Birmingham City 2:0 Leicester City
A change of referee at half time also led to a change in City’s fortunes and a 2-0 defeat at St Andrews on Sunday afternoon…
Sven, not surprisingly, sent out the same side that beat Derby 4:0 in their last outing before the international break, but they didn’t pick up where they left off.
BBC1 viewers on Match of the Day Live sat through the most tedious first half imaginable, with both sides cancelling each other out in front of a small, subdued crowd.
Virtually nothing noteworthy happened beyond a Mills shot that was well saved by Myhill at his near post in the 28th minute.
Kevin Wright replaced Graham Salisbury as referee due to a pulled calf and the second half began in much more lively fashion.
Birmingham’s Chilean international Beausejour hit a 25 yarder that struck the left hand upright, and soon afterwards he was involved in the incident that turned the game. With Beausejour and King contesting a through ball inside the area King managed to toe poke the ball away but the attacker went over his foot. The new ref had a big decision to make and he got it wrong, pointing to the spot.
Marlon King planted his spot-kick into the bottom right hand corner, sending Schmeichel the wrong way with 50 minutes on the clock.
Four minutes later the home side should have been reduced to ten men when Beausejour hauled Peltier over as the City right-back attempted to get round him. It was an obvious yellow to match th eone he had received in the first half, but Mr Wright didn’t think so.
A minute later he did have his red card out, however, when Mills lunged into a tackle with Gomis. He won the ball, but it was a little too aggressive for Wright who slowly produced a red card.
City’s afternoon was now falling apart.
Sven brought on three subs in the following ten minutes: Wellens, Beckford and Pantsil replacing Abe, Vassell and Danns,
The ten men gave a decent account of themselves, though Schmeichel did well to block efforts from Wood and King to keep City in the game.
The equaliser should have come in the 81st minute when King was blocked off by Ridgewell as he wriggled his way through the Birmingham back-line. Wright again infuriated the visiting supporters, seeing nothing wrong with a challenge that halted the Welsh international’s progress.
With City pressing forward in search of an equaliser gaps were opening up at the back and Birmingham sealed their win in the 84th minute with a sweeping upfield move that saw King deliver a perfect ball for Wood, who comfortably rounded Schmeichel before finding the empty net.
It wasn’t a great performance by City by any means, but with the four major decisions of the second half all going against them it was always going to be an uphill task.
Birmingham: Myhill, Carr, Ibanez, Caldwell, Ridgewell, Burke, Fahey, Gomis, Beausejour (Elliott 86), King, Wood (Zigic).Unused Subs: Doyle, Murphy, Spector.
Leicester: Schmeichel, Peltier, Mills, Bamba, Konchesky, Abe (Wellens 63), Danns (Pantsil 58), Fernandes, King; Vassell (Beckford 66), Nugent. Unused Subs: Weale, Johnson.
Attendance: 17,102. Referee: Graham Salisbury (Lancashire) (Kevin Wright (Cambridgeshire 46).
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Sadly, I don’t agree that we had a raw deal. Admittedly, there is an argument that Beausejour’s tacke in the first half might have merited red rather than yellow but the fact is we got what we deserved. The penalty was also debateable, although even Sven says that after looking at it half a dozen times he’s not sure – and let’s face it, if it had happened at the other end, we’d have said it was a stone-cold penalty.
The simple fact is that Birmingham came out in the second half and wanted the win more than we did. The sending off of Matt Mills was stupid – Schmeichel put him in a difficult position, but there was no need for the studs-up challenge. None of our strikers showed any finesse, commitment or – frankly – skill, and I lost count of the number of balls that went high, wide and not very handsomely into the Birmingham penalty area.
After the Derby game, I thought we’d turned the corner. Now, I am really not sure.
A Blues fan in peace here.
At half time I expected a 0-0 or possibly a 1-0 for you, but both defences were doing alright. I can only imagine that Houghton gave our lot a right rollicking at half time resulting us coming out of the traps much quicker in the 2nd.
The key events as I saw them:
Our pen – right decision, although I’ve seen them not given.
The red – right decision, a two footed jump in tackle HAS to be stamped on. (Sorry couldn’t resist). Bowyer was sent off for us a couple of years ago for an almost identical tackle and he came away with the ball.
Beasejour possible 2nd yellow – I think the ref JUST got it right. It was a lazy tackle and deserved to be pulled up. Having said that, I probably wouldn’t have complained too much IF he HAD been sent off.
Your pen shout – sorry never a pen. Your player ran straight into Ridgewell. It wasn’t even a foul. IF the ref had seen it as a foul though, it would have been obstruction and not a penalty – so either way definitely not.
My thoughts on the Foxes:
You look very strong in midfield. In some ways, that formation was part of the reason it was a poor half, but a good tactic when you’re away. You will need to find quicker ball if you’re going to beat the other promotion candidate sides. You will definitely be in the mix though.
Kev
Hughton not Houghton! I keep doing that!