VIEW FROM THE SOUTH – BIRMINGHAM CITY vs BOLTON WANDERERS

It was another early start as I met up with Will as usual in Guildford at 9 AM. Alex and his two children, Sam and Rosie suitably decked out in Blues shirts were to accompany us on this trip. I had got a ticket for Jonny to come with us but at the last minute he called up and said that he had a photo shoot with his band in the afternoon and therefore couldn’t come! So that would be another ticket I would have to try and sell outside St Andrews. The journey was fairly uneventful and we arrived at Baginton at The Oak pub in order to pick up Chris and little Jack before moving off the rest of the journey to the ground.

The injury list appears to have continued growing throughout the week and I was extremely concerned that we had no experienced midfielders who could influence the game and give us enough creativity and any chance of winning. I think that we all went with very little expectation of progressing to Wembley for the second time this season and I think that we were all agreed that Bolton would probably have too much for us with the number of key players that we had missing.

On arrival at St Andrews I was fortunate in being able to offload the ticket to someone standing in the queue who was happy because otherwise he would have had to pay £25 rather than face value £15 for the ticket in the Kop sitting next to me. A jobs’ worth came up to me and suggested that I couldn’t sell the ticket since if I was caught I could be arrested and given a £2000 fine! Whilst I’m no expert of the law, as far as I am aware, it is not illegal to sell an item that is legally yours to whomever you wish. I can fully understand that there are regulations regarding ticket touts who are scum in my eyes but selling a ticket for its face value hardly falls into this category. As it was Kev, the guy who bought the ticket from me was very happy to walk away from the officious individual aforementioned and hand over the princely sum of £15 well out of sight of the authorities. 😛

The team news made for mixed feelings as whilst the midfield quartet appeared to me better than expected, I cannot say the same for the back four. This latter comprised of Parnaby (not risking Stephen Carr) Jiranek (thank heavens for that) Curtis Davies (we’re doomed) and Murphy (not much combined height in this motley crew). Bolton Wanderers are a big side with large physical players throughout their team. Kevin Davies, as we all know, is one of the best centre forwards of his type anywhere in the country and along with Elmander, I could only see a long afternoon ahead. Barry Ferguson and Jordan Mutch were selected in the centre of midfield with Jean Beausejour and Sebastian Larsson in the wide positions. Cameron Jerome and Kevin Phillips were given a start up front. Whilst on paper, the side didn’t look too bad and was at least balanced, I had serious doubts about its solidity and these fears were to be well founded.

As the game got underway it became absolutely clear that Bolton were winning everything in the air and in the first twenty minutes of the first half I cannot recall a single header that was won by our rearguard. There seemed to be an inevitability that sooner or later Bolton would take the lead and they did so as former Blues midfielder, Fabrice Muamba’s header was flicked on by Ivan Klasnic and Elmander got beyond the home defence and fired emphatically beyond Foster with a fierce low shot. Defensively, we were static and caught ball watching as the flick from Klasnic was allowed to pass too easily between Jiranek and Murphy. Elmander gave Ben Foster absolutely no chance with the finish. The problems continued to mount for the home side as Barry Ferguson, playing following a painkilling injection for his broken rib had to be replaced by Nathan Redmond for a thigh injury. Martin Jiranek also had to come off the pitch having received a knock to his ankle. He was replaced by Liam Ridgewell who went into the centre half berth. Strangely, the enforced changes seem to benefit Blues who equalised seven minutes before the break courtesy of a route-one approach.

Jerome was unable to bring down Foster’s hefty clearance but a careless touch by David Wheater gave the ball back into the striker’s path and he smashed his shot beyond the outstretched arm of Jaaskelainen. This was a very nice finish from a player lacking confidence but he proved that when he has to react instinctively and doesn’t have time to think about it he can be very effective. Equality was very least that Blues deserved and they went into the break on terms. Blues enjoyed more of the possession during the remainder of the half with Redmond exciting the home crowd with some pacy running with the ball. The other pleasing aspect was that we looked more solid with Liam Ridgewell introduced into the back four than we had at any stage up until that point. The visitors thought they should have had an early second half penalty when Curtis Davies clearly handled inside the area. The referee however correctly ruled that the Blues defender had been pushed in the back by his Bolton namesake Kevin and awarded a free-kick the opposite way.

Nevertheless, Birmingham were lucky to get away with this as it begs the question as to what Curtis Davies’ arms are doing waving high above his head. A less proficient referee could easily have pointed to the spot. There was to be controversy at the other end of the pitch when Jerome was seemingly hauled down just inside the area by Jaaskelainen. I have to confess that from where I was sitting it looked the clearest penalty you would ever see. The striker latched on to a beautiful pass by Redmond and appeared to be tripped as he pushed the ball past the keeper but TV replays showed that Jaaskelainen did get a touch on the ball and Phil Dowd was therefore correct to award a corner. I haven’t had the benefit of looking at a replay since the ITV did not deem the incident important enough to place amongst their highlights of the game. However Alex McLeish has come out and said that the decision was correct both for this and Bolton’s subsequent penalty award later on.

