City 3 Birmingham 1
Report by Eddie Blount
Well the patient is still breathing – if only just! City's play-off hopes continue to hang by a thread as they came from behind last night to take all three points against a decent Birmingham side with promotion ambitions of their own.
Yet this game could easily have been settled in Brum's favour during the first quarter when they went 1-0 up and came within a whisker of making it two! They took the lead after 20 minutes courtesy of the sort of referee's decision that makes a mockery of the Respect campaign.
A long cross from the impressive Townsend on Brum's left was drifting harmlessly over all heads including that of the giant Zigic when Kennedy panicked and inexplicably and stupidly he barged the Birmingham striker who seemed to be about twice his height. Predictably Zigic collapsed in a heap and the ref gave the penalty to the huge – and lasting – anger of the crowd. Elliott scored convincingly from the spot.
So, why was this such a bad decision? First the contact was far from severe and given the difference in size it could hardly have been different. Brum players made no fuss and seemed as surprised as City when the gift was offered. Second if you give penalties for offences like this you make a rod for your own back and set a standard which you cannot maintain unless you blow every few seconds.
Predictably the performance of the three officials for the remainder of the half was woeful as they wobbled between severity and leniency. Truly they knew not what they did! Finally the ball was clearly going out of play and no chance had been denied. Technically the ref was right but how often do we see penalty area offences go unpunished because good refs know that applying the letter of the law would bring the game into disrepute.
This ref knew the laws of the game but did not understand the ways of the game. The very worst thing is that he probably received high marks from the ref's assessor, the medium by which the FA controls officials and encourages a pedantic and slavish adherence to the laws to the exclusion of common sense.
Luckily for the officials City equalised within 15 minutes of the blunder, though not before another major scare. Another move down their left saw Zigic glance a firm header against the underside of the bar before the ball was eventually cleared. Had this gone in our season was surely over.
There was a sense that our luck had changed and indeed it had. A left wing cross found the willing Nugent at the far post and he nudged the ball back across the goal. A slow-motion sequence followed as the ball bounced gently past Myhill in the Brum goal and hit the inside of the far post, rebounding to the alert Beckford who had all the time in the world to stab the ball into the net. City celebrations were somewhat muted, a realisation perhaps that a draw was of no real use.
The second half of this entertaining game was very similar to the first with both sides looking better going forward than defending. Kennedy epitomised this for City looking classy with the ball but anything but without it!
His colleague on the right however fared rather better. St Ledger was playing out of position and there were pre-match doubts about his ability to get forward but he proved the doubters wrong and had a really good match, showing some deft footwork in the Bamba mould – almost!
The game finally turned on the Achilles heel of Birmingham's defensive set-up. From the start they played high up the pitch and compressed the space between their back four and front two. City found this awkward for long periods as space was at a premium so possession was regularly squandered. It was clear that the weakness of this system would be its vulnerability to the ball over the top which had to be accurate and needed pacy strikers to time their runs to perfection.
For much of the game City failed to exploit this possibility, Nugent especially being caught offside on several occasions. However the advent of Schlupp for Nugent after 70 minutes increased the chances of Brum being opened up by one ball. Within 10 minutes a superb pass from Kennedy was latched on to by the teenager who showed strength as well as pace to hold off two defenders and slip the ball past the advancing Myhill.
This time City's celebrations were unrestrained as they sensed the match was won. In the fifth minute of injury time it was when a carbon copy of the move that gave City the lead saw Beckford emulate Schlupp and comfortably put the ball past Myhill after being released by a great through ball.
Easy game when it's done properly! Beckford has now become a crowd favourite because he is not only a good finisher but puts in a good shift for the team, something which looked unlikely when he first arrived!
This result is a setback for Brum who are now one point from a playoff spot whereas City are a massive 6 points adrift. There are some who think we now need to win 8 on the trot and they may not be far wrong – certainly we need something close to 8 wins from the last 10 games. Reading have just done that so it's not impossible in this difficult league. We shall see – but don't hold your breath!
City: Schmeichel, St Ledger, Morgan, Bamba, Kennedy, Wellens, Danns, Dyer, Gallagher (Marshall 61), Nugent (Schlupp 70), Beckford
Birmingham: Myhill, Caldwell, Ramage (Huseklepp 81), Davies, Spector (Ibanez 10), Townsend, Elliott, Fahey, Burke, N'Daw, Zigic (King 65)
The views expressed in this report are the opinions of the Trust member nominated to file the report only and do not represent the views of the Foxes Trust organisation