham; the one that shows when you put them on the back foot. When they are under pressure they are shambolic defensively as was the case in the second half of the first leg and was to prove so in the second period in this game. Blues moved the play up the pitch ten yards, compressed midfield, showed more discipline with their shape and got about them. However, the pivotal change as Jonny had correctly predicted was the exchange of Zigic for Derbyshire who had largely been anonymous in the first half. Robert Green was suddenly a busy boy as Blues swarmed all over their opponents who began to look like rabbits in headlights.

The appearance of panic in the West Ham ranks began to lift the St Andrews faithful and the noise levels began to rise. Gardner crashed a thunderous shot against the upright only to see it cannon across the goal to safety for a goal kick. Was it to be one of those nights? Well no, because it was around the hour mark that Blues finally got their just reward with a goal back when Bowyer crashed a wonderful volley into the top corner to take the roof off the Tilton. Belief started to flood into St Andrews Field; the blood was up, voices raised with strains of Keep Right On. Jerome outpaced the West Ham rear-guard only for Green to save well.

Ridgewell tested the keeper again as his header from one of a number of corners was powered goalwards. A shout for a penalty for hand ball against Bridge was waved away probably correctly but the reprieve was brief as from the resulting corner Johnson buried a free header downwards and thus into the top of the net to wild scenes of celebration. Blues scented victory and tore into their opponents anew with West Ham breaking quickly themselves when they got possession. Zigic was causing West Ham all sorts of problems and he was winning headers at will and several close calls occurred, none closer than seconds from the end from a Zigic knock down, another pile driver from Gardner was tipped onto the same post as earlier only to rebound agonisingly wide of the onrushing Jerome. Instead of a dramatic last gasp winner, extra time beckoned.

Incredibly with only four minutes of the extra period gone, Gardner repeated his feat of earlier for the third time. This time however, Green was unable to keep the shot out and it nestled in the corner of the net as St Andrews rocked. West Ham had a flurry for the rest of the first half of extra time and went close through Parker Cole and Hines but in the end their efforts weren’t quite enough to get them the goal that perversely would have won them the tie on the away goals rule. Murphy could have settled our nerves near the end when Green saved his shot when put clean through. The final whistle was greeted with ‘Que Sera Sera’ this time from the home fans.

On the way home we are, of course, all cock-a-hoop and loud renderings of songs about going to Wembley were sung to friends and relatives down the phone. Will is now Mr Cheerful and when I pointed out that he was previously like a ghoul in a graveyard and all the negative things he had said in my office the previous evening he said “’Ave yow got proof?” I said “I don’t need it, I’ve got at least two witnesses!” Will persisted “’Ave yow got proof?” to which I protested again about what he said to the girls at my clinic. He said, “Well Oi’ve got proof in writing” as he triumphantly held up his mobile phone to display the message I’d sent him at half time which said, “We’re s**t!” 😛 Whilst this may be true it doesn’t change the fact that I and every member of our party present would never support anyone else. Well done lads; you delivered our first Wembley major cup final for 55 years in the end. We may not win it but it will be a grand day out!

KRO SOTV

The Good: We’re going to Wembley!

The Bad: Our first half performance which was dismal.

The Ugly: No everything is beautiful!

Birmingham Foster 7, Carr 8, Johnson 7, Jiranek 8, Ridgewel 7l ,Larsson 7 (Beausejour 101, 7), Ferguson 8, Bowyer 8,Gardner 9 (Murphy 101, 7), Derbyshire 6 (Zigic 46, 8), Jerome 7.
Subs Not Used: Taylor, Phillips, Fahey, Hleb.

Booked: Gardner, Ferguson.

Goals: Bowyer 59, Johnson 79, Gardner 94.

West Ham Green 8, Faubert 7, Tomkins 7, Upson 6, Bridge 6, Noble 7, Parker 8, Spector 7 (McCarthy 106, 6), Hines 7 (Dyer 71, 6), Cole 8, Boa Morte 6 (O’Neil 83, 7).
Subs Not Used: Boffin, Reid, Gabbidon, Sears.

Booked: Green, Dyer, Tomkins, Cole.

Goals: Cole 31.

Agg (4-3) After Extra Time

Att: 27,519

Ref: Howard Webb (S Yorkshire) 8 – had a solid game and used all his experience to control what could have been a difficult match but the officials were instrumental in letting the game flow and making it a good spectacle.