Focus turned from League two towards the Championship on Sunday as there was a bit of a derby on the telly. Due to funding issues (my car radiator recently broke) coupled with Birmingham City demanding a hefty £30 per ticket for a Sunday lunchtime game being shown live on the BBC, I was left with no option but to join the 10,000 odd who should have been in St Andrews who instead were in the company of Manish Bhasin, Robbie Savage and Steve Claridge.
Leicester have of late finally lived up to their pre-season billing going without defeat for eight league matches and doing a very good impression of a team that could yet challenge for promotion. Coming off the back of an impressive victory against another midlands side, Derby County, all was rosy in Leicester garden. Birmingham were also picking up in the form department with impressive victories away at Maribor in the Europa league and a comfortable victory at struggling Nottingham Forest that saw the Red's part company with manager Steve McClaren afterwards. All was set for a close game in front of the BBC cameras.
Leicester lined up just as they had against Derby, Sven insisting on the 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' approach whilst the most noticeable absentee in the Birmingham ranks was centre-half Curtis Davies. Leicester began taking the lions share of possession making Birmingham chase the ball but without forcing a break-through. It took until mid-way through the first half for Birmingham to threaten with a towering far-post header from Stephen Caldwell just shaving Kasper Schmeichels post. Leicester's back four were relatively untroubled with the giant combination of Matt Mill's and Sol Bamba clearing up on the rare occasion Birmingham came forward, Mill's even stinging the gloves of Boaz Myhill towards the half's end.
Half-time proved more eventful than the entire match itself with Referee Graham Salisbury pulling a calf muscle forcing fourth official Kevin Wright to gather the whistle with Salisbury doing his best at playing fourth official with an ice pack strapped to the back of his leg. Wright sauntered onto the pitch as if it were a Sunday morning kickabout in the local park but luckily for Blue's his decision making would not be as slow. Jean Beausejour, quiet in the first period, decided to wake the fans up behind the goal by loudly smashing the ball against the post with only a minute of the re-start gone.
That was a sign of things to come as 'to me-to you' style defending was punished by Beausejour taking the ball into the box only to be halted by Andy King. Penalty. Replays divided opinion with Martin Keown adamant that King had taken the ball but other angles suggested otherwise and Mr Wright was exactly that, right. Up stepped Marlon King to send Schmeichel the wrong way and Birmingham into the lead.
Leicester then decided to press the self-destruct button with a poor clearance by Schmeichel from a backpass, an even worse touch from Matt Mill's followed by a horrific two footed lunge to complete the sequence. Once again the referee made the correct call and gave Mill's his marching orders leaving Leicester with a mountain to climb. A despondent Sven then turned to his substitutes to try and salvage something from the game but all was looking bleak, Sven even at one stage turning to BBC pitch side analyst (or whatever they call themselves nowadays) Garth Crooks for inspiration, but predictably,found little.
Despite a late penalty appeal with Andy King felled in the box it was all over bar the shouting when Birmingham caught Leicester on the break with Chris Wood left to complete the formalities and round Schmeichel to give Birmingham a deserved home win. A slight dent in Leicester's otherwise perfect away record and focus now switches to the home tie with Watford on Wednesday. Birmingham on the other hand travel to Club Brugge on Thursday for a Europa league tie, how the other half live...
No comments:
Post a Comment