View from The South – Birmingham City vs Coventry City FA Cup 4th Round

Bazza’s take on yesterday.

For the first time in ages I travelled up to the game alone. Will had decided that he couldn’t go and his excuse was……………..wait for it; D.I.Y!!!! Yes, his missus had a list of jobs she wanted doing and that was Will’s task on a Saturday afternoon when there is a Fourth Round Cup tie on! Amazing! As for my son Jonny he told me this week that there was a party in Southampton that he had promised a mate he would go to; more like that he was on a promise if you ask me but there you go! 😀 I therefore had a spare ticket which Chris said he could offload for me as his mate, Rich who is a Baggies fan said he wouldn’t mind tagging along so it was with this that I met Rich, Chris and ‘Postie’ Pete, an avid Coventry fan and Little Jack, Chris’ seven year-old grandson at The Oak in Baginton.

We set off for St Andrews at the normal time and it was noticeable that the traffic was nowhere near as heavy as usual. We parked up in Sarah Road and I was looking forward to pork roast sandwich in The George. Unfortunately, the hog roast was not there and this was because it would appear that the pub knew that there was going to be reduced crowd and it was therefore not deemed busy enough to have food on for this game. So we settled for a couple of pints instead, made our way into the ground and grabbed a pie before finding our seats.

Blues had made a number of changes from midweek taking the opportunity to rest a number of players including Ben Foster whose place was taken by Colin Doyle. Parnaby and Murphy filled the full-back berths with Jirenek and Ridgewell at the heart of the defence. Bentley was restored to the line-up along with Alexsandr Hleb, Keith Fahey and Beausejour with Zigic and Kevin Phillips up front. Birmingham started brightly and should have been two up in the first nine minutes. A lovely cross from Bentley from the left onto Zigic’s head was diverted wide from only 6 yards when it was probably easier to score. After further good work by Bentley, Murphy delivers an equally excellent cross this time onto the head of Kevin Phillips whose header was brilliantly saved by Kieran Westwood in the Coventry goal. Blues were in total control and it was therefore against the run of play that Coventry contrived to take the lead. Marlon King was given far too much space to run in the inside right channel not helped by the fact that Liam Ridgewell lay on the ground injured. Jirenek attempted to come across intercept but the striker was too quick in getting his shot away across Doyle and into the far corner for a 1-0 lead with barely 11 minutes gone.

Despite the setback, Blues continued to play the best football with Alexsandr Hleb and David Bentley being in a different class and completely bossing midfield. It was remarkable therefore that with only 25 minutes gone, Coventry doubled their lead from a simple header by Richard Wood from a corner delivered by Birmingham old boy, Gary McSheffrey. Whilst the first goal could be put down as one of those things there was no such excuse available for what was simply appalling defending. Zigic and Murphy were both guilty of ball watching and arguably it was a type of ball that Colin Doyle in goal should have come for. Richard Wood was allowed to get in far too easily to score his first goal of the season from a free header. It seemed very strange that a game that Blues have largely dominated was 2-0 to the visitors. Things were going about as well as Will’s shelving at home! I discovered afterwards, that he had rung Chris to ask the best way of drilling holes in tiles. I suggested that this did not augur well for the job in hand! The score in the game on the balance of play was about as lopsided as the shelf that Will was putting up. A tin of baked beans had by all accounts rolled off the first shelf onto the floor! 😀

Despite the fact, that we were behind and fairly comprehensively at this stage, I never felt that we were not in control and I thought that we could still win the game even from this position. This belief was further reinforced by a goal back by David Bentley on 35 minutes. What a goal it was! Bentley, who to my mind was a man of the match, picked up the ball in midfield turned inside and unleashed a fierce bullet of a shot from fully 30 yards that beat Westwood in Coventry’s goal for pace. Birmingham continued on the front foot until half-time. Although losing the game at this stage, this had been one of the most entertaining performances by the Blues all season. It was still a major chore to get a cup of tea at half-time to warm the blood on what was a bitterly cold afternoon. Once again, I have to complain at just how bad the catering facilities are at St Andrews where they shut one of the counters in the section where I was presumably because of the low crowd. It seems strange that the powers that be in football in this country spend millions of pounds on players and yet we as fans have to endure unnecessarily long queues to be served, wash our hands in freezing cold water in the toilets and then have wholly inadequate facilities to dry them afterwards.

