Those of you with grown up kids will know that getting them out of bed in the morning is no easy task especially when they are still only 21. I woke my son and heir at 09.30 and told him that I was going to take the dog for her walk and that in that time he needed to be up, dressed, breakfasted and wearing the shirt of the faithful as we needed to set off in time to meet up with Will in Guildford. Naturally the best laid plans of mice and men failed to materialise as he had just gone in the shower when I got back and we arrived to meet Will 15 minutes late.
Will is not the kind of bloke to hide his light under a bushel and naturally enquired as to our tardiness. “Tell Will why we’re late Jonny!” I said. “Because I needed an extra 15 minutes in bed,” said Jonny with a grin. “Well,” replied Will “while yooowww have bin sleepin’ oi ‘ave bin gettin’ the brake pads on this vehicle replaced an’ oi ‘aven’t ‘ad any brekkie an’ oi wuz ‘opin’ to stop and grab a bacon sarnie at that garage that we’ve just raced by as they ‘ad an offer on of a bacon buttie an’ a coffee for £2.49 but it wuz only until 11 am and now its five past coz yow’er late!”
Will continued to complain about how hungry he was all the way up the motorway and told Jonny in no uncertain terms that when Annabelle his little two year old daughter got cranky at being made to hang around longer than planned because of the need for an extra 15 minutes in bed that Jonny could sort it out and he’d better start brushing up on his nursery rhymes and stories about dragons, princes and castles in the air. Annabelle was coming along to see her Auntie Gayle and play with her cousin Jack while we went to the game. I added my two pennies worth from time to time to keep the p*ss taking pot stirring; after all Jonny deserved it. I suggested that we could grab a bite to eat at The Oak when we got to Chris’ pub but Will never of course wishing to appear a martyr at this juncture said no and that he would wait and get a pie at the ground.
Having dropped off Annabelle and picked up Chris we set off for the ground and parked up in Sarah Street. We all decided to call in at The George for a pint and on the way Will’s stomach could stand no more as he veered off in the direction of a filthy burger van saying he’d meet us in there. Chris remarked about the state of available food compared to other grounds in the country and I said that what we needed was a van that supplied a hog roast like you can get at places like Wolves, West Brom and even Norwich for heaven’s sake. As we walked into the back entrance of the George what did we see? Yes, a hog roast stall! Apparently this is a new venture and Chris, Jonny and I ordered ‘three of your finest please vendor with stuffing and apple sauce of course’ and waited gleefully for Will’s arrival who was just polishing off his filthy burger with processed cheese! Having laughed at Will for long enough he decided he was still hungry and joined us in a roasted, pork-filled bap. A couple of pints all round soon put things right and it was finally off to the ground taking our seats at five to three; perfect!
I’d had a funny feeling about this game in the days leading up to the match that we were going to win. All logic dictated otherwise; Chelsea have better players with far finer quality than ours. Even with injuries to John Terry and Frank Lampard and the continuing suspension of Michael Essien they surely had enough on the pitch to beat us didn’t they? After only forty-five seconds Kalou latched on to a through ball down the inside left channel and just got to it before the out rushing Foster. The ball passed between the goalkeeper’s legs and brushed gently against the side netting but fortunately wide. Then with only four minutes on the clock Didier Drogba was sent clean through by Malouda only to see his shot into the far corner well saved by Foster. The slightest lift on this attempt and 1-0 would have been the score to the visitors. It was going to be a very long afternoon and although Blues did see some of the ball in these early stages, our players were generally being forced backwards by the hard working pressing game of the champions; a demonstration that it isn’t just about being cool and collected on the ball. It was a surprise therefore when a fine delivery from Larsson from deep to Jerome’s head was cushioned beautifully into the path of Bowyer arriving in the box from deep. His chance, similar to Drogba’s, albeit closer was dispatched with aplomb. The midfielder dinked the ball over the diving Cech into the middle of the net. St Andrews erupted; 1-0 to Blues totally against the run of play and all logic aforementioned but none of us cared. It was at this point that Ian sitting behind me announced that he had put a bet on Blues to win 1-0 with Bowyer to score at 100-1. He wasn’t optimistic however as like most of us you couldn’t see Chelsea not scoring eventually. Little did we all know that Ben Foster was going to give one of the finest goal keeping performances of all time and one that the late great Gil Merrick would have been proud of.
I thought his save from Cole that arrowed between Carr’s legs giving the custodian no time to see it before it was upon him from 18 yards was good but it paled into insignificance compared to a truly brilliant, world-class save from Drogba’s vicious downward header on 38 minutes. How Foster got down to it let alone push it round the post is beyond me; this was reminiscent of Gordon Banks’ epic save in the World Cup in 1970 from Pele. That save was still better as Pele’s header was just inside the post and Banks had to scoop the ball upwards and over the bar to save but take nothing away from Foster’s effort because it was truly brilliant and one of the finest saves I have ever seen and I have wasted much of my life watching football! Foster denied Drogba again from a searing free kick just inside the upright that Foster pushed away for yet another corner. Drogba also smacked a header against the bar just before the break and Blues were riding their luck, a commodity that has been in short supply so far this season in all fairness.
