Blackpool 1 Birmingham City 2:BLOOMFIELD ROAD has had its winter break – it was 45 days since Blackpool last played at home – but their philosophy has not become lost in the snow and ice.
Only in terms of the scoreline was the crowd short-changed – there might very easily have been half-a-dozen goals rather than three. The third came in the final minute of normal time once Scott Dann had taken down Jean Beausejour’s knockdown to give Birmingham their first away win since beating Portsmouth in March.
This was especially cruel on Blackpool. Having fallen behind to a self-inflicted wound, they lost neither their nerve nor their verve and equalised through a one-time Birmingham striker, DJ Campbell, who had been voted the club’s player of the month for December on the evidence of the two matches Blackpool had been able to play. A cross from Neal Eardley was headed down by Gary Taylor-Fletcher and volleyed home by Campbell.
Given that Cameron Jerome and Sebastian Larsson had each struck the post early in the second half, manager Alex McLeish might have argued that this rare victory was deserved. From West Bromwich to Aston Villa nerves were beginning to fray across the West Midlands and this was needed.
Setting out with the Premier League’s worst away record, Birmingham did not travel hopefully to the coast. They had not won at Blackpool since 1960, when Jimmy Armfield and Stanley Matthews wore tangerine, and were without Lee Bowyer, who was serving the first of a three-match ban for raking his studs along Bacary Sagna’s leg against Arsenal on Saturday evening.
They were also second bottom of the Premier League.
And yet Birmingham, their attack led by Matt Derbyshire, starting his first game since Blackpool were beaten 2-0 at St Andrew’s in October, began with a surfeit of confidence.
They might have scored twice in the opening exchanges and it was no real surprise when Alexander Hleb broke through.
David Gower once remarked that a sportsman’s greatest attributes should be “fun, excellence and style”. It has been a philosophy celebrated by Ian Holloway’s Blackpool, but there have been plenty of dopey Gower-esque wafts to third slip along the way, and Hleb’s opener was just such a lapse in concentration.
Midway through the first half, Stephen Crainey, under no real pressure, passed to the Belarussian, who as far as Birmingham fans are concerned is still living down his suggestion that he wished he were still at Arsenal.
All Hleb had to do was sprint through and score.
Just before the interval, he was sprinting clear of the Blackpool back four once more, only to square the ball to Jerome, who despite two poor touches still had time to force Richard Kingson into a fine save.
Blackpool’s response to each setback was to keep on attacking. They created a welter of chances in the first half, the best of which was a wonderfully-delivered cross from Charlie Adam, met first time by Matt Phillips and saved with his instep by Ben Foster.
They kept attacking after the interval, too, and Foster, whom Alex Ferguson allowed to leave Manchester United despite believing he was the best English goalkeeper in the Premier League, proved the Scot’s point.
His save from a fabulous curling drive thundered in from Adam’s boots was exhibit A and a low, one-handed effort from Brett Omerod was B, but there were to be plenty more.
Guardian Service
BLACKPOOL: Kingson, Eardley, Cathcart, Evatt, Crainey, Vaughan, Campbell, Adam, Phillips (Ormerod 70), Varney (Southern 81), Taylor-Fletcher (Euell 71). Subs not used: Rachubka, Baptiste, Sylvestre, Edwards.
BIRMINGHAM CITY: Foster, Carr, Johnson, Dann, Ridgewell, Hleb (Phillips 82), Gardner, Ferguson, Fahey (Larsson 57), Jerome, Derbyshire (Beausejour 76). Subs not used: Taylor, Zigic, Parnaby, Jiranek. Booked: Foster.
Referee: Jon Moss(W Yorkshire).
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)