Blues were applying pressure at this point in proceedings but the corner came to nothing but from another a couple of minutes later Larsson’s ball was touched on by Murphy and Phillips was inches away from putting Blues in front before substitute Lee Chung-Yong cleared the danger. The Korean winger was involved at the other end moments later when more dithering in the Blues area resulted in the ball being eventually rolled through to Davies who shot past Foster only for the Bolton centre forward to be flagged for offside, correctly as it happens.
The reprieve was to be short lived however when against the run of play a launched ball down the middle was allowed to bounce by Curtis Davies who then allowed his namesake Kevin to take control the ball in the area. A needless challenge resulted in admittedly minimal contact but contact nevertheless and the England international needed no second invitation to hit the deck. Kevin Davies slotted the penalty down the middle of the goal past Foster who obligingly dived out of the way. Blues were somewhat shaken by the setback and were lucky that Elmander did not put the tie completely beyond them when he missed a good opportunity from Chung-Yong’s dangerous cross and fired straight at Foster. Phillips then almost levelled the score but saw his shot crash back off the post but he was not to be denied for long.

With ten minutes left Redmond did tremendously well to flick on a Curtis Davies header but there looked to be little danger for the Bolton defence as the ball dropped to Phillips, who was being closely marked by Gary Cahill. Incredibly the striker wrapped his foot around the ball and sent his shot spiralling over Jaaskelainen into the top corner. This was truly fantastic goal and by far the best of the five scored in this match. Another class finish from a truly class player. The crowd got right behind the team at this stage and willed them to get across the line for a second visit to Wembley. It did look that if any team was going to win the game it would be Blues who clearly tried to go for it with the introduction of a third striker, Matt Derbyshire who came on in place of Murphy.

Unfortunately, once again against the run of play, a fairly straight ball into the box was once again won far too easily won by Kevin Davies who headed across the box for the ball to drop invitingly for Chung-Yong. The little Korean had no problem nodding the ball beyond Foster in the final minute of the game. Birmingham’s gallant resistance had finally been broken and the prospect of further trip to Wembley evaporated. It was a courageous effort from McLeish’s heavily-depleted side and a harsh result given the balance of play. However, I think the majority would agree that the last thing that Birmingham needed at this juncture was a replay. The result could have gone either way and Blues definitely tried to win this game in the last few minutes but unfortunately the gamble failed to come off. That effort and commitment was fully appreciated by the St Andrews faithful as the team were cheered off at the end of the game.

There is no shame attached to losing this encounter with a tough, physical, uncompromising side such as Bolton Wanderers to whom we wish all good fortune going forward into the semi-finals. As for Blues they have far more important games to come to secure our Premiership status next season. The next home game happens to be Bolton again and hopefully in the intervening period our first choice back four with the exception Scott Dann will be present for that game. Providing we can put out as next to a full strength side as possible, on the evidence of this match I am confident that we can prevail in the league fixture.

This was an excellent cup tie and a great advertisement for anyone who had any doubt that this competition matters a great deal to the ordinary fan. A number of very positive things came out of this game despite defeat; the performance of young Nathan Redmond was encouraging but Jordan Mutch also had a man of the match performance that will stand him in good stead for the future. Beausejour was once again very effective and appears to be getting better and better as he plays more. I was gratified to see Cameron Jerome putting in one of the best performances from him for weeks and he used his pace and power to good effect to trouble Cahill and Wheater in Bolton’s defence. Kevin Phillips was class as usual and was extremely unlucky with his cross shot that struck the post before his sensational equaliser.

I am convinced that with our normal defensive back four we would have won this game. Curtis Davies was as poor as he was in the West Bromwich Albion game and was culpable for giving away the penalty which resulted from his original poor decision to let the ball bounce when he surely had to get his head on it and where he was when Chung-Yong headed the winner is anybody’s guess. The tie was lost because we lost the physical battle against their forwards and midfielders who are bigger units and therefore have an advantage in the air. However, the art of defending in this situation demands that if you lose the first ball you must be alert to win the second and we failed in this demand for the winning goal. Nevertheless, our players gave everything they had and put in a very good performance against a powerful Bolton side. Our fans can be justifiably proud of them despite the narrow defeat.

The Good: The game and the performance from both sides made this a cracking cup tie.

The Bad: Some of the officiating from the assistant referees who were generally poor and gave Phil Dowd poor support. The assistant on the Kop side failed to keep up with play on a number of occasions and missed blatantly offside calls that could have cost dearly.

The Ugly: Our defending! The backline that we were forced to deploy were simply not good enough.

Birmingham City:
Ben Foster 6, Stuart Parnaby 5, David Murphy 5 (Matt Derbyshire 83, N/A) Martin Jiranek N/A (Liam Ridgewell 28, 6), Curtis Davies 4, Seb Larsson 6, Barry Ferguson N/A (Nathan Redmond 29, 7), Jordon Mutch 8, Jean Beausejour 7, Cameron Jerome 7, Kevin Phillips 8.
Subs (from): Colin Doyle, Craig Gardner, Alpaslan Ozturk.

Goals: Jerome 38, Phillips 80
Booked: None

Bolton Wanderers
Jussi Jaaskelainen 6, Gretar Steinsson 6, Paul Robinson 6, Gary Cahill 7, David Wheater 6, Fabrice Muamba 7 (Mark Davies 61, 6), Stuart Holden 6, Martin Petrov 7, Kevin Davies 8, Johan Elmander 7, Ivan Klasnic 6 (Lee Chung-Yong 61, 8).
Subs (from): Adam Bogdan, Matt Taylor, Rodrigo Moreno, Robbie Blake, Marcos Alonso.

Goals: Elmander 21, Davies 66 (pen), Chung-Yong 90

Booked: Steinsson, Davies

Attendance: 23,699 (4,339 away fans)

Referee: Phil Dowd (Staffordshire) 6: I was going to be critical of the referee but subsequent replays show that he got the key decisions right. He was let down by his assistants though which marred his handling of the match.