Half time couldn’t come too soon and the respite was welcome as I needed relief on such a chilly afternoon. I didn’t realise that whilst in the gents that Jonny had nipped away quick and got us both a pint. I looked for him and wondered why he was late getting back to his seat. This was because as I hadn’t come, he’d had to neck the pair of them! The second half was one-way traffic with chance after chance falling to the visitors. Cech spent most of the time on our half way line launching the ball back into our box, so little did he have to do.
The discipline and work rate of Alex McLeish’s side was simply awesome and we waited for the boys to tire when surely Chelsea’ class would tell and Blues’ hopes extinguished. The atmosphere inside St Andrews was the best I have known it in a very long time and the noise levels grew to a crescendo and the collective will of 24,000 plus supporters implored Blues to hang on. The clock seemed to stand still as further chances and close calls came and went. A tremendous Roger Johnson tackle in the 62nd minute when Ramires was bearing down on Foster saved the equaliser with Londoners behind the goal baying for a penalty. The ball was played before the man and Mark Halsey rightly waved away the protests. The danger was not over as Salomon Kalou, with Foster scampering at his feet, hoisted his shot high and wide for one of the misses of the afternoon. Foster surpassed his brilliance yet again when he came to the rescue and spared Scott Dann’s blushes when he under hit a back pass. This could have undone so much good work and this is the second game running this has happened. Mistakes like this must be cut out but it would be churlish to dwell on this incident too much; better to describe what Foster did next. Kalou sprinted on to the ball and Foster, right on the left-hand edge of his area, stopped the Chelsea forward in his tracks with a poke of the left foot then sprang in front of him to push the ball away for a corner. This double save was absolutely fantastic and I’ve run out of superlatives at this stage to describe our goalkeeper’s performance but he had to show his reflexes again to produce another fine stop with 15 minutes left; this time from Branislav Ivanovic’s header.
The clock ticked inexorably on to 90 minutes and the four minutes of time added on that had to be endured. The roar that greeted Mark Halsey’s final whistle could have been heard in the city centre. Bravo Blues! Bravo! Well done Ian for an inspired bet; the last time he bet 1-0 with Bowyer to score he won £35! I haven’t had time to fully describe the tremendous performance of the rest of the Birmingham team who all played their part in what is a memorable victory. Let’s face it we were absolutely battered from start to finish. We had one shot on target they had fourteen. We had two other attempts, they had eleven. They had sixteen corners to our four but we had one goal and they had none and that in the end is what this wonderful game is all about in the final analysis. Chelsea should have buried us and all talk of them being in crisis is nonsense; I can guarantee that they will not come up against another goalkeeping display as good as the one that those that were there witnessed yesterday, for the rest of this season. Special mention needs to go to Roger Johnson and Scott Dann who were immense but this was a terrific team display and Blues deserve credit for the belligerent refusal to be beaten and with that, their victory.
The Good: Ben Foster for a magnificent, colossal performance.
The Bad: The profligate finishing of Chelsea with Kalou and Ramires the worst culprits.
The Ugly: Chelsea’s fluorescent green kit! I’m off to Specsavers to have my eyes checked after that!
Birmingham City (4-4-1-1):
Foster 10; Carr 8, Dann 8, Johnson 9, Ridgewell 8; Larsson 7, Bowyer 8, Ferguson 8, Fahey 8; Zigic 6 (Hleb 72, 7), Jerome 7. Subs not used: Colin Doyle, Kevin Phillips, Matt Derbyshire, Michel, Jean Beausejour, Martin Jiranek.
Chelsea: (4-3-3):
Cech 7, Ivanovic 8, Cole 8, Ramires 5 (Sturridge 6, 72), Drogba 9, Mikel 8, Malouda 8, Ferreira 6 (Bosingwa 7, 65), Kalou 6, Alex 7, Anelka 8. Subs not used: Ross Turnbull, Patrick Van Aanholt, Jeffrey Bruma, Gael Kakuta, Josh McEachran.
Referee: M Halsey (Lancashire) 8:
The referee and his assistants had a good game. This referee’s usual unfussy, no nonsense approach allowed the game to flow although Chelsea fans may feel he allowed Foster in particular to get away with time usage that bordered on illegality but why shouldn’t he? Every other team does it against us when they are in a position of advantage. However, Mr Halsey and his assistants got the key decisions correct and there were no real controversies. Chelsea can only blame themselves and not the officials.
Well my bro I have to say that having watched the game from accross the pond, I totally agree with your assesment except that I would have given Zigic a 3. Sorry, but that guy is clueless and our midfield could not string 3 passes together but our goal, albeit a moment of unforgiveably poor defending by Chelsea, was superbly taken. A rare error from a team of such quality but nevertheless one which we punished admirably. We rode our luck as you say but I think that it’s about time that we got the rub of the green for a change. I wish that we could play a little more open and stretch the width of the field more than we seem to do. So many times we lost posession cos we got ourselves caught making short passes way too close to the touch lines.