Birmingham City 1 Portsmouth 0 - match report

Aug 19 2009 By Chris Lepkowski

James McFadden smashed in an injury-time penalty to give Birmingham City their first win of the season.

Alex McLeish’s men were heading for a drab and morale-denting draw, only to be saved by David James’ late barge into Seb Larsson.

The ex-Aston Villa goalkeeper recklessly ran into Larsson as he came off his line to collect a Kevin Phillips’ cross. McFadden smashed his spot-kick into the top corner to lift St Andrew’s and give troubled Portsmouth another kick in the guts.

McLeish made one change to the Blues line-up, with Garry O’Connor replacing Lee Carsley in what was effectively a formation change for the home side.

A minute’s applause was held for Blues life-president and former chairman Jack Wiseman before the game.

Larsson had the first sniff of Portsmouth’s goal after six minutes when he rose to meet Franck Queudrue’s long ball into the box. The Swede headed the ball across the goal, but there was no-one to follow up the loose ball.

Blues’ desire to open their home account with an early goal was obvious. They pressed from the off but that also bred a little sloppiness and over-eagerness at times.

Keith Fahey collected Cameron Jerome’s ball on 12 minutes and closely marked by Bouba Diop, the Blues midfielder dropped his shoulder, eased himself into space but drove his low shot straight at James.

Larsson headed over in the 19th minute when he caught Gregory Vignal’s cross but was caught unsighted by the flight of the ball by Jerome, who jumped for the header himself.