Birmingham City 1 Norwich City 1: Post match analysis
Mar 23 2009 by Andy Walker, Birmingham Post
BIRMINGHAM CITY 1 NORWICH CITY 1
What was intended to be a two-week break full of satisfaction will now be a fortnight of frustration for Birmingham City.
Alex McLeish may admit that the forthcoming respite from Championship fixtures is a welcome one in order to recharge his injury hit squad’s batteries but in terms of momentum the break will do Birmingham no favours.
While this latest setback is by no means a disaster, the Blues will no doubt be eager to return to the field of play right away to rediscover the previous run of form that earned three wins from four games.
Instead Birmingham will have to wait for the international fixture schedule to pass until title, promotion and local rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers come to St Andrew’s on Monday April 6.
Of course Wolves will have to kick their heels for the same period of time but on current evidence they appear to have one hand on the Championship silverware.
Saturday’s draw to relegation-threatened Norwich City wasn’t a result of a poor Birmingham performance, the Canaries arrived with and stuck to a game-plan that worked.
The Norfolk side’s energetic approach caused their hosts no end of problems and the lively forward trio of Alan Lee, Alan Gow and Dave Mooney ensured that Birmingham had a busy afternoon at the back.
The warning signs were sounded as early as the third minute when Lee wastefully fired over from five yards from a Simon Lappin corner.
Jason Shackell, on loan at Norwich from Wolves, had the ball in the net a minute later but the centre-half’s header was pulled back for off-side.
Liam Ridgewell produced a fine performance for Birmingham and the vice-captain was called into action to halt another Norwich move in the 19th minute. Ridgewell tracked back to make a last-ditch tackle on Jon Otsemobor following a counter-attack involving Dave Carney.
Norwich’s yellow and green wave continued, Gow fired across the face of goal from a tight angle and jinked into the box moments later only to shoot wide of Maik Taylor’s left post. During this period Birmingham only managed to muster a Hameur Bouazza effort when the Algerian directed a close range header into the comfortable grasp of Norwich goalkeeper David Marshall.
However Birmingham were gifted an opening goal in the 38th minute with an opportunity that Norwich manager Bryan Gunn felt should have been disallowed.
Cameron Jerome put Marshall under pressure as he went to pluck Bouazza’s cross from the left out of the air but the visiting goalkeeper spilled the ball on to the toe of the Birmingham striker who made no mistake from close range.
Gunn felt that Jerome had fouled Marshall and his argument was backed up by the fact that the former Celtic man went into the interval with a nose bleed.
However replays later showed that it was a clean jump from Jerome and Marshall had accidentally caught himself on the forward’s studs.
It appeared from that moment that Birmingham would go on to wrap up the victory and keep up the pressure on top of the table Wolverhampton but Norwich had other ideas.
Just before the half-time interval, Franck Queudrue was notably rattled by comments from visiting captain Gary Doherty while Lee was receiving a booking for a foul on the Frenchman.
After the break, Larsson picked out an unmarked Bouazza at the far post but the resultant header sailed just wide.
Norwich got their deserved breakthrough in the 53rd minute. Lee Carsley gave away a foul 25 yards from the Birmingham goal and Sammy Clingan stepped up the fire an effort through the wall and into Taylor’s net.
The goal galvanised the visitors who went in search of a winner. Larsson cleared a Lee header from the six-yard box in the 57th minute whilst Mooney almost pounced on a sloppy header back to Taylor from Ridgewell four minutes later.
A potential saviour for Birmingham entered the fray in the 69th minute when Kevin Phillips took to the field for Garry O’Connor. True to form Phillips lurked like a silent assassin and popped up with a glorious opportunity for a winner two minutes into injury time.
David Murphy, another second-half substitute, delivered an inch-perfect ball for Phillips but his header was impressively pushed out for a corner by Marshall.
Reading’s goalless draw at Crystal Palace on Saturday evening cushioned the blow of these two drop points but Bimingham would much sooner be entering their two-week break on the crest of a victory wave. Instead it is still all very much to play for.
Scorers: Jerome (38) 1-0, Clingan (53) 1-1.
BIRMINGHAM CITY (4-4-2): Taylor, Carr, Jaidi, Ridgewell, Queudrue (Murphy 82), Larsson, Carsley, Bowyer, Bouazza (Sinclair, 64), O’Connor (Phillips, 69), Jerome. Substitutes: Doyle, Fahey.
NORWICH CITY (4-4-2): Marshall, Otsemobor, Shackell, Doherty, Bertrand, Carney, Lappin, Clingan, Gow, Lee, Mooney. Substitutes: Nelson, Drury, Smith, Adeyemi, Cody McDonald.
Referee: Mark Haywood (West Yorkshire).
Bookings: Norwich – Lee (foul), Marshall (time-wasting).
Attendance: 18,159.