Blues started the second period of the game brightly and carried on very much as they had left off in the first period. On 54 minutes a neat piece of close passing play around the edge of the Coventry area saw Bentley collect the ball and put in another excellent ball into the box. Beausejour met it, but could only head it wide of the post when he really should have done better. Coventry’s efforts were becoming ever more fleeting on the break but they did go close to extending their advantage when Marlon King fired a low shot just the wrong side of Doyle’s far post.

On 67 minutes, parity was restored thanks to Stuart Parnaby. The goal stemmed from good play on the right by Nikola Zigic, who despite being under pressure from two defenders managed to find Hleb with pass on the edge of the box. Hleb played a one two with Beausejour before crossing the ball across the six yard box where Parnaby was on hand to stick a foot out and stab the ball home from 10 yards and at the same time record his first ever goal for Blues and his first in five years. This was a lovely move that deserved to be capped off with a goal. There was now an inevitability that Blues would go on from here and win the game. Kevin Phillips was denied by a fine save from Westwood but he made no mistake from the resulting corner as the ball dropped to him ten yards out and he lashed it home for Blues’ third goal on 74 minutes. A class finish from top-class player.

Cameron Jerome came on for Zigic immediately after the goal. Aidy Boothroyd attempted to rescue the situation with a double substitution of Freddy Eastwood and Nathan Cameron for Clive Platt and Conor Thomas with 10 minutes left but it was to no avail. Coventry simply did not have enough left to salvage a replay and it was Blues who progressed into the fifth round.

The Good: A very good, entertaining game; certainly one of the most enjoyable that I have witnessed all season and it is a credit to both teams that they played their part in what was an enjoyable spectacle. Bentley was my man of the match although Kevin Phillips got the vote from the phone in. Alexander Hleb was a class apart in one of the major differences between the two sides.

The Bad: Our defending for their second goal. There is simply no excuse for conceding goals in this manner regardless the line-up we have out on the day.

The Ugly: Poor ‘Postie’ Pete’s face at the end of the game. Understandably he was not a happy man. Will’s shelving! 😛

Colin Doyle 6, David Murphy 7, Liam Ridgewell 6, Kevin Phillips 8, David Bentley 9, Keith Fahey 7, Nikola Zigic 7 (Cameron Jerome, 74, 6), Stuart Parnaby 8, Alexander Hleb 8, Jean Beausejour 6 (Craig Gardner, 88 N/A), Martin Jiranek 7.

Subs not used: Ben Foster, Seb Larsson, Matt Derbyshire, Jordon Mutch, Fraser Kerr.

Bookings: None

Goals: Bentley (35), Parnaby (67), Phillips (74).

Coventry City: Kieran Westwood 9, Richard Keogh 6, Stephen O’Halloran 6, Marlon King 8, Martin Cranie 7, Aron Gunnarsson 8, Carl Baker 7, Gary McSheffrey 7, Clive Platt 7 (Freddy Eastwood, 80, 6), Richard Wood 7, Conor Thomas 7 (Nathan Cameron 80, 6).

Subs not used: Daniel Ireland, David Bell, Lukas Jutkiewicz, Jordan Clarke, Josh Ruffles.

Bookings: None

Goals: Marlon King (11), Richard Wood (25)

Referee: Mike Dean (Cheshire) 8: They say that the mark of a good referee is that you don’t notice him and I think this was the case here; a highly competent performance allowing flow to a really good cup tie and keeping his cards in his pocket.

Attendance: 16, 669 (5,604 Coventry fans – sang their hearts out and were brilliant for their team all afternoon)

KRO SOTV